11/18/2025

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to Country Limited Third Quarter 2025 Financial Results Conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be question and answer session. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Ms. Wenbei Wang, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, ma'am.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

Thank you, operator. Good evening and good morning, everyone. Welcome to our third quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. Joining me today are our founder, chairman, and CEO, Mr. Jonathan Huang Zhao, and our director and CFO, Mr. Phil Zhang. Before we start, we would like to remind you that today's discussion may contain forward-looking statements which are based on maintenance currents of patients and observations that involve long and unknown risk. uncertainties, and other factors not under the company's control, which may cause actual results, performance, or achievements of the company to be materially different. The company caution you not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and do not undertake any obligation to update this forward-looking information, except as required by law. During today's call, management will also discuss certain non-debt financial measures for comparison purposes only. For definitions of non-debt financial measures and the reconciliation of debt to non-debt financial results, please see the earnings release issued earlier today. In addition, a webcast reply of this conference call will be available on our website at ir.jpim.com. Now, I will turn the call to Jonathan, our founder, chairman, and CEO.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

Hello everyone, thank you for joining our company's third quarter 2025 earnings conference call.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

On behalf of the company's employees, management team, and board of directors, I would like to extend our sincere gratitude to our users, investors, and friends who have continuously believed in and supported us.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

我将简要介绍本季度的主要经营成果与业务进展,包括三个方面。 第一,需求回暖带动三季度业绩加速增长。 第二,在不同维度上装备需求的变化特点。 Third, from the perspective of product technology, look at the progress of AI integration into the company's business.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

I will briefly walk through our key operational results and business progress this quarter, focusing on three areas. First, recovery in demand during accelerated growth in our third quarter performance. Second, the evolving characteristics of recruitment demands across different dimensions.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

Third, progress in integrating AI into our products, technology, and overall business operations. Let's start with the financial performance.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

In the third quarter, we generated a total revenue of RMB 2.16 billion, up 13.2% year-on-year, with growth accelerating from the previous quarter. Excluding share-based compensation expenses and other incomes, such as investing gains, our adjusting operating profit reached RMB 900 million.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

at 49.3% year-on-year.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

Our debt net profit was RMB 780 million, up 67.2% year-on-year, with a net profit margin of 35.8%. Partial of this improvement was attributable to a decrease in share-based compensation expenses, which was RMB 220 million this quarter, marking the third consecutive quarter of sequential declines and a year-on-year drop of 21%.

speaker
Unidentified Management Speaker
Management

三季度业绩的增长主要来自于两个驱动因素。 首要因素仍然是公司渗透率和市场份额持续提升而带来的用户增长。 The growth in the third quarter was driven by two key factors.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

The first and most important driver was continued user growth, supported by our increasing penetration and expanding market share.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

1-10月累计新增的完善用户超过4000万人。三季度,Boss直屏APP端平均的月活跃用户规模,即MAU,达到了6382万。

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

From January to October, we acquired over 40 million newly verified users. In the third quarter, the average verified monthly FTV users, which is MAU, on the Boston app reached 63.82 million.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

At the same time as the user size increases, the user activity is also very good. According to the third-party data, the ratio of DAU to MAU

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

While the user scale is growing, user activity is also strong. According to third-party data, our DAU to MAU ratio has maintained a high industry-leading level.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

第二个驱动因素是企业端需求的回暖, 带动了公司在商业化策数据向好。 The second driver was the rebound in enterprise side demand, which also has helped the number of improvement of data in the monetization side.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

In the third quarter, The newly posted job positions increased 25% year-on-year, while both the number of recruiters posting new jobs and the average number of posts per recruiters grew steadily compared to the previous quarter and the same period last year.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

From July to September, the number of recruits increased by more than the number of recruits.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

From July to September, the average number of daily active enterprise users grew at a faster pace sequentially than job seekers, marking the first time this has happened in three years.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

平台的供求关系,也就是招聘者跟求职者之间的比例关系。

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

The supply-demand balance on our platform, meaning the ratio of enterprise users to job seekers, continued to improve.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

截止到9月30号,过去12个月付费企业侧的客户数同比增长13.3%,

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

By September 30, the number of paid enterprise customers in the 12 months grew 13.3% year-on-year to 6.8 million.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

Over the entire quarter,

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

The paying ratio among quarterly active users increased both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter. 第二个报告事项是从不同的维度看一下本季度企业端招聘需求呈现的特点。 The second agenda item focuses on observing enterprise hiring demand in this quarter from multiple perspectives.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

From an industry perspective, blue-collar revenue growth continues to lead.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

with its revenue contributions reaching a record high in the third quarter. Manufacturing industries remain the most robust sector, topping the industries in revenue growth for five consecutive quarters.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

With this opportunity, I would like to take a brief look back. Three years ago, the entire strategy of the company's service to manufacturing workers and recruiters was divided into three stages on the priority level.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

Taking this opportunity, I would like to do a brief review. Three years ago, the company's strategy for serving manufacturing job seekers and recruiters was divided into three stages in terms of priority.

speaker
Unidentified Management Speaker
Management

The first stage is to improve the online job searching environment for blue-collar workers.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

在先污染后治理还是先治理后经营, 我们选择了先治理后经营的路子。 第二个阶段就是发展整个平台的

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

The third stage is to develop a user scale of double-side users on the platform.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

And the third stage is to pursue commercial benefits in a reasonable scale. From 2022 to now, we have launched the purification of blue-collar workers.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

In the past three years, the process has been very difficult, and its results have also gradually appeared.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

In 2022, we launched the Conch project to purify the job search environment for blue-collar workers, pursuing the authenticity of the culture, job positions, and compensation, combating false information, and increasing user trust. Over the past three years, the process has been extremely challenging, and the results have gradually emerged.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

In the billing industry, the increase in artificial intelligence, Internet, life services, new retail, and game industries is relatively close.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

Meanwhile, transportation, logistics, and warehousing, and the service industry also delivered solid overall performance. Among the white-collar sectors, industries such as artificial intelligence, Internet service, lifestyle service, new retail, and gaming are experiencing leading growth.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

One thing worth mentioning about Biling is that the participation of small and medium-sized enterprises has increased significantly. The rapid increase in the number of paid users and the stable price of customer orders show characteristics that are not the same as before. This reflects to a certain extent that Biling's entrepreneurial ecosystem is recovering.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

One thing worth mentioning among the white-collar segment, which we have noticed a notable increase in participation from small and medium-sized enterprises in the white-collar industry, with paying user numbers growing quickly, while the average spending per customer remains stable, which is also the trend to previous patents. This, in certain level, reflecting an arrival of the white-collar entrepreneur ecosystem.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

From the scale of cities and enterprises, the needs of first-tier cities are warm, and the second-tier cities are more stable. The income ratio of third-tier and third-tier cities is still increasing. In different-scale enterprises, medium-sized enterprises increase the fastest in the third quarter, which is the size of the enterprise between 500 and 10,000 people. The second increase is small and micro enterprises,

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

From the perspective of city tiers and companies' price, demand in tier 1 cities is rebounding. Tier 2 cities remain stable, and the revenue contribution from tier 3 and tier 3 below cities continue to rise. Among enterprises of different sizes, neutral large enterprises, which means employees between 500 to 9,999, are growing the fastest, followed by small and micro enterprises, and then very large enterprises.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

The third report image is from the perspective of product technology. Let's take a look at some progress after AI entered the company's business.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

The third agenda item will use the progress we made since AI was integrated into the company's business from product and technology perspective.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

On the job seekers survey slide, there are two things worth mentioning.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

First, after a period of continuous iteration, an AI job search assistant has been fully launched for all job seekers. Currently, it can recommend positions for users, answer questions, and also provide suggestions on how to optimize their revenue. In the third quarter, not only was the full rollout of this product has been achieved, but the number of interactions per user with this AI job search assistant also showed a significant quarter-on-quarter increase.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

And then we have also been continuously optimizing the AI interview culture feature.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

In the third quarter, number of job seekers who completed the mock interviews showed further improvement, and also their activity level and conversion rate continued to improve compared to the previous quarter.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

On the recruiter-certified,

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

Multiple AI products have been gradually launched to provide services.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

There are four aspects to mention. First,

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

The AI communication assistance feature is being gradually integrated into existing commercial value-added products. As a result, the average mutual achievement conversion ratio of these products has increased by 7%.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

The second one is a product called AI speed sign. After continuous optimization, it is currently in a dust test. The experiment shows that Second, a product called AI Quick Hiring after continuous optimization is currently under phased rollout.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

Experiments show that this product not only helps the platform better understand recruiters' intentions, but also allows for comparison among all job seekers on the platform, thereby improving matching accuracy. Currently, the reuse rate among recruiters participating in the first round of testing is steadily increasing.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

Thirdly, we have expanded the AI interview function for a number of well-known customers in the campus recruitment test. For example, they can support multiple questions. For example, they can customize the face-to-face image, etc. These clients are very attractive to students. In a short period of time, they have a lot of investment. And as an employer, they have a lot of pressure in the sales recruitment activities. These AI services that have developed relieve the pressure.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

We have extended the AI interview feature to a number of well-known customers from the campus recruitment side. For example, the AI interview can support multiple rounds of follow-up questions and customized interviewer profiles. These clients have very strong appeal to students, leading to a high-volume application in a short time, which increases significantly pressure for recruiters during the campus recruiting activities. The development of AI services has alleviated this pressure.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

Fourth, we have been working with high-end white-collar, gold-collar, and blue-collar restaurants, manufacturers, and other different recruitment scenarios to carefully explore recruitment services in the form of AI support, and to explore a number of delivery services under the support of AI. We have also gained some profits.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

Fourth, we are cautiously exploring AI-hosted recruitment service and AI-powered bulk placement solutions in diverse recruitment scenarios, such as high-end white-collar and gold-collar positions, blue-collar roles in the catering and manufacturing industries. These initiatives are gradually generating benefits.

speaker
Unidentified Management Speaker
Management

In the above AI services,

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

. . . . .

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

Among all those enterprise-side AI services, we have been quite cautious in which we allow the job seekers to know whenever they are communicating with an AI service. And they have the option to close the service. They have the button. And sometimes, someone might choose to close, and someone choose to continue the communication. And we are continuously collecting related examples.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

We are not only simply asking users to make a choice in communicating with AI to protect their rights. That's not all. We also continue to observe what kind of impact it will have on dual matching after AI is introduced, especially not only happens between the recruiter and the employee, but also when the two sides use the help of AI on a large scale, what impact will it have on the economic relationship between the recruiter and the employee?

speaker
Unidentified Management Speaker
Management

We are also keeping a close watch and collecting data.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

We not only can say provide the option for job seekers whether he can communicate with AI or not to guarantee their interest. But also, we are continuously to observe with the intervention of AI, what kind of impact will affect the mutual matching, not only on the individual job seeker and culture perspective, but also from a scalable double-side situation. And what kind of impact of this will have to our ecosystem from a job seeking and recruitment perspective? We are continuing observing and collecting data.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

In summary, the performance of the three institutions has maintained high quality growth. In terms of user growth, commercialization and AI technology landing, we have achieved solid progress. In October, the company completed an annual dividend of about $8,000. In the future, we will continue to focus on the improvement of core business capabilities and actively fulfill the responsibility of returning to shareholders. That's it for my part. Next, our CFO Phil will introduce our financial situation to you.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

In summary, the third quarter we delivered a high-quality growth with solid progress across user growth, commercialization, and AI technology implementation. In October, the company completed an annual dividend payment of approximately $18 million. Looking ahead, we will continue to focus on strengthening our core business capabilities while actively fulfilling our commitment to shareholders. That concludes my part of the call. I will now turn it over to our CFO, Phil, for the review of our financials. Thank you.

speaker
Phil Zhang
Director and CFO

Thanks, Jonathan. Hello, everyone. Now let me walk through the details of our financial results of the third quarter of 2025. In this quarter, we delivered a high-quality and sustainable top-line and bottom-line growth. Our revenue reached RMB 2.2 billion this quarter. with growth accelerating to 13% year on year. The faster revenue growth this quarter was primarily driven by higher enterprise user growth, as well as improved monetization level due to the recovering hiring demand. Our commercialization strategy grounded in ecological balance enable us to effectively and sustainably improve user payment ratio within a relatively better hiring environment. The growth in paid enterprise customers, which grew by 13% to 6.8 million for the 12 months ended September 30, demonstrates our capability and potential to enhance monetization level. Revenue from small-sized accounts showed continued growth momentum, with revenue contribution in this quarter up by 2.2 percentage points, while key accounts growth remained stable. As a result of the structural mix shifting, the overall ARPPU maintained stable. Moving to the cost side, Total operating costs and expenses decreased by 7% year-on-year to RMB 1.5 billion in this quarter. Share-based compensation expenses cropped by 21% year-on-year and 6% quarter-on-quarter to RMB 216 million, shrinking for the third consecutive quarter on both absolute amount and percentage of revenue. Excluding share-based compensation expenses, adjusted income from operations grew by 49% to RMB $904 million, and our adjusted operating margin reached 41.8%, up by 10.1% year-on-year, and a relatively flat quarter-on-quarter. Cost of revenues decreased by 2% year on year to RMB $308 million in this quarter, mainly due to the decrease in operational employee related expenses as a result of improved operational efficiency as we continue to engage AI in our daily operations. Gross margins went up by 2.2% year-on-year and 0.4% quarter-on-quarter to 85.8%. Sales and marketing expenses decreased by 25% year-on-year to RMB 394 million during this quarter. As we don't have sports events, marketing campaigns this year, even if we exclude the sports sponsorship costs, our adjusted sales and the marketing expenses in this quarter decreased 15% year on year, while we still maintain robust user growth. Double confirm our sustainable increase of marketing efficiency due to our strong brand recognition and network track. Our R&D expenses decreased by 12% year-on-year to RMB $408 million in this quarter. Excluding share-based compensation expenses, our adjusted R&D expenses decreased by 8% year-on-year to RMB $331 million in this quarter. And the state relatively flexed sequentially. Our G&A expenses increased by 28% to RMB 367 million in this quarter, primarily due to a one-off impairment of intangible assets, partially offset by a decrease in employee-related expenses. Excluding the impairment, our G&A expenses decreased both year-on-year and sequentially. Our interest and investment income in the quarter increased by 43% year-on-year to RMB 228 million in this year, primarily due to a partial disposal of every investment and the increased interest from Hong Kong dollar 2.2 billion Hong Kong share offering the proceeds in early July. Our net income increased by 67% to RMB 775 million in this quarter with adjusted net income increased by 34% to RMB 992 million. Net margins improved by 11.6 percentage points year-on-year to 35.8%, while adjusted net margins reached 45.8%, up 77.2 percentage points year-on-year. Both of them have maintained sustainable improvement over the past six consecutive quarters. Net cash provided by operating activities reached RMB 1.2 billion in this quarter, up 45% year-on-year. As of September 30, 2025, we continue to maintain a strong cash position of RMB 19.2 billion. And now for our business outlook. For the fourth quarter of 2025, we expect our total revenue to continue the growth momentum and reach between RMB 2.05 billion and RMB 2.07 billion, with a year-on-year increase of 12.4% to 13.5%. With that concludes our prepared remarks and now we would like to answer questions. Operator, please go ahead with the call.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, please press star 1 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 1 again. We will now take a census question from the line of Eddie Wong from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead, Eddie.

speaker
Eddie Wong
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Thank you for accepting my question. I have two questions. The first one is that I would like to ask you about the overall demand for big plate photos. I see that the unemployment rate data announced by the state in September is also improving. Do you think this is mainly because of the seasonality or the trend of employment improvement is the leading indicator of macroeconomic improvement? Then, what are the driving factors behind the increase in revenue in the third quarter of the company? This is the first question. Then the second question. Thank you, management, for taking my question. I have two questions. What's the overall recruitment demand recently? We noticed that the unemployment rate in September and October is improving. Do you think this is mainly due to the seasonal factors or the improving trend is a leading indicator of macro recovery? What are the driving factors behind BOSS accelerating growth in the third quarter? My second question is that As we are approaching the end of the year, what's your perception of the KA renewal willingness right now? Are there any noticeable trends in customer renewal rates or the renewal amount? Thank you.

speaker
Unidentified Management Speaker
Management

From our data, From our data perspective, the recruitment activities from enterprises indeed recovered in the third quarter. The growth rate of monthly active users of enterprise sites is faster compared to the growth of secret sites.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

The pressure from the job-taker side to our platform has been alleviating.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

如果我们记得的话,23年我们所期待的某种reopening没有如愿发生。

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

If we can recall that back in 2021 and 2022, it was a little bit difficult for the fresh graduates to find a job. And in 2023, the reopening which everybody was expecting was not happening as we expected. So people, young people, especially young people, it's really difficult to find a job. This year, take July for example, the fresh graduates, their expression for job seeking demand

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

compared to the same period of last year, have declined by double digits.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

Meanwhile, from the enterprise side, the companies who have posted jobs opening to fresh graduates increased by double digits.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

So when we look at the situation on both sides of the BC, especially when it comes to the recruitment and recruitment situation, we clearly feel that we have accumulated a lot of pressure over the past few years.

speaker
Unidentified Management Speaker
Management

In Q3 this year, we saw a lot of improvement.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

So from the situation from both job seekers and recruiters' side, especially from the fresh graduates, as an example, that we quite clearly felt that the pressure, which have been accumulating for several years, is really a lot in the third quarter.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

In the third quarter,

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

The ratio between job seekers and recruiters among active users improved compared to last year. The newly added user ratio also improved, and also the third quarter is better than the second quarter, which gives us continued confidence.

speaker
Unidentified Management Speaker
Management

It is easy to understand that such a change in the relationship between workers and recruiters

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

So it's quite easy to understand that based on the change, improving change of supply and demand balance, We needed the recovery of the enterprise side and the improvement of the pay ratio, and it also helped with our overall business operation.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

Many of our colleagues know that last year's third quarter, especially in July and August, the situation was actually relatively poor, not the same. So we also specialized in the situation of two or three years,

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

So the third quarter last year was a relatively low bet. So from a cautious perspective, we also compared to 2023 in the same period.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

值得一说的就是白领的新增职位的情况。 今年的三季度跟二季度的环比要显著的快于二三年。

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

It was worth mentioning that the recovery of the white collar, for example, the newly added number of job posting for the white collar position in the first quarter increased significantly compared to the second quarter, compared to 2003.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

So after this observation and comparison, I found that

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

Based on all these observations and past comparisons, I have the confidence to conclude in my preparing lab that the improved hiring demand drove our authority to the revenue growth. And that's where my confidence comes from.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

And now Phil will be on this regarding the retention situation that you have done.

speaker
Phil Zhang
Director and CFO

So, Eddie, you know, companies renew their annual contract individually at different point of time, not only at the year end. Starting from the year, we have witnessed improving contract renewal rate, you know, improving continuously. Particularly in third quarter, in the past, actually for the first time in the past two years, company level, you know, net dollar retention rate started to bottom out. This signals a potential turning point from a previous downward trajectory. We believe this is proven primarily by improved company retention rate and their higher renewal spending. And we observed this situation not only at the key account customers, but also at the small, medium-sized enterprises. So simply speaking, that the company's annual contract renewal situation improved sequentially and annually. So this, once again, proved that the hiring demand in the economy has been recovering healthily.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

And that's our answer to your question, Eddie.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Our next question comes from Wei Xiong from UBS. Please ask your question, Wei.

speaker
Wei Xiong
Analyst, UBS

Hello, Mr. Zhao. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for accepting my question. I also have two questions for the company. The first one is that in the past few years, our increase has been better than that of the same industry. Now, from the perspective of the allocation of budget for a company, how much share can we continue to cut? How can we continue to maintain this increase beyond the market in the future? In addition, if the red line can be improved next year, will our leading position be further consolidated? Or is it possible that to see the competition invest more and bring more competitive pressure. This is the first question. The second question is about the profit rate. This year, our profit rate has improved significantly. How should we think about the trend of increasing the profit rate in the future? What are the key directions to invest? For example, can we talk about the cost plan for marketing and customer service? In the past two years, when the red light was not bright, we emphasized that we should save profits. Thank you, Manish, for taking my question. Firstly, we observed that our company has continued outgrowing peers for the past few years. So if we look at the enterprise recruiting budget allocation, how much more share can we continue to gain over peers, and how do we sustain that above peers' growth going forward? And looking at next year, if the macro situation improves, will we continue to solidify our leadership, or is it possible to see higher competition pressure because the peers may step up investments? And secondly, on margin side, given the high base this year, how do we think about the trend for our margin next year? What are the major investment areas? For example, in terms of sales marketing, how do we think about the spending plan there? And previously, given the macro uncertainty, we said we want to prioritize profitability. So looking at next year, are we going to continue prioritizing that profitability or leaning towards investing a little bit for growth? Thank you for taking my question.

speaker
Unidentified Management Speaker
Management

We just reported that

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

I would like to start with our number of paid enterprise customers, which grew by 13.3% to 6.8 million by the 12th month.

speaker
Unidentified Management Speaker
Management

Most of these paid customers are micro-customers, micro-entrepreneurships. We use our own model and communication marketing strategies and efforts to gradually develop into our users and paid customers.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

In a matter of fact, majority or maybe over 80% of these paid enterprise customers are small and micro enterprises, which we use our own business model and go-to-market strategy developed over the years.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

I want to clarify two concepts. First, our main paid customers

speaker
Unidentified Management Speaker
Management

By mentioning this, I would like to clarify on two other concepts.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

Firstly, majority of our main customers are developed by our own rather than giving the shares from our peers.

speaker
Unidentified Management Speaker
Management

Another concept is, as we all know, China has more than 40 million small and medium-sized enterprises.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

So our current market share of paid customers is still very low. This is why when the economy is relatively depressed,

speaker
Unidentified Management Speaker
Management

we still have a very wide market to expand.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

The second concept is that it is public data that China has over 40 million small and medium-sized enterprises. And our number of paid enterprise customers is still a small percentage of that. That's why even on the relatively tight market situation, we still have ample room to grow in terms of our market share.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

Of course, we can come to a logical conclusion. When the market becomes better and demand warms up, our growth rate will become better. Our market penetration strategy will become more effective. Income will also become better.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

And a logical conclusion is that when the market recovers, when the demand improves, we can enjoy a better revenue and business growth rate.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

So, when it comes to competition, we have to admit that we are also serving our clients. In fact, when the economy is under pressure, customers tend to choose products that are more cost-effective and businesses that serve better.

speaker
Unidentified Management Speaker
Management

In this sense, direct competition certainly exists. We are not behind others.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

But on a competitive landscape perspective, we need to admit that for the customers, both we and our peers are serving, especially under an economic pressure situation, then the client normally will tend to service providers who have better ROI and higher service capability. And we do have some advantages over that.

speaker
Unidentified Management Speaker
Management

You are also very concerned about the profit margin.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

The profit margin is related to the current profit situation at the company level. Looking back, we made this decision last year. In the face of a lot of uncertainty, And about the profitability, which you concerned a lot, which the current profit margin you observe

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

which is actually a strategic selection from our company level. Last year, we decided that facing all of these uncertainties, we want to make sure the only certainty which is guaranteed the profit. And this year, you have seen our very strong implementation capability and the realized profit number.

speaker
Unidentified Management Speaker
Management

From the nature of the company's current profitability level, what is reflected is the double-sided network effect of the company, is the company's infiltration into the user's mind, and the company's internal operation has formed a relatively efficient and smooth level. This is a comprehensive representation.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

Essentially, this very strong margin profile actually reflects our effective double-side natural effect, our further penetration into user mindset, and very efficient and smooth internal management and operation. And all those result in this high margin profile.

speaker
Unidentified Management Speaker
Management

因此,我可以预测到明年公司的利润率

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

As a result, I can predict that the profit, the margin for next year will continue to improve.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

但公司不会牺牲增长,明年的新增用户数量我觉得仍然要在3500万加这样的水平。

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

But we will not sacrifice our brand new growth to achieve this profitability. So for the next year, we still want to guarantee at least 35 million newly verified users. Our pursuit in better serve users in higher revenue growth. Actually, it has higher priority compared to our pursuing of profitability.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

These are some of our strategic views on profitability and some preliminary predictions.

speaker
Unidentified Management Speaker
Management

I hope that President Xiong and our investors can see more clearly

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

That's our strategic level view on our profitability, and we hope you and our investors can better understand what is the profitability means to us. For your reference. And that's all of our answers to your questions. Let's move on to the next one.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Our next question comes from Timothy Zhao from Goldman Sachs. Please, go ahead.

speaker
Timothy Zhao
Analyst, Goldman Sachs

Okay, thank you for accepting my question. Congratulations on the company's very strong performance, especially at the profit end. I have two questions for Mr. Zhao. First, Mr. Zhao also mentioned that we may be more cautious when it comes to the photo scene in Xifen, but we will also try more actively. Co-operating management will share some specific details and progress, as well as the impact these explorations may bring on the company's services and commercialization in the future. The second is about AI. We have noticed that OpenAI has recently announced that it will enter the job-hunting industry. Some overseas startups, such as Merkle, have also made a lot of changes in their business. I would like to ask the management how they view BOSS and other job-hunting companies, Thank you, Benjamin, for taking my question and congrats on the solid results. Two questions from my side. First, as Zhao Zong just mentioned that we are going to explore more in the different verticals within the recruitment industry. Could Benjamin share more progress and updates on this? And what are the potential impact to our services and motivation into a longer term? Secondly, it's on the AI-related question. We noticed that OpenAI recently announced to enter the recruitment industry, and some other AI startups like Merkur also has been evolving its business model. Could Benjamin share your view on the competitive landscape between the traditional recruitment platforms as well as Kanjun and the general AI companies in the recruitment industry? Thank you.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

When we try to combine AI with people, in the business, in the process of doing scientific experiments, there are some very interesting things. I will take this opportunity to say two things. The first thing is, when some users are very angry, they will not be able to control themselves. They will say something to hurt the customer service personnel. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

So when we are trying to combine AI and human activities, we have some very interesting findings under our scientific experiment. For example, when the cat was quite angry and cannot continue to temper, When he's facing customer service people, normally they could be quite aggressive. But when the customer knows that the counterpart is AI, nobody will take some very harsh words. So the biggest complaint from the customer to the AI is, you are a very stupid AI.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

Then we do this AI interview, this auxiliary tool, like train children, uh,如何在不同的情况下面试也有一个有意思的发现就是有些求职者呢,他会一遍又一遍的跟这个机器人对话,啊,然后他会得到不同的scores那么当他的下一个得分小于或者等于上一个得分的时候,很多人就会停止这个

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

And the second example is for our AI interview coaching products. So a lot of job seekers who have used this service repeatedly to train their interview skills once and once again. But we found out that when the job seeker, his second job, a scoring is low the first one, then they will stop this repeat.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

So you see, I usually encounter a lot of examples. I'll give you two examples. One is that when a person scolds someone, he might vent out his bad emotions. But this function doesn't exist when facing AI. Another one is that if a person bothers his coach, So you can see that some very interesting findings I can actually see in our daily experiment.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

So people can control, well control his temper when they are facing some AI. And also people who do not want to bother a real human coach very frequently, but he can do that to an AI.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

This is something we encountered in the past. These things actually tell us that using robots, using AI technology is very, very ancient, but it is also very relevant to us, All this results is telling us that when we are applying AI technology to a very old, very ancient

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

people and the job matching the superior and the subordinate matching for this other scenario, we need to be very cautious while using the new technology.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

So after more than two years of trial and error, it didn't happen. Because of the large-scale model, the multi-mode large-scale model created a killer-like application for the entire recruitment industry. I was not anxious at all. So now, over more than three years, this really exciting large-scale technology.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

haven't been able to generate a killer level application in our industry. Actually, we are not in a hurry, and it actually gave us more time to find a way to how to coexist with all this development and the new technology.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

So just now, when I was doing the report, I mentioned that in some of the delivery scenarios, whether it's Lanling or Jinling, . . . . . . .

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

So I just mentioned that on the certain placement scenario, both in blue-collar and white-collar recruitment, such as full-cycle hosted recruitment service or semi-cycle hosted recruitment service, we have been very active to try out new services, but also quite cautiously. So, so far, we have some Achievement, but still not in a stage to massively grow our business future.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

Recently, there have been some companies, especially some overseas giants, that have expressed that they want to make some attempts in the field of recruiting. We also noticed that.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

We also noticed that some leading technology companies who have been empowered by AI who have expressed their interest in entering into the equipment industry.

speaker
Unidentified Management Speaker
Management

So the new technology combined with old industry questions

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

possibly can generate revolutionary revolution level industry change.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

Just like the mobile network and the condition technology combined with the

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

traditional recruitment demand have generated faster to us, this new generation of online recruitment model. Up to today, my thinking of that as a combination of AI and recruitment service the key bottleneck is actually not computing power. Merkle 组织专家进行标注,我们理解恰好体现了高质量数据的价值。 Merkle who have gathered a lot of professionals to do the tagging actually show the value of the high quality data.

speaker
Jonathan Huang Zhao
Founder, Chairman and CEO

如果高质量的数据是如此重要的话,我倒觉得

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

If the high quality data is very critical, is very important, then with BossGP and other peers within our industry actually have some certain level of advantages. So just to leverage your question, I want to express some observations we noticed from our daily operations. And that's all of our answer to your question Tuesday. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Due to time constraint, that concludes today's question and answer session. At this time, I'll turn the conference back to Wenbei for any additional or closing remarks.

speaker
Wenbei Wang
Head of Investor Relations

Thank you once again for joining us today. If you have any further questions, please contact us directly. Thank you.

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect your lines.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

Q3BZ 2025

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