36Kr Holdings Inc - ADR Stock price
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Key metrics
📘 Market Capitalization
📈 What is it?
Market capitalization shows how much a company is currently worth on the stock market.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It helps classify companies by size (Large, Mid, Small Cap) and indicates their market presence and relative stability.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Large-cap companies tend to be more stable, often pay dividends, but may grow more slowly.
- Smaller firms may offer higher growth potential but come with more volatility.
- Market capitalization is a useful indicator of company size — but not a measure of whether a stock is undervalued or overvalued.
📘 Enterprise Value (EV)
📈 What is it?
Enterprise Value represents the total cost to acquire a company — including its debt and excluding its cash reserves.
🧮 How is it calculated?
(= Market Cap + Net Debt)
🏛️ Why is it important?
EV gives a more complete picture of a company's value than market cap alone and is used in key valuation ratios like EV/FCF or EV/Sales.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Enterprise Value shows the true cost of buying a company, including all financial obligations.
- It is more accurate than just looking at market cap, especially when comparing companies with different levels of debt or cash.
- Professional investors prefer EV-based multiples because they better reflect the company’s full financial footprint.
📘 Net Debt
📈 What is it?
Net Debt shows how much debt remains after subtracting a company’s available cash reserves.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It indicates how dependent a company is on borrowed money and how easily it can service its debt in the short term.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Low or negative net debt signals financial strength and flexibility.
- Companies with strong cash positions are better positioned in crises.
- High net debt increases financial risk — especially in environments with rising interest rates or economic downturns.
📘 Cash
📈 What is it?
Cash represents all liquid assets a company can access immediately — including cash, bank deposits, and short-term investments.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It reflects a company’s financial flexibility and resilience — enabling investments, buybacks, or buffer in downturns.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A strong cash position means greater room for maneuver and crisis resistance.
- Cash-rich companies can invest, pay down debt, or repurchase shares.
- But excess idle cash might indicate a lack of growth opportunities.
📘 Shares Outstanding
📈 What is it?
Shares outstanding represent the total number of a company’s shares currently held by investors — excluding treasury stock.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It’s the basis for key metrics like Earnings Per Share (EPS), Market Capitalization, or the Price/Earnings ratio (P/E).
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Fewer shares in circulation typically increase earnings per share — making each share more valuable.
- Share buybacks reduce the number of shares and boost per-share metrics.
- Issuing new shares does the opposite — diluting shareholder value and lowering per-share figures.
📘 Price-to-Earnings Ratio (P/E)
📈 What is it?
The P/E ratio shows how many times a company's earnings per share are reflected in its current share price — in other words, how "expensive" the stock appears relative to its profits.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
The P/E ratio is one of the most widely used valuation metrics. It helps investors assess whether a stock appears cheap or expensive compared to its earnings power.
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low P/E may indicate undervaluation — or signal underlying issues.
- A high P/E may reflect strong growth expectations — or an overvalued stock.
📘 Price-to-Sales Ratio (P/S)
📈 What is it?
The P/S ratio shows how much investors are paying for $1 of the company’s revenue – regardless of profitability.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
P/S is especially useful for evaluating growth companies or businesses not yet profitable. It reflects how the market values the company’s sales.
🧮 Calculation
Market Cap = $6.03m | Revenue (TTM) = $38.75m
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low P/S may indicate undervaluation — or low profitability.
- A high P/S can reflect strong growth expectations — or excessive optimism.
- Especially helpful when evaluating companies where profits are low, volatile, or negative.
📘 Enterprise Value to Sales (EV/Sales)
📈 What is it?
EV/Sales shows how much investors are paying for $1 of revenue — considering not just equity, but also debt and cash. It’s the capital structure–adjusted version of the P/S ratio.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It’s ideal for comparing companies with different levels of debt. It reflects a company's true cost relative to its revenue.
🧮 Calculation
Enterprise Value = $-11.00m | Revenue (TTM) = $38.75m
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- EV/Sales allows for capital structure–neutral company comparisons.
- A lower ratio may indicate undervaluation; a higher one may signal strong growth expectations or overvaluation.
- Especially helpful when evaluating high-growth companies with low or negative earnings.
📘 Enterprise Value to Free Cash Flow (EV/FCF) | ex SBC
📈 What is it?
EV/FCF compares a company’s enterprise value with its free cash flow. The metric therefore shows the multiple of current free cash flow at which a company is valued. EV/FCF ex SBC additionally accounts for stock-based compensation (SBC). While SBC does not represent a direct cash outflow, issuing shares as compensation can dilute existing shareholders. Therefore, SBC is deducted from free cash flow in this adjusted version.
🧮 How is it calculated?
EV/FCF ex SBC = Enterprise Value ÷ (Free Cash Flow (TTM) − SBC)
🏛️ Why is it important?
EV/FCF provides a valuation based on free cash flow and therefore complements earnings-based valuation metrics such as the P/E ratio. The ex SBC version additionally accounts for the economic impact of stock-based compensation and provides a more conservative view from a shareholder perspective.
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low EV/FCF means that enterprise value is low relative to current free cash flow. The reasons should always be considered in the context of the company and its industry.
- A high EV/FCF means that enterprise value is high relative to current free cash flow. This can, for example, reflect high growth expectations or temporarily weak cash generation.
- When SBC is positive and adjusted free cash flow remains positive, EV/FCF ex SBC is generally higher than the standard EV/FCF.
- The metric is particularly useful for companies with relatively stable and predictable cash flows.
- If free cash flow is negative or very low, EV/FCF has limited usefulness and should not be interpreted like a standard valuation multiple.
📘 Price-to-Book Ratio (P/B)
📈 What is it?
The P/B ratio compares a company’s market value to its book value — showing how much investors are paying for each dollar of net assets.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
P/B is commonly used for asset-heavy industries like banks or industrials. It helps assess whether a stock is trading above or below its net asset value.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A P/B below 1 may signal undervaluation — or weak profitability.
- A P/B above 1 implies the market expects future value creation (e.g., brand, IP, growth).
- Best used for companies with tangible assets and strong balance sheets.
📘 Equity Ratio
📈 What is it?
The equity ratio indicates what portion of a company’s total assets is financed by shareholders’ equity – in other words, how much it relies on its own capital.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
A high equity ratio reflects financial strength and stability, especially during downturns. It’s a key indicator of a company’s solvency and long-term risk profile.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Companies with high equity ratios are generally more resilient and less dependent on external debt.
- Low equity ratios can signal higher risk or aggressive financial strategies.
- Important: Always assess the equity ratio in combination with the return on equity (ROE). This shows not just how stable the company is – but also how efficiently it uses shareholder capital.
📘 Return on Equity (ROE)
📈 What is it?
Return on equity (ROE) shows how efficiently a company uses its shareholders’ equity to generate profit. In other words: how much net income is earned per dollar of equity.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
ROE is a core profitability metric. It helps investors understand whether a company delivers attractive returns on the capital provided by its shareholders.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high ROE indicates that the company is using its capital efficiently and profitably.
- It’s especially meaningful for capital-intensive businesses or firms with high equity bases.
- Important: A very high ROE can also result from high debt levels – always interpret it alongside the equity ratio to assess financial health.
📘 Return on Capital Employed (ROCE)
📈 What is it?
ROCE measures how efficiently a company generates profits from its total capital – including both equity and interest-bearing debt.
🧮 How is it calculated?
It evaluates the return on all capital employed, regardless of how it’s financed.
🏛️ Why is it important?
ROCE is ideal for comparing companies with different financing structures. It shows how well management uses capital to create value for both shareholders and creditors.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high ROCE means the company uses its capital efficiently – regardless of whether it's funded by debt or equity.
- The higher the ROCE compared to peers, the more value the company creates with its invested capital.
- Especially relevant for capital-intensive sectors like industrials, energy, or infrastructure.
📘 Return on Invested Capital (ROIC)
📈 What is it?
ROIC measures how efficiently a company generates returns from the capital invested in its core operations – regardless of whether the capital comes from equity or debt.
🧮 How is it calculated?
- NOPAT = Net Operating Profit After Taxes
- Invested Capital = Operating assets minus non-interest-bearing liabilities
🏛️ Why is it important?
ROIC is one of the most accurate indicators of capital efficiency. Unlike return on equity, it is not distorted by leverage and shows how much value is created for all capital providers.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high ROIC shows how effectively a company uses the capital that is truly invested in its core operations.
- Unlike ROCE, ROIC focuses only on the capital that is actively used to run the business – and that requires a return (i.e. interest-bearing).
- Especially useful when comparing companies with large amounts of excess cash or non-interest-bearing liabilities – giving a more realistic picture of capital efficiency.
📘 Leverage Ratio (Debt-to-Equity)
📈 What is it?
The leverage ratio indicates how much a company relies on interest-bearing debt (such as loans and bonds) relative to its shareholders’ equity.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
This ratio helps assess a company’s financial structure and risk profile. High leverage can enhance returns – but also increases exposure to interest rate changes and financial stress.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low leverage ratio signals financial strength and independence.
- A higher ratio can improve returns in good times but increases risk during downturns or rising interest rate periods.
- 👉 Always interpret in the context of industry, capital intensity, and interest rate environment.
📘 Revenue
📈 What is it?
Revenue shows how much a company earns in total from selling its products and services – the gross income before any costs are deducted.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Revenue is one of the key figures to assess a company’s size, market position, and growth potential.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Growing revenue indicates rising demand and can be an early signal of future earnings growth.
- Comparing actual and expected revenue reveals trends in the market environment and analyst sentiment.
- Note: Strong revenue alone isn’t enough – margins and profitability matter just as much.
📘 EBITDA
📈 What is it?
EBITDA stands for “Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization.” It reflects a company’s operating profit before the effects of financing, taxes, and accounting depreciation.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
EBITDA is widely used to evaluate a company’s operating performance – especially across capital-intensive sectors or international comparisons.
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high or growing EBITDA indicates strong operational profitability – independent of taxes, interest, or accounting methods.
- It’s especially useful for comparing companies across sectors or geographies.
- Important: EBITDA is not a net income figure – it excludes key costs like depreciation and interest.
📘 EBIT
📈 What is it?
EBIT stands for “Earnings Before Interest and Taxes.” It reflects a company’s operating profit after depreciation, but before interest and tax expenses.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
EBIT is a core profitability metric that shows how well the company performs in its main business operations – independent of capital structure and tax environment.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high EBIT indicates strong profitability from the company’s core business – before financial and tax effects.
- It allows better comparison between companies with different debt levels or tax structures.
- Compared to EBITDA, EBIT already accounts for depreciation and reflects capital intensity more clearly.
📘 Net Income
📈 What is it?
Net income is the company’s total profit – the amount left after all expenses, taxes, interest, and depreciation have been deducted.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Net income is the most comprehensive measure of a company’s profitability – showing how much actual profit remains after all business and financing costs.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Growing net income indicates that the company is managing all of its costs efficiently.
- It directly influences valuation metrics like P/E ratio and the company’s dividend capacity.
- Over time, net income trends reveal how resilient and profitable the business model really is.
📘 Free Cash Flow (FCF) | ex SBC
📈 What is it?
Free cash flow shows how much cash remains after a company has covered its operating and capital expenditures. FCF ex SBC additionally deducts stock-based compensation (SBC) to adjust the cash flow for the effect of non-cash SBC.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Free Cash Flow ex SBC = Operating Cash Flow − SBC − Capital Expenditures (CAPEX)
🏛️ Why is it important?
FCF reflects a company’s actual financial strength – independent of reported accounting earnings. It shows how much flexibility a company has for dividends, share buybacks, or debt reduction. FCF ex SBC also deducts stock-based compensation and shows how much cash generation remains after SBC.
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- High free cash flow indicates that a company has strong financial strength – independent of reported earnings.
- It is often a solid basis for sustainable dividends and share buybacks.
- Declining FCF can be a warning sign, even if reported earnings remain stable.
📘 Revenue Growth
📈 What is it?
Revenue growth shows how much a company’s sales have changed compared to the previous year – both on a trailing basis (TTM) and based on forward projections.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected revenue ÷ Revenue in prior year − 1) × 100
Forward growth is based on analyst estimates for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Rising revenue signals growing demand, business expansion, and market share gains – especially important for growth-oriented companies.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Growth is the engine of long-term value creation – especially in tech and growth sectors.
- What matters is not just current growth, but its sustainability.
- Forward projections reflect whether analysts expect continued momentum – or a slowdown.
📘 EBITDA Growth
📈 What is it?
EBITDA growth shows how much a company’s operating profit (before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) has increased or decreased compared to the previous year.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected EBITDA ÷ EBITDA from prior year − 1) × 100
The forward estimate is based on analyst projections for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Growing EBITDA indicates improving operational profitability – regardless of financing or accounting effects.
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Strong EBITDA growth signals operational efficiency and scalability – especially during growth phases.
- EBITDA growth can be an early indicator of margin and earnings expansion – but should be assessed alongside revenue and EBIT.
📘 EBIT Growth
📈 What is it?
EBIT growth shows how much a company’s operating profit (after depreciation, but before interest and taxes) has increased compared to the previous year.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected EBIT ÷ EBIT from prior year − 1) × 100
The forward estimate is based on analyst projections for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
EBIT growth is a direct indicator of a company’s business performance – taking into account capital intensity through depreciation.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Rising EBIT signals improving operating profitability – even after accounting for depreciation.
- It’s especially important for evaluating companies with significant capital expenditures.
- Combined with revenue and EBITDA growth, EBIT growth provides a well-rounded view of operational progress.
📘 Net Income Growth
📈 What is it?
Net income growth shows how much a company’s bottom-line profit has increased or decreased compared to the previous year – both on a trailing basis (TTM) and based on analyst projections.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected net income ÷ Net income from prior year − 1) × 100
The forward estimate reflects analysts’ expectations for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Net income is the ultimate measure of profitability. Growing net income signals stronger efficiency, cost control, and sustainable earnings power.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Stronger net income boosts valuation, dividend potential, and investor confidence.
- If profits stall while revenue grows, it may signal margin pressure.
📘 Free Cash Flow Growth
📈 What is it?
Free cash flow (FCF) growth shows how a company’s available cash – after covering operating expenses and capital expenditures – has changed compared to the previous year.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Free cash flow reflects real financial strength. Growing FCF indicates more flexibility for dividends, share buybacks, and reinvestment.
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Declining FCF may point to rising investments, increasing costs, or weaker operating performance.
- Especially for dividend investors, FCF growth is critical – since dividends are paid from actual available cash.
- A negative trend isn't always bad, but it deserves closer attention.
📘 Gross Margin
📈 What is it?
Gross margin shows how much of a company’s revenue remains after deducting the direct costs of goods sold (like materials and production). It represents the company’s “raw profit” before fixed costs, taxes, and interest.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Or simply: Gross Margin = Gross Profit ÷ Revenue × 100
🏛️ Why is it important?
Gross margin indicates how efficiently a company can produce or procure what it sells. It is a key measure of product-level profitability and pricing power.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high gross margin suggests strong pricing power and efficient production.
- Falling margins may signal rising input costs or competitive pressure.
- Compared to peers, gross margin offers insights into the quality of a business model.
📘 EBITDA Margin
📈 What is it?
The EBITDA margin shows how much of a company’s revenue remains as operating profit before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.It reflects operating efficiency without being distorted by financing or accounting factors.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
The EBITDA margin reveals how much operating income a company generates per dollar of revenue – independent of capital structure and tax effects.
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high EBITDA margin reflects strong core profitability – before accounting distortions.
- It allows for effective comparisons across companies and sectors.
- A stable or growing margin signals efficient cost control and business scalability.
📘 EBIT Margin
📈 What is it?
The EBIT margin shows what percentage of revenue remains as operating profit after depreciation but before interest and taxes.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
The EBIT margin reflects a company’s core profitability while accounting for capital intensity (e.g. machinery, infrastructure). It’s especially useful for comparing businesses with different levels of depreciation.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high EBIT margin shows that the company remains efficient even after factoring in depreciation.
- It’s especially relevant for capital-intensive industries.
- Stable or rising EBIT margins over time are a strong indicator of pricing power and business quality.
📘 Net Margin
📈 What is it?
Net margin shows how much of a company’s revenue remains as bottom-line profit after deducting all costs, interest, taxes, and depreciation.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Net margin reflects a company’s overall efficiency – across operations, financing, and taxation. It shows how much actual profit is generated from each dollar of revenue.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high net margin means the company is not only strong operationally but also manages financing and taxes efficiently.
- Peer comparisons reveal business quality and competitiveness.
- Declining margins despite revenue growth can be a red flag for rising costs or inefficiencies.
📘 Free Cash Flow Margin | ex SBC
📈 What is it?
The Free Cash Flow Margin shows how much free cash flow a company generates relative to its revenue. In simplified terms, free cash flow is calculated as operating cash flow minus capital expenditures. The Free Cash Flow Margin ex SBC additionally accounts for stock-based compensation (SBC). While SBC does not represent a direct cash outflow, issuing shares as compensation can dilute existing shareholders. Therefore, SBC is deducted from free cash flow in this adjusted metric.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Free Cash Flow Margin ex SBC = (Free Cash Flow − SBC) ÷ Revenue × 100
🏛️ Why is it important?
The Free Cash Flow Margin shows how efficiently a company converts its revenue into free cash flow. Strong free cash flow can provide financial flexibility for dividends, share buybacks, debt repayment, or further investments. The ex SBC version additionally accounts for the economic impact of stock-based compensation and therefore provides a more conservative view of cash generation from a shareholder perspective.
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high Free Cash Flow Margin shows that a company converts a high proportion of its revenue into free cash flow.
- This can provide greater financial flexibility for dividends, share buybacks, debt repayment, or investments.
- The Free Cash Flow Margin ex SBC additionally accounts for potential shareholder dilution from stock-based compensation.
- The long-term trend is particularly important. Declining margins can, for example, result from higher investments, changes in working capital, or weaker operating performance.
📘 Earnings per share (EPS)
📈 What is it?
Earnings per Share (EPS) shows how much profit is attributable to a single share – and is one of the most important metrics for evaluating a company's performance.
🧮 How is it calculated?
The diluted share count reflects potential new shares that could be issued through options, convertible bonds, or other rights.
🏛️ Why is it important?
EPS is the basis for many key valuation metrics like P/E ratio, PEG ratio, or payout ratio. It enables comparisons of profitability across companies, regardless of their size.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- EPS captures per-share profitability and is especially useful for comparisons over time or with analyst estimates.
- Rising EPS may signal consistent growth or share buybacks.
- Important: Always use diluted EPS for more realistic valuations – especially in companies with stock-based compensation.
📘 Free cash flow per share (FCF per share)
📈 What is it?
Free Cash Flow per Share shows how much free cash flow a company generates per outstanding share – after investments, but before dividends or debt repayments.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Free cash flow is calculated as operating cash flow minus capital expenditures (CapEx).
🏛️ Why is it important?
FCF per Share reveals how much real cash is available per share – useful for dividends, buybacks, or reducing debt. Unlike net income, free cash flow is harder to manipulate and often seen as a more reliable metric.
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- High FCF per share signals strong financial flexibility.
- It shows how much capital the company can effectively reinvest or return to shareholders.
- Particularly relevant for dividend payers and capital-efficient businesses.
📘 Short interest
📈 What is it?
Short interest indicates how many shares of a company are currently sold short – that is, borrowed and sold by investors who expect the price to decline.
🧮 How is it calculated?
It reflects the percentage of a company’s shares that are being shorted relative to the total shares available.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Short interest serves as a sentiment indicator: A high value may signal skepticism or bearish expectations – but also increases the potential for a short squeeze if prices rise unexpectedly.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Low short interest usually indicates market confidence in the company.
- High short interest can be a warning sign – or an opportunity if sentiment shifts.
- Especially relevant in volatile markets or ahead of key earnings releases.
📘 Employees
📈 What is it?
The employee count shows how many people a company employs worldwide – offering insights into its size, structure, and business model.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It helps assess operational scale, labor intensity, and cost structure. Combined with revenue and profit, it enables key metrics like revenue per employee or productivity.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high headcount can signal operational complexity – but also significant growth capacity.
- Revenue per employee is a key indicator of efficiency.
- Especially useful for comparing tech, industrial, or service-heavy companies.
📘 Revenue per employee
📈 What is it?
Revenue per employee indicates how much revenue a company generates on average per employee – a key measure of efficiency and productivity.
🧮 How is it calculated?
The employee count is typically taken from the most recent annual report.
🏛️ Why is it important?
This metric helps compare business models – especially between labor-intensive and technology-driven companies. A high value suggests automation, operational efficiency, or strong value creation per head.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high revenue per employee indicates a scalable and margin-strong business model.
- A low figure may reflect labor-intensive operations or lower value-add.
- Especially helpful when comparing tech companies to industrial or service sectors.
36Kr Holdings Inc - ADR Stock Analysis
Analyst Opinions
7 Analysts have issued a 36Kr Holdings Inc - ADR forecast:
Analyst Opinions
7 Analysts have issued a 36Kr Holdings Inc - ADR forecast:
36Kr Holdings Inc - ADR Events
Past Events
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AUG
20
Q2 2026 Earnings Call
about 2 months ago
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MAR
17
2025 Earnings Call
7 months ago
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SEP
26
Q2 2025 Earnings Call
about one year ago
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StocksGuide Free
36Kr Holdings Inc - ADR — Q2 2026 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the 36Kr Holdings, Inc. 2026 First Half Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the conference over to management to begin. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much. Hello, everyone, and welcome to 36Kr Holdings First Half 2026 Earnings Conference Call. The company's financial and operational results were released earlier today and have been made available online. You can also read the earnings press release by visiting the IR section of our website, ir.36kr.com.
Participants on today's call will include our Chairman and CEO, Mr. Dagang Feng; and our Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Xiang Li. Mr. Feng will start the call by providing an overview of companies and the provision and highlights of first half in Chinese, followed by English interpretation. Mr. Lee will then provide details on the company's financial results before opening the call for your questions.
Before we continue, please note that today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. As such, the company's results may be materially different from the views expressed today. Further information regarding those and other risks and uncertainties is included in the company's prospectus and other public filings as filed with the U.S. SEC. The company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required under the applicable law.
Please note that 36Kr's earnings press release and this conference call includes discovery of unaudited GAAP financial measures as well as unaudited non-GAAP financial measures. 36Kr earnings press release conciliation of unaudited non-GAAP measures to the unaudited GAAP measures. And please note that all amount numbers are in RMB.
I will now turn the call over to our Chairman and CEO, Mr. Dagang Feng. Sir, please go ahead.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] Thank you. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining 36Kr first half 2026 earnings conference call.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] In the first half of 2026, in the continued macroeconomic uncertainty, the company sustained its profitability trend and maintained solid results across all operating metrics. The key takeaway from this period's results is that our profitability is not a product of short-term financial adjustment, but sustainable commercial value built on the interplay of three strengths: content influence, industrial service capabilities, and technological application prowess.technological application prowess.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] Total revenue were RMB 124 million in the first half of 2026, up 33.7% year-over-year. Gross profit was RMB 82.68 million, up 33.1% year-over-year, with a gross profit margin of 66.4%. Net income was RMB 15.37 million, while cash reserves continued to increase, providing ample liquidity to support ongoing operations and strategic investments.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] Those operating results stem from our long-standing strategy of being the picks and solver player in the technology industry. Rather than going all in on a single technology or industry cycle, we draw our sharp insights into technology and innovation trends backed by years of expertise and robust assets to consistently capitalize on opportunities unlocked by successive waves of industry transformations from artificial intelligence and embedded intelligence to emerging industries such as nuclear fusions, quantum computing and brain-computer interface. Whatever the next wave of technological innovation emerge, 36Kr leverages its visionary content layout and commercial service capabilities to engage with the serve -- business capital, technology and local industrial stakeholders across the value chain.
The 36 Industry Future initiative is a primary example of this capability. By consistently providing forward-looking insights into the latest technology trends, we strengthen the competitive barriers around our content ecosystem, enhance our operating reliance across technology cycles and deliver long-term sustainable growth in the commercial value in the wave of technological evolution.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] Let's take a closer look at our major business progress for the period in the three areas: content ecosystem, commercialization and industrial services, technology and product.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] First, content ecosystem. We consistently strengthened our content ecosystem during the period, maintaining 36Kr content influence across China's new economy and technology innovation sectors. We continue to expand our footprint across various channels, crafting a comprehensive circulation matrix, encompassing major new media platforms like Weibo, Xiaohongshu, Toutiao, Zhihu, Bilibili, Douyin and Kuaishou among others.
Broad channel exposure brought us wider overall distribution and higher visibility of our premium content. At the end of June 2026, we had approximately 36.52 million followers.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] Meanwhile, we stayed attuned to trends and remain focused on enhancing content quality, consistently delivering high-caliber work while maintaining the influence of our flagship channels, including 36Kr and 36Kr Pro. We ramped up our efforts to spotlight the emergency of intelligence our AI-focused account covering the latest development from AI industry trends, including the ByteDance Star Team, DeepSeek, Tencent, Zhiyun and Alibaba Tongyi. Built on a content model combining exclusive access to information with in-depth interviews. The channel has established a strong industry footprint in AI coverage.
In addition, Hardcore KR sharpened its focus on the embodied intelligence value chain, differentiating itself through first-to-report coverage of start-up funding and in-depth founder interviews. Its follower increased by approximately 27%, attracted by coverage spanning key segments across the value chain, including brain chips, tactile sensors, robot-assisted manufacturing and on-device computing power.
Its Hardcore KR Conversation Series offered in-depth perspective from founders and their technology road map and strategic choices, building a differentiated content moat in hardcore technology coverage of other high-quality vertical-specific accounts like 36Kr Auto, Future Consumption, 36Kr Games, 36Kr Finance and 36Kr Industry Futures also continued to build momentum, building -- balancing broad coverage with depth of expertise in specialized domains to provide users with valuable insights into industry trends and evolving business dynamics.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] Beyond graphic and text content, we continue to diversify our content formats, delivering premium content across short- and long-form videos, audio, live streaming and short plays.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] In short video, our exceptional content creation capabilities earned us wide visibilities and rave review from users. Our video followers reached 9.63 million. In the first half of 2026 we produced a total of 75 short videos, including a blockbuster on Douyin that garnered over 8.4 million views. Another video platforms, we consistently create in-depth pieces that generate more than 1 million views each. On the commercial video side, we continued to produce high-quality content, working closely with companies in support of clients' digital and intelligent transformation, garnering a notable 230 million total exposure with a single breakout video.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] For live streaming, we made full use of our existing content-specific account assets to actively develop live streaming products and explore new avenue for growth and innovation at China Appliance and Electronic World Expo 2026 held from March 12 and 15, 36Kr launched the ANTME AI Lab live stream, conducting live on-site coverage from 8 of the most popular brand pavilions and profiling leading brands in depth, giving audience a firsthand look at the latest real-world application of AI technologies, broadcast simultaneously across device platforms.
The live stream garnered 1.358 million total views and racked up over 80 million impressions network wide. During this year, World Artificial Intelligence Conference in July, 36Kr serves as an ecosystem partners and special supporting media partners join hands with organizing commit to launch the KR Talk Future League Studio. The live stream combined expert panels, live exhibition coverage, video highlights, and in-depth interviews with companies, garnering 51.8 million total views and engaging 61,000 viewers across the 36Kr Live Stream matrix.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] In terms of event IP, we further elevated 36Kr's role from an observer of industry trends to a facilitator for industry cooperation. On May 19 to 20, 2026, we hosted the 2026 AI Partners Summit in Beijing, Yizhuang. It was themed Take AI to the Front Line. The Summit focused on shifting AI from technical discussion to practical implementation, featuring a main forum and AI plus industry matchmaking meeting that connected technology providers with business holding real industry demand. Over the 2 days event, we facilitated more than 100 rounds of in-depth closed door matchmaking seasons, helping companies identify potential area of collaborations around specific scenario.
Our 2026 AI Partners Summit gathered approximately 120 million views and attracted over 1,000 on-site attendees. In addition, from June 16 to 17, 2026, we hosted Wave 2026 in Panyu, Guangdong this mid-summer. This Summit gathered a great generation of investors, industry leaders, scientists and emerging entrepreneurs for 15 in-depth roundtable discussion and dozens of talks covering core topics such as AI, hardcore technology, embedded intelligence, going global, health care and youth innovation.
The event also featured the Challenge for Intelligent Youth and the National AI+ scenario application competition finals. It's focused on three tracks: AI agents, embedded intelligent hardware and lightweight one person entrepreneurship, providing young innovators and their projects with a platform for exposure, evaluation and feedback, and industry connections with Wave 2026 garnered 118 million waves and attracted more than 2,000 on-site attendees.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] Harnessing our robust content influence and extensive content distribution channels, 36KR has developed a highly effective customer service system. This has enabled us to achieve commercialization breakthrough in this unprecedented wave of technological innovation.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] In the first half of 2026, thanks to our consistent investment in our content ecosystem and our early positioning in key sectors such as AI and hard-core technology, our customer base grew significantly. New customer working with 36Kr for the first time accounted for approximately 1/3 of our total customer base in the period. AI and the foundation models, robotic and embedded intelligence and was the primary source of our new customers. We also acquired new customers in the consumer goods, health care, travel and mobility, education and training sectors. This underscores 36KR's leadership in new economic communication and our outstanding customer service capabilities.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] In terms of commercialization of online results, we generated RMB 104 million in revenue from online advertising services in the first half of 2026, up approximately 40% year-over-year. Our flagship channels, including 36Kr and 36Kr Pro maintained industry-leading commercial values. At the same time, the influence of our subvertical media channels such as the Emergence of Intelligence, Hardcore KR, 36Kr Auto, Future Consumption, Tide and All Use continue to expand, emerging as another key driver of our revenue growth.
Short video also achieved a commercialization breakthrough in the first half of 2026 with revenue approximately doubling year-over-year. Furthermore, we launched the 36Kr Pro, a new WeChat channel content offering that meaningfully enriched our product line and enable more differentiated pricing. This broader range of product options helped propel the continued growth in our revenue from online advertising service.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] In institutional and entrepreneur service, we continue to optimize our business structure, establishing a dual engine growth model, driven by our summits and rankings alongside content communications. As the primary market gradually recovered, institutional demand for communication service surged with content focus on institutional fundraising and the portfolio company financing growth rapidly, driving revenue to nearly double year-over-year. We fully leveraged the vertical accounts such as Waves and 36Kr Industry Futures to connect the content, enterprise, capital, technology and local industry resource, further unlocking their commercial value.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] In terms of industrial service commercialization, in addition to hosting large-scale events in key regions, we continue to advance in recurring day-to-day industrial service while our 3-year strategic operation project with Hangzhou Qiantang New Area, including the Chinese Enterprise International Service Center Operation project and the AI Phenomena Community Operation Service project continued to progress steadily during this period.
In the first half of the year, we focused primarily on key industrial park, including the Qiantang Embedded Intelligence Industrial Park, delivering a diverse range of operational activities built around brand exposures resource connections and enterprise service. This initiative effectively enhanced the park's industry profile, supporting investment inflows and industry service. Building on this project, we continue to deepen our industrial service capabilities in the Yangtze River Delta, laying the foundation of replication across the region. Furthermore, at this year's event, we showcased the Yangtze River Delta's industrial resource for Great Bay Area entrepreneurs and investors, continues to bridge technological innovation and real-world industry applications, our industry service and progressively shifting from one-off event towards ongoing operation and deeper customer partnership.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] In applying AI technologies, we continue to pursue a dual-track strategy, improving internal efficiency while productizing our AI capabilities for external stakeholders.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] In the first half of 2026, we hosted the KR Star AI application challenge internally to deepen adoption of AI tools across our operations. The initiative focused on identified practical, replicable and high-value use case for improving productivity with AI, fostering a culture where everyone knows how to use AI. AI can be applied everywhere, and AI is consistently used to improve the efficiency. The competition brought improvement across customer sales process, video and image optimization, internal process management and more, while cultivating a company-wide atmosphere of learning and knowledge sharing.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] We also continue to optimize our 36Kr project recommendations product. Using foundation model technology, we enable online AI conducted interviews to dig deeper into project and automatically generate project recommendations based on the interview content. In the first half of 2026, our 36Kr project recommendations product helps entrepreneurs secure coverage and connection for 1,117 projects increasing the conversion rate by nearly 80% year-over-year.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] On the product side, 36Kr and Soften jointly launched the 36Kr Corporate Omni-intelligence WeChat Mini program aimed at retailer investors a daily sentiment and analysis reports for public companies and expert in that help users make more informed decisions in stock market and other investment markets. Cumulative users have reached 55,200, including more than 10,000 subscribers, up 50.8% and 61.7%, respectively, from 33,600 users and 6,187 subscribers at the end of 2025 and have more than doubled year-over-year.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] Our AI review hub at ai.36kr.com was launched at the end of 2025. It is positioned as a Dianping of AI tools, a community platform combining AI tools discovery and authentic user reviews, primarily serve individual and enterprise users seeking guidance in selecting AI tools, anchored international review content and powered by product capability upgrades, our AI review segment continued to grow across user scale, ecosystem development and commercial value. On the content side, we continue to scale volume while improving qualities, publishing accumulative 401,962 AI review articles, nearly 10x the 560 articles published as of the end of 2025.
Content appeal and user engagement are rising in fact. Ecosystem appeal also continued to strengthen with 42 companies voluntarily listing their products on our AI review hub, reflecting broad market recognition of our positioning as a Dianping of the AI application segment. We also comprehensively expanded our review network, adding 260 new reviewers and launching our campus ambassador initiative, building a crowd tracker review network, spanning both professional and student users. Meanwhile, we continue to broaden our external content distribution channels with a diversified content dissemination economic ecosystem steadily tracking sharp.
At the product capability levels, we completed upgrades to core modules such as promotional placement, new community framework, leaderboards and the product database. We also rolled out AI review agent with blended testing capabilities creating an end-to-end AI-powered workflow from conversations to review to content postings.
Commercially, we achieved a meaningful breakthrough on the strength of our team in deep product review content. We secured a paid commercialization partnership with Kling and Kuaishou AI, validating our closed-loop model from professional review content to commercial monetization. In short, our AI review segment continued to progress rapidly, driven by growing industry influence, greater ecosystem breadth and depth, and expanding monetization capabilities.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] To sum up, in the first half of 2026, we maintained a solid financial position while steadily advancing our content innovation, commercialization upgrade and AI industry application, we will continue to build depth and emerging industry and technology verticals, become a trusted authority on value, a catalyst for industry growth, a facilitator of resource connections, and contribute to shaping industry standards in the AI era.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] With that, I will now turn the call over to our CFO, Mr. Xiang Li, who will discuss our key financial results. Please go ahead, Xiang.
Thank you. Thank you for joining today's presentation. We will now review the first half of 2026 financial performance. Please note that all amounts are in RMB unless otherwise stated. Our company's total revenue increased by 33.7% to RMB 124.6 million in the first half of 2026 from RMB 93.2 million in the same period last year. Online advertising services revenues increased by 38.9% to RMB 103.5 million in the first half of 2026 from RMB 74.5 million in the same period last year. The increase was primarily attributable to surging demand from the AI sector for our advertising solutions.
Enterprise value-added services revenue increased by 25.4% to RMB 15.3 million in the first half of 2026 from RMB 12.2 million in the same period last year. The increase was primarily driven by our ongoing refinement of service offerings aimed at margin improvement. Subscription services revenue were RMB 5.8 million in the first half of 2026 compared to RMB 6.4 million in the same period last year. The decrease was primarily due to a strategic shift in the segment's customer composition.
Cost of revenues was RMB 41.9 million in the first half of 2026, a slight decrease of 1.4% from RMB 42.5 million in the same period last year. The decrease was primarily driven by the company's strict cost control measures. Gross profit increased by 63.1% to RMB 82.7 million in the first half of 2026 from RMB 50.7 million in the same period last year. Gross profit margin was 66.4% in the first half of 2026, representing an increase of 12 percentage points from 54.4% in the same period last year. The increase in gross margin was primarily driven by higher margin from our online advertising services within the AI sector and a significant increase in related revenues alongside slight payroll-related costs resulting from our strategic workforce management.
Operating expenses increased by 6.6% to RMB 59.6 million in the first half of 2026 from RMB 55.9 million in the same period last year. Sales and marketing expenses was RMB 29.2 million in the first half of 2026, remaining flat year-over-year, reflecting our disciplined approach to sales spending. General and administrative expenses were RMB 24.1 million in the first half of 2026, an increase of 20.5% from RMB 20 million in the same period last year. The increase was primarily related to the increase in allowance for doubtful accounts and payroll-related expenses. Research and development expenses were RMB 6.4 million in the first half of 2026, remaining flat year-over-year, primarily reflecting our continued focus on R&D efficiency and strategic programs prioritization.
Share-based compensation expenses recognized in cost of revenue, sales and marketing expenses, research and development expenses as well as general and admin expenses totaled RMB 19,700 in the first half of 2026 compared to RMB 89,600 in the same period last year. Other expenses were RMB 7.7 million in the first half of 2026 compared to RMB 0.4 million of other income in the same period last year. The change was mainly due to the increase in long-term investment loss. Income tax expenses were RMB 27,000 in the first half of 2026 compared to RMB 4,000 of income tax credit in the same period last year.
Net income. Net income was RMB 15.4 million in the first half of 2026 compared to a net loss of RMB 4.8 million in the same period last year. Non-GAAP adjusted net loss was RMB 15.4 million in the first half of 2026 compared to a non-GAAP adjusted net loss of RMB 4.7 million in the same period last year. Net income attributable to 36Kr Holdings Inc.'s ordinary shareholders was RMB 15 million in the first half of 2026 compared to a net loss attributable to 36Kr Holdings Inc.'s ordinary shareholders of RMB 5 million in the same period last year. Basic and diluted net income per ADS was RMB 7.058 and RMB 7.056, respectively, in the first half of 2026 compared to basic and diluted net loss per ADS of RMB 2.307 in the same period last year.
Certain balance sheet items. As of June 30, 2026, the company had cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investments of RMB 124.2 million, an increase of 6.9% from RMB 116.1 million as of December 31, 2025. The increase was mainly attributable to positive cash inflow from operating activities.
Well, this concludes all our prepared remarks today. We will now open the call to questions. Operator, please go ahead.
[Operator Instructions] The first question will come from Lingyi Zhao with SWS Research.
2. Question Answer
[Foreign Language]
I would like to translate myself. And my first question is, compared with other media outlets, what are 36Kr's key differentiators in AI content coverage? Why do advertisers choose 36Kr over specialized AI media outlets? And my second question is, looking ahead, what are the key growth engines for the company? And how does management plan to balance increased investment in content and technology to drive growth with maintaining healthy profitability and solid cash flow?
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] That's a great question. And the differentiation advantage in AI content coverage come down to three key areas.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] First, our broad-based platform reach. Our content metrics spans AI, hardcore technology, going global, consumer goods, automotive, gaming, health care and other verticals. We have 36.52 million followers across a diverse reach of mainstreaming media platforms, including Weibo, Xiaohongshu, Toutiao, Zhihu, Bilibili, Douyin, and Kuaishou, among others. This allows advertisers on our platform to reach not only the AI industry audience, but also upstream and downstream business and cross-sector users simultaneously, something specialized AI media outlets cannot be easily delivered.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] Second, our content model is built on exclusive information access combined with in-depth content output. At 36Kr, we hold ourselves to extremely high standard for content qualities. We don't simply follow the latest trends. We insist on real depths. We consistently offer incisive original perspectives on industry developments and sector analysis, providing users with invaluable insight into industry trends and evolving business dynamics.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] Third, our end-to-end industrial service. Advertisers choose 36Kr, not only for our professional content, but more importantly, for our comprehensive service capabilities. For example, at this year's AI Partners Meet, we facilitated more than 100 rounds of in-depth closed-door matchmaking sessions centered on real-world AI implementation scenarios, effectively connecting technology providers with companies looking for practical solutions. This demonstrated the strong capabilities we build in connecting the full industry value chains with 36Kr advertisers and more than brand exposures. They can also access industry resources and business partnership opportunities, an integrated value proposition that specialized media outlets cannot easily provide.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] For the second question regarding growth engine, I see four areas gaining traction. In the near term, AI customer growth will be a key driver over the first half of the year. Approximately 40% of our new customers came from the AI sector, and we continue to see strong momentum in the segment. This medium term -- in the medium term, three area will drive growth. First, we will deepen the commercialization of our sub-vertical content metrics. Our content such as the Emergence of Intelligence and Hardcore KR have achieved a significant follower growth, which is now unleashing their commercial value.
Second, we will scale the monetization of AI products. Our AI review hub ai.36kr.com secured a paid commercialization partnership with Kling and DeepSeek and the user base of the 36Kr cooperative Omni intelligence has doubled year-over-year. Third, we will replicate our industrial service model across regions with the Qiantang model now validated, we can roll it out in another regions.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] In terms of balancing investment and profitability, our philosophy is clear. We invest where we see a clear path to returns. Our financial results over the first half reflected this discipline. Gross profit margin continued to improve due to our ongoing efforts to control costs and optimize our customer mix. We place a high priority on financial health and our continually improve operating efficiency while keeping our cost base lean. At the same time, we continue to invest in content. This is a core strength that we continuously build to reinforce the reliance and the sustainability of our business operations. We will never pressure growth on the expense of profitability. Even every investment must have a clear business rationale and a clear path to return.
The next question will come from Rui Yin with Sealand Securities.
[Foreign Language]
Let me translate myself. What's the company's long-term strategy positioning in the AI era? How do you expect the mix between tech media outlet and industrial services platform to evolve in the future?
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] Thank you, Rui. Our strategy positioning in AI era is crystal clear. We have always been the picks and shovel supplier enabler in technology industries. No matter how technology evolves, enterprise demand for building industry insight and access to industry resources and connections will remain strong. As AI adoption accelerates, the demand is only increasing. Our content influence, industrial service and technological application capabilities working concerns to form a closed loop.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] As for the mix between the two, content advertising remain our business foundation and our traffic gateway, while industrial service are our growth engine and the driver of margin expansion. The relationship between them is a flywheel, not a substitution. Our content influence builds customer trust and strengthen our ability to connect the industry resource. In turn, our industrial service deepen our content and industry insights, ultimately attracting more advertising customers.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] In terms of how the balance will evolve, we expect the share of industrial service to increase steadily in the first half of the year. We continue to deepen our 3-year strategic cooperation projects with Hangzhou Qiantang area. And our 2026 AI Partners Summit in Beijing also strengthened our ecosystem influence, our industrial service and gradually evolving from one-off events towards ongoing operations. That said, content advertising will remain foundational to our revenue base. In the first half of this year, our flagship channels contribute nearly half of online advertising revenues and both short videos and institutional communication revenues doubled year-over-year. With both growth engine gaining momentum, we are confident in our future trajectory.
There are no further questions at this time. I would now like to hand the call back over to management for any closing remarks. Please go ahead.
Okay. Thank you once again for joining us today. If you have further questions, please feel free to contact the 36Kr Investor Relationship through the contact information provided on our website.
This does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.
[Portions of this transcript that are marked [Interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]
36Kr Holdings Inc - ADR — 2025 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by for 36Kr Holdings Inc.'s Second Half and Fiscal Year 2025 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]
Today's conference call is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to your host, Xin Wang, IR Manager of the company. Please go ahead.
Thank you very much. Hello, everyone, and welcome to 36Kr Holdings Second Half and Fiscal Year 2025 Earnings Conference Call. The company's financial and operational results were released earlier today and have been made available online. You can also view the earnings press release by visiting the IR section of our website at ir.36kr.com.
Participants on today's call will include our Chairman and CEO, Mr. Dagang Feng; and our Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Xiang Li. Mr. Feng will start the call by providing an overview of the company and the performance highlights of the second half and the fiscal year 2025 in Chinese, followed by an English interpretation. Mr. Li will then provide details on the company's financial results before opening the call for your questions.
Before we continue, please note that today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. As such, the company's results may be materially different from the views expressed today.
Further information regarding this and other risks and uncertainties is included in the company's prospectus and other public filings as filed with the U.S. SEC. The company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required under applicable law.
Please note that 36Kr's earnings press release and this conference call include discussions of unaudited GAAP financial measures as well as unaudited and non-GAAP financial measures. 36Kr's earnings press release contains a reconciliation of the unaudited non-GAAP measures to the unaudited GAAP measures.
Please note that all amount numbers are in RMB. I will now turn the call over to our Chairman and CEO, Mr. Dagang Feng. [ Tao ], please go ahead.
[Interpreted] Thank you. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining our second half and fiscal year 2025 earnings conference. Over the past 2 years, 36Kr has consistently focused on improving operating efficiency and optimizing financial structure. We have continuously upgraded our organizational structure, optimized expenses and strengthened our core capabilities. In 2025, while maintaining solid revenue performance, we achieved a major operational breakthrough by turning profitable. At the same time, our cash reserves remain stable, paving the way for the company's long-term financial health and sustainable innovation-driven growth.
For the full year of 2025, our gross profit margin reached 57.7%, an increase of 9 percentage points year-over-year. Operating expenses decreased by almost RMB 70 million from the same period last year.
Our total operating expenses as a percentage of total revenues decreased to 53%. Notably, the company recorded a net profit of RMB 11 million for the year. These achievements were driven by our continued integration of content innovation, commercialization breakthroughs and technological applications into the company's business operations, which together optimized our organizational structure and improved workforce efficiency.
We consistently fortified our content ecosystem in 2025, leveraging our [ PLS ] content creation promise to steadily extend our influence. In terms of our content dissemination network, we expanded our footprint across diverse channels, crafting a comprehensive circulation metrics, encompassing major new medium platforms like Weibo, Xiaohongshu, Douyin, Zhihu, Bilibili, Toutiao and Kuaishou, among others. Broad channel exposure has brought us wider overall dissemination and higher visibility for our premium content. Our consistent production of high-quality content also diversified our user demographics, elevating user engagement and stickiness. At the end of 2025, we had over 36.8 million followers, marking 19 consecutive quarters of user growth. We explored a growing area of content formats throughout 2025, including text, graphics, short- and long-form videos, audio and live streaming, enriching our content offering with a greater diversity of styles. For text and graphics, we continue to create high-quality content on multiple fronts while maintaining our existing content metrics. Building our flagship channels, including 36Kr and 36Kr Pro, we continuously broadened our reach in subverticals, actively expanding high-quality content-specific accounts like the emergence of intelligence, 36Kr Auto, Future Consumption, 36Kr Games, WAVES, 36Kr Finance, Oh! Youth and Tide, among others. This accounts enriched our metrics with both broad content coverage and deep expertise in specialized domains, providing users with invaluable insights into industry trends and evolving business dynamics.
At the start of 2025, we rolled out 36Kr Industry Future and all new content channels, spotlighting, urban innovation and state-of-the-art technologies, building our influence in emerging industries. A notable feature on the innovative pharmaceutical sector in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province garnered over 70,000 page views on our official WeChat accounts and more than 100,000 total exposures. To date, our accounts cover artificial intelligence, global expansion, advanced manufacturing, hardcore technology, consumer lifestyle, investment and much more, comprising a thriving content ecosystem. For the full year of 2025 on the 36Kr official account alone, 698 of our articles achieved over 100,000 page views.
Meanwhile, [ WeChat ] followers expanded by 54% year-over-year. In terms of short video, our exceptional content creation capabilities earned us widespread visibility and real user reviews from users. Our video followers expanded 9.5 million as of the end of 2025. With WeChat channels followers surging by 67% year-over-year. Following the debut of our brand-new 36Kr tech account on Douyin in the second half of 2025, we released blockbuster videos such as AI Confidence and the AI Creator, attracting over 130,000 followers to date.
In addition, our video undercover multiple host -- multi-host live garnered over 10 million views on Xiaohongshu, Douyin, [indiscernible] channels and the Bilibili. In live streaming this year, we optimized our resources with a streamlined team and fully leveraged the WeChat channels to cultivate an area of content-specific accounts, including the big deal, global expansion, Golden Shovel and 36Kr CEO Tips. We also unveiled AI Insider, a program targeting AI entrepreneurs and independent developers.
During this year's World Artificial Intelligence Conference in July, 36Kr served as a special supporting medium partner and offered a super live streaming channel that combines whole conference reporting, expert panels, cutting-edge technology insights, future trained forecast and tech product [ groups ], garnering 50.2 million total views and engaging 1.17 million viewers across the 36Kr live stream metrics.
Moreover, at the Appliance and Electronics World Expo 2025, 36Kr launched its first robot-themed exhibition, Future+ in partnership with 5 robotics companies, showcasing the immense potential upside of embodied artificial intelligence in home appliances and home settings. With this exhibition, the 36Kr WeChat channels live stream garnered over 1.04 million views in total, racking up over 80 million views across diverse platforms.
In terms of event IP, we hosted our signature investment-focused conference WAVES in 2025, centered on the new era of venture capital, founders of emerging companies and innovative young scientists gathered the top-tier investors to discuss leading-edge topics, including AI breakthrough stabilization and value assessments.
This year's WAVES event amassed over 150 million views. In addition, our 2025 AI Partner Summit focused on the AI sector under the theme "here comes the Super App" highlighted the disruptive impact of AI super applications across diverse industries, garnering over 130 million views. In the second half of the year, we hosted the WISE 2025 Business Kings Conference at the company's largest annual flagship conference. WISE 2025 business teams garnered an impressive 500 million-plus views across diverse platforms with its live stream racking up more than 800,000 views.
In 2025, our deep expertise in innovation in content and IP brought the continuous commercialization breakthroughs, including client structure optimization, stronger commercialization of subvertical medium channels for younger audiences, new momentum in live streaming and video revenue and meaningful progress in industrial services commercialization.
In terms of client structure optimization, our enriched content ecosystem and diverse content distribution channels empowered us to consistently expand our portfolio of services and products, constantly enhancing our commercialization capabilities within our Internet client portfolio, revenue from AI-related services continued to grow with the number of clients across model, application and hardware layers steadily expanding.
Regarding the commercialization of the sub-vertical medium channels for younger audiences, revenue from channels like Oh! Youth and Tide increased by over 50% year-over-year, with core clients continuously making repeat of purchases, reflecting sustained client recognition of our PC content. As for live streaming and video commercialization, the number of clients placing short videos and live streaming orders continued to grow with new clients exceeding 50% of the total. For the full year of 2025, our live streaming revenue surged by nearly 40% year-over-year, leveraging major technology exhibition in 2025, including AWE and WAIC, we stepped up our development of live streaming offerings tailored for event coverage. To address diverse market needs, we launched a low ARPU product line effectively [indiscernible] our existing premium commercialization content offerings. This expanded the appeal of our video and live streaming offerings to more clients, particularly early-stage start-ups, enabling them to reach more potential users.
Furthermore, thanks to our sustained efforts in the global expansion segment in the live streaming content innovation, we achieved a breakthrough with Tantan their clients, forging important commercial partnerships and earning high recognition from the organizers with our live streaming content. At the fourth Global Digital Trade Expo held in Hangzhou, we partnered with Hangzhou Culture Radio Television Group on a full event uninterrupted live streaming metrics, across the 5-day event, total online attendance exceeded 2.7 million, more than 10x the number of on-site visitors.
Looking ahead, we will continue to explore new live streaming formats and scenarios, building richer content scenarios in more diverse service models for users and clients.
Regarding industrial service commercialization in 2025, 36Kr reached a 3-year strategic partnership agreement with Hangzhou Qiantang New Area Construction and Investment Group Company for the Chinese Enterprise International Service Center Operations project and AI Panorama Community operations project. This collaboration will leverage our expertise in organizational operations and online content distribution as well as our vast network of industry resources to support Qiantang New Area in building a unique services ecosystem and operational framework for corporate empowerment, amplifying its regional influence.
Furthermore, building on the growing influence of 36Kr industry future, OpenTalk in 36Kr Industrial Belt projects, we focused on key sectors driving urban industrial transformation and future industry development, including low LTG economy, commercial aerospace, advanced manufacturing and new energy and materials. This initiative attracted more than 200 upstream and downstream industry projects in the government entities, fostering deep collaborations and commercial partnerships.
Beyond the advancements across content and commercialization, we continue to expand the boundaries of meeting in 2025, consistently driving cutting-edge AGI applications to further optimize content production and commercialization efficiency.
On the content side, we provided intensive coverage of China's AI ecosystem in 2025. At the beginning of 2025, 36Kr made headlines at home and abroad as only tech media outlets worldwide to have exclusively interviewed DeepSeek founder twice. In addition to our deep vertical tech demographic accounts like The Emergence of Intelligence and WAVES, we launched video channels such as AI Map and 36Kr Tech in 2025. The future human laboratory official accounts focused on AI interviews for consumers. The lightweight online tech products launched Series Project X and the live streaming series AI Insider, featuring in-depth conversations and real-world testing with leading ones at the forefront of AI. We also released an area of research reports on advanced productivity in the AGI area. Additionally, we hosted multiple live streaming sessions around major events such as WAIC, joining a strong engagement and recognition from within the industry and beyond. In addition to AI-focused content, we have actively integrated AIGC technology into our content ecosystem to enhance efficiency company-wide. Our AI meeting coverage product launched in the second half of 2024, leverages large-scale AI model, technologies and the AI algorithm to produce AI-powered interviews and generate content. The underlying system incorporates multiple developers of large AI models such as Doubao and Qianwen among others. We also integrated DeepSeek in March 2025.
In 2025, AI meeting coverage covered 1,308 companies, highlighting their latest initiatives for fundraising ventures. AI meeting coverage has meaningfully improved our content team's efficiency, substantially easing previous manpower limitations and enhancing our coverage of start-ups.
We also launched the 36Kr corporate Omni-Intelligence in October 2024, targeting investors in the secondary market by providing AI-powered savings sentiment analysis reports for public companies. The service currently covers over 7,800 public companies listed in Mainland China and Hong Kong. Users can search, filter and subscribe to reports on their preferred companies, receiving daily analysis in a personalized content format. The product's underlying sentiment data is a collaboration between 36Kr and Soften, a fully owned subsidiary of BeyondSoft. Having nurtured a community of several hundred core users. Currently, we have a cumulative user base of 36,600, including 6,187 subscribers.
At the end of 2025, we launched our AI review hub, 36aiDianping.com, a community platform integrating AI tool discovery and authentic user reviews, primarily serving individual and enterprise users seeking guidance in selecting AI tools, backed by professional content output and high-quality review services, the platform's new product AI review section gained traction in both reputation and performance. 516 AI review articles have been posted in total with content appeal and user engagement steadily rising.
Our advancement of AI products and tools further underscores 36Kr's foresight human and outstanding execution capabilities in AI, leveraging the inherent synergies between AIGC technology and the content production industry, we maximized AIGC technology utilization in our content production activities this year, including information identification, text processing and image generation. Moreover, we continue to broaden our business scope by actively promoting AI applications across diverse business scenarios. The launch of these AI products has enhanced the coverage and the precision of our customer outreach initiatives, connecting with a diverse spectrum of enterprises and organizations previously beyond reach due to bandwidth and manpower limitations and turning them into clients.
In summary, as we turned profitable in 2025, the company reached a milestone achievement after 2 years of sustained operational optimization and innovative development, marking the start of our long-term commitment to financial health. Looking ahead, we will consistently place financial health as a foundational core of our development, constantly optimizing cost structure and improving operating efficiency to maintain stable cash flow and profitability. Moreover, building on our core content strength, we will continue to fortify our content ecosystem by driving commercialization breakthroughs on diverse fronts and broaden our business road map by actively expanding AI applications across industries. We will deeply integrate technological innovation with our valuable content assets and industrial services to empower high-quality growth for technology enterprises, ensuring that financial health and innovative development reinforce each other and drive growth over the long term.
With that, I will now turn the call over to our CFO, Mr. Xiang Li, who will discuss our key financial results. Please go ahead, Xiang.
Thank you. Thank you, everyone, and thank you for joining today's presentation. We will now review the second half of 2025 and full year financial performance. Please note, all the amounts are in RMB unless otherwise stated. Our total revenue increased by 4.7% to RMB 134.8 million in the second half of 2025 from RMB 128.7 million in the same period of 2024.
Total revenues for the full year of 2024 were RMB 227.9 million compared to RMB 231.1 million in the previous year. Online advertising services revenues increased by 5% to RMB 105.2 million in the second half of 2025 from RMB 100.2 million in the same period of 2024. The increase was primarily attributable to strong advertising demand from AI and high-tech companies, which 36Kr captured through its focus on the tech vertical.
For the full year of 2025, our online advertising services revenue were RMB 179.7 million compared to RMB 180.6 million in the previous year, relatively flat year-over-year. Enterprise value-added services revenue increased by 7.7% to RMB 20.9 million in the second half of 2025 from RMB 19.4 million in the same period of 2024. For the full year of 2025, our enterprise value-added services revenue increased by 1.2% to RMB 33.2 million from RMB 32.8 million in the previous year. The increase was primarily attributable to more innovative marketing solutions we provide to our customers as well as proactive sales strategies we adopted to navigate the challenging environment.
Subscription services revenue were RMB 8.7 million in the second half of 2025 compared to RMB 9 million in the same period of 2024. For the full year of 2025, decreased by 14.2% to RMB 15.1 million from RMB 17.6 million in the previous year. The decrease was mainly attributable to a strategy shift in training services and a continued focus on refining this segment's customer base.
Cost of revenues decreased by 12.6% to RMB 54 million in the second half of 2025 from RMB 61.8 million in the same period of 2024.
For the full year of 2025, our cost of revenue decreased by 18.8% to RMB 96.4 million in fiscal year 2025 from RMB 118.7 million in the previous year. The decrease was primarily attributable to company's strict cost control measures. Gross profit increased by 20.8% to RMB 80.8 million in the second half of 2025 from RMB 66.9 million in the same period of 2024. Gross profit margin increased by 8 percentage points to 60% from 52% over the same period of 2024. For the full year 2025, our gross profit increased by 17.1% to RMB 131.5 million in fiscal year 2025 from RMB 112.3 million in the previous year.
Gross profit margin increased by 9.1 percentage points to 57.7% from 48.6% over fiscal year 2024. The increase in gross margin were mainly attributable to higher gross margin from brand advertising services offered across 36Kr digital platforms, as well as a strong rebound in revenue from these services this year.
Operating expenses decreased by 10.3% to RMB 65.6 million in the second half of 2025 from RMB 73.1 million in the same period of 2024. For the full year of 2025, our operating expenses decreased by 36.1% to RMB 121.5 million from RMB 190.1 million in the previous year. The decrease was primarily due to disciplined operating expenses management.
Sales and marketing expenses were RMB 37 million in the second half of 2025, a slight decrease of 0.5% from RMB 37.2 million in the same period of 2024. For the full year 2025, our sales and marketing expenses decreased by 19.6% to RMB 66.4 million from RMB 82.6 million in the previous year. The decrease was primarily attributable to the decrease in payroll-related expenses, travel and entertainment expenses and the marketing and the promotional expenses.
General and admin expenses were RMB 22.4 million in the second half of 2025, a 26.1% decrease compared to RMB 30.3 million in the same period of 2024. For the full year 2025, our general and admin expenses decreased by 54.5% to RMB 42.4 million from RMB 93.1 million in the previous year. The decrease was largely attributable to the decrease in personnel-related expenses and the provision of allowance for credit losses.
Research and development expenses were RMB 6.3 million in the second half of 2025, a decrease of 12.5% from $5.6 million in the same period of 2024. For the full year 2025, our R&D expenses decreased by 11.8% to RMB 12.7 million from RMB 14.4 million in the previous year. The decrease was primarily due to the reduction in R&D headcount following a team restructuring in prior year, partially offset by an increase in salaries and discretionary bonuses for the R&D team this year.
Share-based compensation gain recognized in cost of revenues, sales and marketing expenses and research and development expenses as well as general and admin expenses totaled [ RMB 76,200 ] in the second half of 2025 compared to share-based compensation gain RMB 220,000 in the same period of 2024. For the full year 2025, the total amount of share-based compensation gain were [ RMB 13,400 ] compared to RMB 180,000 of share-based compensation expenses in the previous year. The change was mainly due to higher reversal of SBC expenses caused by strategy workforce optimization in 2024 compared to 2025. Other income was RMB 1.1 million in the second half of 2025 compared to other expenses of RMB 38.6 million in the same period of 2024. For the full year 2025, our other income were RMB 1.4 million compared to RMB 63 million of other expenses in previous year. The change reflected large long-term investment impairment losses recognized in 2024.
Income tax expenses were RMB 25,000 in the second half of 2025 compared to RMB 1,000 of income tax credit in the same period of 2024. For the full year 2025, our income tax expenses decreased by 57.2% to RMB 21,000 from RMB 64,000 in the previous year.
Net income, net income was RMB 15.2 million in the second half of 2025 compared to net loss of RMB 44.9 million in the same period of 2024. For the full year 2025, the net income were RMB 11.4 million compared to net loss of RMB 140.8 million in the previous year. The turnaround was primarily driven by the effectiveness of the company's strategic initiatives focused on cost control and high-margin business, along with the reduction in impairment loss on long-term investment and lower provision of allowance for credit loss resulting from improved receivables collection.
Net income attributable to 36Kr Holdings Inc.'s ordinary shareholders was RMB 16.1 million in the second half of 2025 compared to net loss attributable to 36Kr Holdings Inc.'s ordinary shares of RMB 42.3 million in the same period of 2024. For the full year 2025, net income attributable to 36Kr Holdings Inc.'s ordinary shareholders were RMB 11.2 million in fiscal year 2025 compared to net loss attributable to 36Kr Holdings Inc.'s ordinary shareholders of RMB 136.6 million in the previous year.
Basic and diluted net income per ADS were both RMB 7.616 in the second half of 2025 compared to basic and diluted net loss per ADS of RMB 19.999 in the same period of 2024. For the full year of 2025, basic and diluted net income per ADS were RMB 5.274 and RMB 5.266 respectively, compared to basic and diluted net loss per ADS of RMB 64.795 in the previous year. As of December 31, 2025, the company has cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investment of RMB 116.1 million, an increase of 25.5% from RMB 92.5 million as of December 31, 2024.
Well, this concludes all our prepared remarks today. We will now open the call to questions. Operator, please go ahead.
[Operator Instructions] Your first question today comes from Lingyi Zhao with SWS Research.
2. Question Answer
[Interpreted] Management team, this is Lingyi Zhao with SWS. And my question is, first, congratulations about the very good results. And my question is, first, how do we see the advertising sections, the trend of advertising sections?
And the second question is, could you explain and analyze the margin, the growth of margin?
[Interpreted] Well, Lingyi, outstanding thanks for your support for the past several years, and we are very happy with the good results we have. Well, for your question, we are cautiously optimistic about our advertising growth trajectory for 2026, and advertising revenue was largely influenced by macroeconomic headwinds and the clients' advertising budgets. Well, despite the macro challenges, our overall advertising revenue remained stable as we maintained solid partnerships with our Internet sector key accounts and leading brand customers, leveraging the audience reach and influence of our subvertical [ medium ] channels for younger audiences such as Oh! Youth and Tide as well as new live streaming and video formats like AI Insider. We continued to develop tailored promotion solutions and products that gained strong client approval.
In 2025, we added over 50% new clients in our live streaming and video businesses. AI-related demand steadily increased. Live streaming revenue increased by 40%, outpacing market trends and our sub vertical media channels for younger audiences amplified by old use grew by more than 50%. In 2026, we will continue to advance video live streaming development, step up our investment in content creation, explore a wider area of programs and formats in live streaming and continue to build depth in key content verticals that matter most to our clients, such as AI and global expansion, further enriching our content ecosystem. Meanwhile, as we empower clients across diverse industries with premium content to meet their evolving communication needs, we are confident in strengthening the resilience of our advertising business.
Well, for your second question, last year, our gross profit margin improved substantially, mainly because we focused on high-margin businesses, streamlined low-margin operations and implemented an area of cost control initiative for the past 1 year. Together, this endeavor to significantly increased our gross profit margin.
Your next question comes from Rui Yin with Sealand Securities.
[Interpreted] Well, this Rui Yin with Sealand, and the question is what are the drivers behind the growth in value-added services?
[Interpreted] Well, the growth was mainly driven by the first factor. The first one is many of our legacy IP events continued to perform well in 2025. Over the second half of the year, we successfully hosted multiple events, including WISE, W-I-S-E and AI Partner Conference for All Industries, the Industrial Future conference and more. Beyond this IP submits, we had by ourselves, we also cooperated with AWE, WAIC, those national submits. Well, besides I've already mentioned in 2025, we also restructured our content strategy, business road map and organizational structure for the industry services businesses. 36Kr -- in 2025, 36Kr agreed to a 3-year strategic partnership with Hangzhou Qiantan New Area Construction and Investment Group Company for the Chinese Enterprise International Services Center Operations project and the AI Community Operations projects. But this collaboration will leverage our expertise in organizational operations and online content distribution as well as our vast network of industry resources to support Qiantan New Area in building a unique service ecosystem in the operational framework for corporate empowerment, amplifying its regional influence.
Well, the second reason, like, well, we've talked a lot, each time we want to start a new market, we will deploy the new content accounts. For example, our content strategy for industry services began to yield a positive outcome, 36Kr Industry Future. Our all-new content channel, spotlighting, urban innovation, state-of-the-art technologies and our reach across emerging industries has published nearly 90 articles over the past year. Notably a single feature on the innovative pharmaceutical sector in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province garnered over 70,000 page views on our official WeChat accounts and more than 100,000 total exposures. Moreover, building on the growing influence of 36Kr Industry Future OpenTalk in 36Kr industry-built project, we have connected with over 200 upstream and downstream companies in the local government and will continue to develop the industry service offerings to better meet client needs. Thank you for your question.
Thank you. As there are no further questions, I'd now like to turn the call back over to the company for closing remarks.
Well, thank you once again for joining us today. If you have further questions, please feel free to contact 36Kr's Investor Relations through the contact information provided on our website.
This concludes this conference call. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.
36Kr Holdings Inc - ADR — Q2 2025 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by for 36Kr Holdings Inc.'s 2025 First Half Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]
Today's conference call is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to your host, Xin Wang, IR Manager of the company. Please go ahead, Xin.
Thank you very much. Hello, everyone, and welcome to 36Kr Holdings First Half 2025 Earnings Conference Call. The company's financial and operational results were released earlier today and they have been made available online. You can also view the earnings press release by visiting the IR section of our website at ir.36kr.com. Participants on today's call will include our Chairman and CEO, Mr. Dagang Feng; and our Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Xiang Li. Mr. Feng will start the call by providing an overview of the company and the performance highlights of the first half in Chinese, followed by an English interpretation. Mr. Li will then provide details on the company's financial results before opening the call for your questions.
Before we continue, please note that today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. As such, the company's results may be materially different from the views expressed today. Further information regarding this and other risks and uncertainties is included in the company's perspective in other public filings as filed with the U.S. SEC.
The company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required under applicable law. Please note that 36Kr's earnings press release and this conference call include discussions of unaudited GAAP financial measures as well as unaudited GAAP financial measures. 36Kr's earnings press release contains a reconciliation of the unaudited non-GAAP measures to the unaudited GAAP measures. And please note that all amount numbers are in RMB.
I will now turn the call over to our Chairman and CEO, Mr. Dagang Feng. Please go ahead.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted] Thank you. Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining our first half 2025 earnings conference call.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted]
Over the past 2 years, we have consistently upgraded our organizational structure, optimize expenses and improved operating efficiency. In the first half of 2025, our gross profit increased by 10% year-over-year. Operating expenses decreased by more than CNY 60 million from the same period last year, down 52% year-over-year. We narrowed our net loss by more than CNY 90 million, an impressive 95% improvement year-over-year, while our cash results remained stable following the company's solid business operations.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted]
These operational achievements were largely driven by our ongoing efforts in content innovation, commercialization breakthroughs in technological applications which together optimize our organizational structure and improve the workforce efficiency. Let me walk you through our business progress in those three areas.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted]
First, content. We consistently fortified on our content ecosystem in 2025, leveraging our peerless content creation promise to steadily expand our influence. In terms of a content dissemination network, we expanded our footprint across diverse channels, crossing a comprehensive circulation metrics encompassing major new media platforms like Weibo, Xiaohongshu, Toutiao, Zhihu, Bilibili, Douyin, and Kuaishou among others.
Broad channel exposure brings us wider overall dissemination and higher visibility for our premium content. Our consistent production of high-quality content also broadened in the diversified user demographics, further elevating user engagement and the stickiness. As of the first half of 2025, we had over 36.57 million followers marking 17 consecutive quarters of growth.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted]
We explored a growing area of content format throughout the first half of 2025 including text with graphics, short- and long-form video, audio and a live streaming, enriching our content offering with a greater diversity of styles. For text and graphics, we continue to create a high-quality content on multiple fronts while maintaining our existing content metrics.
Leading our flagship channels, including 36Kr and the 36Kr Pro, we continuously broaden our reach in some verticals actively expanding high-quality content specific accounts like the emergence of intelligence, 36Kr auto, future consumption, 36Kr games, waves and 36Kr finance among others. This accounts enriched our metrics with both broad content coverage and deep expertise in specialized domains, providing users with invaluable insights into industry trends and the evolving business dynamics.
At the same time, we continued to tailor content experiences for younger generations with our Youth and TIDE subvertical media channels. Greatly extending our content reach by successfully engaging younger audiences. At the start of 2025, we rolled out 36Kr industry future and all new content channel, spotlighting, urban innovation and the state-of-the-art technologies building our influence in the emerging industries. Within 6 months, we released over 60 -- more than 60 articles, including a notable feature on the innovative pharmaceutical sector in [indiscernible], which garnered over 70,000 page views on our official WeChat accounts and more than 100,000 total exposures.
To date, our accounts cover artificial intelligence, global expansion, advanced manufacturing, digitalization, dual carbon and ESG, hard core technology, consumer life science and much more comprising a thriving content ecosystem. In the first half of 2025 under 36Kr of Visual Accounts alone, the 339 of our articles achieved over 100,000 page views. Meanwhile, WAVES followers expanded by 44% year-over-year.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted]
In terms of a short video, our exceptional content creation capabilities earned us widespread visibility in the rate. Our video followers exceeded 9.52 million at the end of the first half of 2025. Our retail channels of followers surged by 69% year-over-year. Following the debut of 36Kr tech on Douyin in 2025, we released the blockbuster videos such as AI Confident and AI Creator. In addition, our video undercover multiple host live garnered over 10 million views on Xiaohongshu, Douyin, WeChat channels, [indiscernible].
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted]
For live streaming, this year, we optimized our resources with a streamlined team in fully leveraged WeChat channels to cultivate an area of content-specific accounts, including the big deal global expansion, Golden Shovel and 36Kr CEO tips. We also unveiled AI Insider and episode targeting AI entrepreneurs and independent developers. During this year's World Artificial Intelligence Conference in July, 36Kr served as a special supporting media partner, offering full spectrum content coverage and multidimensional reporting.
Our super live streaming channel jointly initiated by WAIC Organizing Committee and 36Kr provided professional cutting-edge of high-quality live streaming content that brought together leading ones in AI, focusing on scenario and application-driven insights. The live streaming -- the live stream combines for all conference reporting, expert panels, cutting-edge technology insights, future trend forecast and tech product groups, garnering 50.2 million total views while engaging 1.17 million viewers across the 36Kr live stream metrics.
Moreover, at the Appliance and Electronics World Expo 2025 organized by the China Household Electrical Appliances Association, 36Kr launched its first robust themed exhibition, Future Plus in partnership with 5 robotics companies, showcasing the immense potential upside of embedded artificial intelligence in home appliances and home settings.
With this exhibition, the 36Kr retail channels live stream grew 175,000 live views and 151,000 likes in a single session, while our Omni Channel live streaming garnered over 1.04 million views in total, racking up over 80 million views across diverse platforms.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted]
In terms of the event IP, we successfully hosted WAVES in the first half of 2025, co-hosted by HI Camp and Hangzhou Liangzhu New Town Management Committee. This year's WAVES centered on the new era for venture capital. At both investor and entrepreneur sessions, founders of emerging companies, innovative young scientists and creators gathered with top-tier investors to discuss leading-edge topics, including AI breakthroughs, globalizations and value reassessment, sharing insights into their business aspirations and the perspectives on the future. This year's WAVES event amassed over 150 million views.
In addition, on April 18, 2025, 36Kr hosted the 2025 AI Partner Summit at Modu Space Shanghai. Under the theme, here comes the Super App, the event highlighted the disruptive impact of AI super applications across diverse industries, delving into how AI innovations are redefining business logic and reshaping industry landscapes and exploring AI super apps limitless possibilities. We invited executives from AMD, Baidu, Qihoo, Qualcomm, Goofish, Dahua Technology, TAL Education, Chu Wang group, and The Best Brand to explore trending topics such as industry AI adoption, AI computing power, AI search, AI-powered imaging and breakthroughs in AI education. Our 2024 AI Partner Summit garnered over 130 million views.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted]
Next, commercialization. In the first half of 2025, our deep expertise in innovation in content and IP sparked continuous commercialization breakthroughs, including client structure optimization, stronger commercialization of subvertical media channels for younger audiences, new momentum in live streaming and video revenue and meaningful progress in industrial service commercialization.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted]
In terms of client structure optimization, our enriched content ecosystem and diverse content distribution channels empowered us to consistently expand our portfolio of services and products, consistently enhancing our commercialization capabilities. Within our -- within our Internet client portfolio, the AI and the large language model segments continue to gain momentum, driving an increasing share of revenue.
Revenue directly generated by our Internet clients increased by 52% year-over-year. Revenue from the FMCG segment grew by 27% year-over-year as multiple brand clients acquired last year repurchased our offerings in the first half of 2025.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted]
Regarding the commercialization of the subvertical media channels for younger audiences, revenue from these channels like [indiscernible] and TIDE increased by 30% year-over-year, with brand clients spending doubling year-over-year, up an impressive 1% to 2%, reflecting sustained brand recognition of our 2C content.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted]
As for live streaming and video commercialization, leveraging major technology exhibitions in 2025, including AWE and WAIC, we stepped up our development of live streaming offerings tailored for event coverage. To address diverse market needs, we launched a low ARPU product line, effectively complementing our existing high ARPU premium commercialization content offerings. This expanded the appeal of our video and live streaming offerings to more clients, particularly early-stage start-ups, enabling them to reach more potential users.
Furthermore, thanks to our sustained efforts in the global expansion segment in the live streaming content innovation, we achieved a breakthrough with Canton Fair clients, forging important commercial partnerships in earning high recognition from the organizers with our live streaming content. Looking ahead, we will continue to explore a new live stream formats and scenarios, delighting both our users and clients with richer content scenarios in a more diverse service model.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted]
Regarding industrial service commercialization, global expansion is a core priority within this segment. At the beginning of 2025, 36Kr signed an agreement to enter a strategic partnership with Hangzhou Tiantang New Era Construction and the Investment Group Company for the Chinese Enterprise International Service Center operations project. This collaboration will leverage our expertise in organizational operations in online content distribution as well as our vast network of global expansion resources to support Tiantang area to be in building a unique service ecosystem and operational framework for corporate global expansion.
This initiative aims to create a powerful brand for Tiantang new era, amplifying its international influence and its ability to empower Chinese enterprises to go global. In the first half of 2025, we hosted a total of 11 events on global expansion, continuously supporting our clients' global ambitions. Furthermore, building on the growing influence of the 36Kr industry future, we focused on key sectors driving urban industrial transformation and the future industry development, including low altitude economy, commercial aerospace, advanced manufacturing and new energy and materials. This initiative attracted more than 200 upstream and downstream industry projects in the government entities, fostering deep collaborations in the commercial partnerships.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted]
Beyond these advancements across content and commercialization, we continue to expand the boundaries in 2025, consistently driving cutting-edge EDI applications to further optimize content production and commercialization efficiency.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted]
On the content side, we provided an intensive coverage of China's AI ecosystem in 2025. At the beginning of 2025, 36Kr made headlines at home and abroad as only tech media outlets worldwide to have exclusively interviewed DeepSeek's founder twice. This inspired the launch of our disruptors program in the first quarter, leveraging our deep roots and expertise in venture-focused media. We crafted a practical communication road map for Chinese tech companies advancing towards brand globalization. In addition to our context -- in addition to our text and a graphic account, the emergence of intelligence, we launched video channels such as AI Map and 36Kr tech in 2025, delighting users with multiple blockbuster videos.
Furthermore, along with the launch of our new live streaming series, AI Insider, we hosted multiple live streaming sessions around major events such as WAIC, joining strong engagement and recognition from within the industry and beyond.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted]
In addition to AI-focused content, we have actively integrated AI technology in our content ecosystem to enhance efficiency company-wide. Our AI meeting corporate product launched in the second half of 2024, leverages large-scale AI model technologies in AI algorithm to produce AI-powered interviews and generate content.
The underlying system incorporates multiple developers of large AI models such as Doubao and Tongyi Tianwen. Among others, we also integrated the DeepSeek in March 2025. To date, AI meeting coverage has covered 993 companies, highlighting their latest initiatives in fundraising ventures. AI meeting coverage has meaningfully improved our content team's efficiency, substantially easing previous manpower limitations and enhancing our coverage of start-ups.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted]
In addition, we launched the 36Kr corporate Omni intelligence in October 2024, targeting investors in the secondary market by providing AI-powered daily sentiment analysis reports for public companies. The service currently covers over 7,800 public companies listed in Mainland China and Hong Kong. Users can search, filter and subscribe to reports on their preferred companies, receiving daily analysis in a personalized content format. The product's underlying sentiment data is a collaboration between 36Kr and Soften, a fully owned subsidiary of Beyondsoft.
Having nurtured a community of several hundred core users, currently, we have a cumulative user base of 25,000, including 4,220 subscribers.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted]
In the first half of 2025, as Doubao's exclusive technology and finance media partner, we launched the Doubao AI agent. Since its launch, we have achieved a consistent 10% weekly increase in user interactions. Furthermore, we plan to roll out user review and discovery platform for AI tools in the second half of the year, integrating AI product guidance, real user reviews and community engagement. This platform will assist both individuals and the businesses in identifying the ideal AI tools, all while facilitating user experience sharing.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted]
Our advancement of AI products and tools further underscores the 36Kr's foresight acumen and outstanding execution capabilities in AI, leveraging the inherent synergies between AIGC technology and the content production industry, we maximized AIGC technology utilization in our content production activities this year, including information identification, text processing and image generation. Moreover, we continue to broaden our business scope by actively promoting AI applications across diverse business scenarios. By introducing diverse AI products, we enhanced the coverage in the precision as of our customer outreach initiatives, connecting with a diverse spectrum of enterprises and organizations previously beyond reach due to the bandwidth and manpower limitations and turning them into clients.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted]
In summary, 36Kr comprehensively improved its operating efficiency throughout 2025, thanks to our peerless content creation prowess, robust IP assets, deeply engaged users and the commercialization breakthroughs.
Looking ahead to the second half of 2025, we will continue to hone our competitive edge in content creation, broaden the reach of our products and the service offerings and further harness AI technology to empower high-quality development among new economy stakeholders.
With that, I will now turn the call over to our CFO, Mr. Xiang Li, who will discuss our key financial results. Please go ahead, Xiang.
Thank you. Thank you for joining today's presentation. We will now review the first half of 2025 financial performance. Please note that all amounts are in RMB unless otherwise stated. Total revenue were CNY 93.2 million in the first half of 2025 compared to CNY 102.4 million in the same period last year. Online advertising services revenue was CNY 74.5 million in the first half of 2025 compared to CNY 80.4 million in the same period last year. The decrease was primarily due to the advertisers adjusting their advertising and promotion strategies in response to macro pressures and to a lesser extent for ongoing optimization of our customer structure to control credit risk, which lead to decreased revenue scope.
Enterprise value-added services revenue were CNY 12.2 million in the first half of 2025 compared to CNY 13.4 million in the same period last year. The decrease was primarily due to our proactive and ongoing refinement of service offering to strategically focus on margin improvement. Subscription services revenue were CNY 6.4 million in the first half of 2025 compared to CNY 8.6 million in the same period last year. The decrease was primarily due to the change in our training services business model.
Cost of revenue decreased by 25% to CNY 42.5 million from CNY 56.9 million in the same period of 2024 as a result of the company's strict cost control measures. Gross margin increased by 11% to CNY 50.7 million from CNY 45.5 million in the same period of 2024. Gross profit margin was 54.4% in the first half of 2025, representing an increase of 10% from 44.4% in the same period of 2024. The increase in gross margin were primarily driven by savings in payroll-related costs following the strategic workforce optimization.
Operating expenses decreased by 52.3% to CNY 55.9 million from CNY 117 million in the same period of 2024. The decrease was primarily attributable to strategic cost management actions, including target workforce reductions and streamlined noncore spending.
Sales and marketing expenses were CNY 29.4 million in the first half of 2025, a decrease of 35.1% from CNY 45.4 million in the same period last year. The decrease was primarily attributable to the decrease in payroll-related expenses, rental expenses, marketing and promotion expenses and travel and entertainment expenses.
General and admin expenses were CNY 20 million in the first half of 2025, a decrease of 68.2% from CNY 52.8 million in the same period last year. The decrease was primarily attributable to the decrease in the allowance for doubtful accounts payroll-related expenses.
Research and development expenses were CNY 6.4 million in the first half of 2025, a decrease of 27.1% from CNY 8.8 million in the same period last year. The decrease was primarily due to the decrease in average compensation level for our research and development personnel as we restructured our R&D team. Share-based compensation expenses recognized in cost of revenue, sales and marketing expenses, research and development expenses as well as general and admin expenses totaled CNY 90,000 in the first half of 2025 compared to CNY 50,000 in the same period last year.
Other income was CNY 0.4 million in the first half of 2025 compared to CNY 24.3 million of other expenses in the same period last year. The change was mainly due to the decrease in long-term investment loss. Income tax credit was CNY 4,000 in the first half of 2025 compared to CNY 70,000 of income tax expenses in the same period last year.
Net loss was CNY 4.8 million in the first half of 2025 compared to net loss of CNY 95.9 million in the same period last year. Non-GAAP adjusted net loss were CNY 4.7 million in the first half of 2025 compared to non-GAAP adjusted net loss of CNY 95.9 million in the same period last year. Net loss attributable to 36Kr Holdings Inc.'s ordinary shareholders was CNY 5 million in the first half of 2025 compared to net loss attributable to 36Kr Holdings Inc.'s ordinary shareholders of CNY 94.4 million in the same period last year.
Basic and diluted net loss per ADS were both CNY 2.307 in the first half of 2025 compared to CNY 44.859 in the same period last year. As of June 30, 2025, the company had cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments of CNY 75.1 million.
Well, this concludes all our prepared remarks today. We will now open the call to questions. Operator, please go ahead.
[Operator Instructions]
Your first question comes from Yong Zhang from SWS Research.
2. Question Answer
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted]
I will translate the question in English. We noted that the company's financial performance has achieved a significant improvement in the first half of 2025. And I would like to ask, firstly, how did the company achieve this financial turnaround? And secondly, what's the company's full year financial outlook for 2025?
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted]
First of all -- first off, through sustained operational efforts over the past 2 years, we have implemented a series of cost reduction and efficiency boosting measures. This include relocating to an office building with lower rent cost, streamlined our tech and R&D teams, adjusting unprofitable businesses, improving workforce efficiency in core operations and upgrading our organizational structure.
As a result, operating expenses decreased by more than CNY 60 million year-over-year, and net loss was narrowed by more than CNY 90 million.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted]
While second, our gross profit margin rebounded to over 50% in the first half of this year. This was primarily driven by adjustments to our customers and businesses, coupled with stricter cost controls. Over the past 6 months, we optimized our product portfolio and client structure. Additionally, we implemented more rigorous project approval standards internally to enhance cost management.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted]
Well, for the first half of this year, the company will continue to improve its content creation capabilities and optimize our product metrics, focusing on achieving profitability, and we predict that we will have profits at the end of 2025. That all answer for this question.
Your next question comes from Rui Yin from Sealand Securities.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted]
Well, thank you for your question, and I will interpret it for you. Well, there are two questions. The first question is, could management share the future plan for your new initiative of industrial service business?
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted]
Well, first off, we have already hosted and will continue to host many of our IP events in 2025. We have a series of events scheduled for the second half of the year, including [indiscernible], the AI Partner Conference for all industries, the industrial future conference and more. Beyond this IP summit in 2025, we also restructured our content layout business strategy and organizational structure for the industrial service business. While these adjustments are beginning to yield positive outcomes, 36Kr industry future, our new -- all new content channels spotlighting urban innovation, our state-of-the-art technologies and our reach across emerging industries have published over 60 articles within the past 6 months.
While a lot of the articles of 36Kr industry future garnered and unmatched a lot of page views on our official WeChat accounts. While leveraging our content influence, we have connected with over 200 upstream and downstream companies in the local government.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted]
Moreover, we will continue to expand our overseas ventures, sustaining our strong globalization momentum from 2024. In addition to Southeast Asia, Japan, the Middle East and Europe, we will further strengthen our global network and collaborate with the China Council for the promotion of International Trade Beijing Subcouncil to tap into additional resources from Beijing-based service providers specializing in global expansion-related solutions and identify enterprises seeking global expansion.
At the beginning of this year, we made our first foray into operating a local government's global expansion service center in our capacity as a media entity, partnering with Hangzhou Tiantang New Era Construction and Investment Group company on the Chinese Enterprise International Service Center Operations project. In the first half of 2025, we hosted a total of 11 events on global expansion.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted]
As our business adjustments are implemented in the second half of the year, our industrial services had 4 new commercial opportunities with optimized offerings that are more sustained and profitable. Well, the second question from Sealand in Ray is, how does the company position itself in generative AI across content and product offerings?
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted]
Before DeepSeek gained widespread attention, we were the only tech media outlet worldwide to have exclusively interviewed DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng twice. Building our existing influence in the AI field in 2025 on the content side, we launched 36Kr tech on Douyin and our new live streaming series, AI Insider as a supplement to our graphic and text content. This initiative delivered multiple blockbuster videos shortly after the debut.
In the second half of 2025, we will also launch the future human laboratory graphic account to document ordinary people's real-world interactions with AI and exploring their experiences and the challenges using AI tools.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted]
As I just mentioned, we've made good progress this year on several AI products. To date, AI meeting coverage has covered nearly 1,000 companies, highlighting their latest initiatives in fundraising ventures. 36Kr corporate Omni Intelligence currently covers over 7,800 public companies listed in Mainland China and Hong Kong with a cumulative user base of 25,000, including 4,220 subscribers.
In the first half of 2025, as Doubao's exclusive technology and finance media partner, we launched our Doubao AI agent. achieving a consistent 10% weekly increase in user interaction following this launch. Well, furthermore, we plan to roll out a user review and discovery platform for AI tools in the second half of this year, integrating AI product guidance, real user reviews in the community space for experiencing sharing. This platform will assist both individuals and businesses in identifying the ideal AI tools for their needs.
[Foreign Language]
[Interpreted]
While in 2025, we will continue to develop our AI content ecosystem, maintaining our edge in covering the latest AI trains in consistently delighting users with premium content associated with AIGC technology. We will also further integrate AIGC technology with content production to unlock new avenues for success. Well, that's all answer for your two questions. Thank you for your question.
As there are no further questions, I'd now like to turn the call back over to the company for closing remarks.
Yes, please say the closing remarks.
This concludes the conference call. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.
[Portions of this transcript that are marked [Interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]
Financial data from 36Kr Holdings Inc - ADR
Revenue
Revenue is the sum of all sales generated by a company, e.g. for its products or services.
Revenue (TTM) metric explainedDirect Costs
Direct costs are the costs incurred directly in connection with the manufacture of the product or service.
Gross Profit
Gross Profit indicates how much of the revenue remains in the company after deducting direct production costs. If the percentage share of sales is calculated, this is referred to as the gross margin.
Gross Profit metric explainedSelling and Administrative Expenses
Selling, general and administrative expenses (SG&A) include all expenses for marketing and sales as well as the general administration of the company.
Research and Development Expense
Research and development costs (R&D) provide information on how much the company invests in the research and development of its products. The costs are particularly interesting as a percentage of revenue and in comparison to direct competitors.
EBITDA
EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) is the company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. The EBITDA margin is calculated as a percentage of sales.
Depreciation and Amortization
Depreciation represents reductions in the value of the company's assets (e.g. due to wear and tear on machinery).
EBIT (Operating Income)
EBIT (Earnings Before Interest and Taxes) is the company's profit before interest and taxes, also known as the operating income. The EBIT Margin is calculated as a percentage of sales at
.
Net Profit
Net Profit represents the profit or loss after deduction of all costs.
Net Profit metric explainedStocksGuide Premium
| Jun '26 |
+/-
%
|
||
| Revenue | 39 39 |
17%
17%
100%
|
|
| - Direct Costs | 14 14 |
8%
8%
37%
|
|
| Gross Profit | 24 24 |
39%
39%
63%
|
|
| - Selling and Administrative Expenses | 17 17 |
4%
4%
43%
|
|
| - Research and Development Expense | 1.89 1.89 |
5%
5%
5%
|
|
| EBITDA | - - |
-
-
|
|
| - Depreciation and Amortization | - - |
-
-
|
|
| EBIT (Operating Income) EBIT | 5.72 5.72 |
436%
436%
15%
|
|
| Net Profit | 4.65 4.65 |
166%
166%
12%
|
|
In millions USD.
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36Kr Holdings Inc - ADR Stock News
Company Profile
36Kr Holdings, Inc. operates as an online media publisher offering new economy focused content. The firm offers business services, including online advertising services, enterprise value-added services and subscription services. The company was founded by Chengcheng Liu on December 3, 2018 is headquartered in Beijing, China.
StocksGuide Premium
| Head office | Cayman Islands |
| CEO | Mr. Feng |
| Employees | 301 |
| Founded | 2018 |
| Website | ir.36kr.com |
