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May 21 (NBD) -- Qutoutiao Inc. (NASDAQ: QTT), an operator of mobile content platform in China, on Monday announced its unaudited financial results in the first quarter ended March 31, 2019.

The company garnered 1,118.8 million yuan (162.2 million U.S. dollars) in net revenue in the three months, up 373.3 percent year over year, but incurred a widening net loss of 688.2 million yuan, compared with the net loss of 302.6 million yuan in the first quarter of 2018, showed the financial results.

Share prices for the Nasdaq-listed company plunged more than 8 percent on Monday by market close.

With regarded to the quarterly net losses, Qutoutiao's director and chief financial executive Wang Jingbo said that the company's net loss margin has improved from a year ago, lowered to 61.5 percent for this quarter from 128 percent seen in the same period a year earlier, thanks to effective cost control.

Qutoutiao's sales and marketing expenses were 1,297 million yuan in the first quarter of 2019, a sharp increase of 257.4 percent from the same period a year earlier, which the company attributed to user acquisition and engagement efforts.

Average combined MAUs (monthly active users) of the company for Q1 of 2019 rose nearly four-fold to 111.4 million, representing a year-on-year increase of 297.4 percent.

Along with the announcement of the Q1 financial results, Qutoutiao said its co-founder Li Lei has resigned from his position as CEO due to personal reasons, but will remain a director and vice chairman of the board. Meanwhile, Eric Tan, the co-founder and chairman of the company, has taken over the role of CEO.

Email: gaohan@nbd.com.cn