Goodix revenue tumbles as fingerprint sensors, touch ICs businesses struggle

Financial records from Chinese consumer electronics supplier Goodix show the company’s revenue and net profit fell sharply for the first quarter of this year, especially from its biometric fingerprint sensors and touch ICs device components, due to a multiplicity of factors, reports Digitimes.

According to the company’s financial records cited by the outlet, Goodix recorded 874 million Chinese renminbi (approximately US$132 million) in revenue, down 38.39 percent year-on-year, while its net profits dropped by RMB50.51 million ($7.51 million), or 132.26 percent.

Its 2021 revenue and net profit stood respectively at RMB5.713 billion ($850 million) and RMB860 million ($127.84 million), representing 14.57 and 48.17 percent in relative terms.

Digitimes refers to the Goodix financial statement, writing that the tumble in revenue and profits from biometric sensors and overall is attributed to different factors. They include growing market competition from other companies, constraints such as logistical bottlenecks triggered by the COVID pandemic, drop in demand for smartphones, limited production of chips and other causes related to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.

Another area which is gulping a sizeable chunk of Goodix’s revenue is Research and Development (R&D) for which the company spent RMB1.692 billion in 2021, representing 29.62 percent of its total revenue for that year, the report mentions.

The revenue raked in by the company’s fingerprint biometrics stood at RMB3.5 billion in 2021, a 28.14 percent drop from figures of the year prior.

Pressure from other biometric sensor manufacturers such as Qualcomm, Silead, and Egis Technologies are said to have pushed Goodix to trim prices of some of its products in order to maintain its market share, Digitimes adds.

The drop in sale of smartphones notwithstanding, the article cites MediaTek CEO Rick Tsai who estimates that there is some hope for the future as there is room for growth from high-end phones, especially as 5G network penetration takes roots. This, Tsai says, could see the shipment of between 660 and 680 million units of those phones with biometric sensors in the course of 2022.

Recently, two researchers working with Goodix were listed among finalists for the European Inventor Award 2021 for their innovation in designing a system which can unlock devices using fingerprint and blood flow biometrics.

Article Topics

biometric sensors  |  biometrics  |  financial results  |  fingerprint sensors  |  Goodix  |  stocks