Furyu Corp., a Japanese entertainment company, reported a 43% drop in first-half profit as fewer customers used its signature photo booth machines and membership in its digital photo service declined.
Net income fell to ¥900 million ($6 million) in the six months ended September 30, while revenue edged up 2.3% to ¥21.6 billion, the Tokyo-based company said Thursday. Operating profit declined 46% to ¥1.3 billion.
The company’s photo booth business saw total plays decrease to 14.9 million from 16.4 million a year earlier. Paid memberships for its PiCTLINK photo storage service dropped to 1.39 million users from 1.47 million.
Its character merchandise division performed better, with sales rising 6.3% to ¥12.4 billion, helped by strong demand from international tourists and growing orders from China and North America. The company opened an official flagship store on Tmall, China’s largest e-commerce platform, in September.
Furyu maintained its full-year forecast for net income of ¥2 billion on sales of ¥43 billion. The company plans to introduce new photo booth models and strengthen its character merchandise business to offset the slowdown in its traditional segments.
