Microsoft announced earlierFourth quarter financial results for fiscal year 2024, of which revenue reached US$647 billion and net profit reached US$220 billion, up 15% and 10% respectively from the same period last year. The main source of revenue was still the smart cloud business, accounting for approximately US$285 billion, an increase of 19% from the same period last year, and approximately 45% of the revenue in the previous quarter.
In contrast, consumer device revenue continued to decline, including further decreases in Xbox hardware sales and Surface hardware revenue. However, with the recent growth in the AI PC market, Windows OEM licensed sales grew 4% year-over-year, driven by an increase in PC shipments.
Xbox content and service revenue, including Xbox Game Pass subscriptions, increased 61% year-on-year, with much of this growth stemming from the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. However, even excluding the revenue growth driven by Activision Blizzard, Xbox content and service revenue still grew by 3%.
As for Xbox Game Pass, the number of subscribers has now increased to 3400 million, and the new Xbox Game Pass Standard subscription plan will be launched next to replace the original Xbox Game Pass for Console subscription plan. In addition, the prices of various Xbox Game Pass subscription plans are also expected to increase starting in September.
In addition, in terms of cloud and Office business revenue performance, Office commercial products and cloud service revenue grew by 12%, and Office 365 commercial revenue grew by 13%. In terms of Office consumer business, revenue increased by 3% compared with the same period last year, and the number of Microsoft 365 Consumer subscribers also grew by about 10%, currently reaching 8250 million. LinkedIn revenue also grew by 10%.
Microsoft CFO Amy Hood explained that the current growth rate of Microsoft's artificial intelligence business is higher than the revenue growth rate of its Azure cloud business, but with continued increases in market infrastructure investment and demand, the Azure cloud business is expected to see additional growth in the second half of fiscal 2025. It is also expected that Azure's business revenue will grow by approximately 2025-28% in the first quarter of 29.
