Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

According to a recent report, the global Internet of Things (IoT) market is estimated to grow at 25% CAGR to reach $1.84 trillion by 2028 from $310 billion in 2020. China’s Tuya (TUYA) is a leading player in the market that went public last year. Tuya has had a tough run in the stock market with its valuation falling over 90% since its listing.

Tuya’s Financials

For the fourth quarter of fiscal 2021, Tuya’s revenue grew 19% to $75 million. GAAP net loss was $48.8 million, compared to a GAAP net loss of $18.4 million a year ago. Non-GAAP net loss per ADS was $0.06, compared to non-GAAP net loss per ADS of $0.07 a year ago.

By segment, IoT PaaS revenues grew 13.9% to $62.1 million. SaaS and other revenues grew 204.8% to $7.3 million. Smart device distribution revenues fell 8.8% to $5.6 million.

For the fiscal year, revenues grew 67.9% to $302.1 million, and net loss was $0.22 per ADS.

For the first quarter of fiscal 2022, the company expects revenues of $50 million to $57 million. The market forecast revenues of $91.79 million for the quarter. The continuing net losses and the significant miss from the revenues forecast sent the stock tumbling.

Tuya’s Expanding Partnerships

Recently, Tuya announced its partnership with PEARL GmbH. The partnership will promote Tuya’s connected home concept into the EU market with a range of smart home products such as light bulbs, smart sockets, and other home appliances that are connected and controlled by an app developed by Tuya’s platform, ELESION. It also announced a partnership with Fantech to expand Fantech’s smart home products. As a part of the collaboration, both companies will be developing a mobile app and smart products in the lighting, electrical, security, and lifestyle categories. By joining the Powered by Tuya ecosystem and leveraging Tuya’s industry leading IoT development platform, Fantech’s new division for IoT devices, Fantech Smart Life, will be able to bring smart products to consumers’ homes both quickly and reliably.

Tuya is troubled with the uncertainty of geopolitical conflicts and the high global inflation that is expected to suppress consumer purchasing power. It expects 2022 to be a challenging year for the IoT consumer electronics industry, with headwinds coming on account of supply chain issues and logistics. The sharp increase in the transportation costs has added pressure to margins with companies unwilling to raise their selling prices in the retail channel.

But Tuya believes that the industry is showing some early signs of recovery. It plans to continue to address the macro-environment challenges by focusing on its private cloud solution, cost-effective smart lights IoT solution, and its industry SaaS. It is also working on optimizing its organizational structure and operating efficiency to improve profitability.

Tuya has a tough uphill battle. Besides the continuing macro economic pressures, the company is also dealing with the geo political turmoil. Its Chinese lineage has led to doubts amid the consumers on the security of its devices. Tuya is trying to divert attention by entering into global tie-ups and reaching out to international markets. 

Tuya is also a victim of the Chinese government’s crackdown on foreign listed Chinese companies. Since last year, the regulatory authorities have been coming down on tech, gaming and other companies claiming data privacy and national security issues. Bigger names including Didi and Alibaba have fallen victim to the government’s tightening rules.  Analysts estimate that more than $1 trillion has been wiped out from the market value of Chinese companies due to these actions.

Tuya had climbed to a high of $26.65 soon after it went public last year. It had raised $915.4 million through its listing at a valuation of $11.2 billion. Its stock is currently trading at $2.98 with a market cap of $1.7 billion. It hit a 52-week high of $26.65 in May last year and a 52-week low of $1.75 in March.