36Kr Holdings Inc.

Gentlemen, thank you for standing by for 36KR Holdings Inc's 2025 First Half Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After management's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. 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 of 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. Da Gangfeng, 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 provisions of the U.S. Private Security 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 findings as filed with . 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 gap financial measures as well as unaudited gap financial measures. 36KR's earnings press release contains a reconciliation of the unaudited and non-gap measures to the unaudited gap measures. And please note that all amount numbers are in RMB. I will now turn the call over to our chairman and the CEO, Mr. Da Gangfeng. Please go ahead.

Thank you.

Hello, everyone.

Thank you for joining our FirstHawk 2025 Earnings Conference Call. Over the past two years, we have consistently upgraded our organizational structure, optimized 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 60 million from the same period last year, down 52% year-over-year. We narrowed our net loss by more than 90 million, an impressive 95% improvement year-over-year, while our cash results remained stable, propelling the company's solid business operations. These operational achievements were largely driven by our ongoing efforts in content innovation, commercialization breakthroughs, and technological applications, which together optimized our organizational structure and improved workforce efficiency. Let me walk you through our business progress in those three areas.

In the year of 2025, we will continue to build the content ecosystem with the original ability of high quality content to achieve impact and continue to improve. In terms of distribution channels, we continue to promote the distribution layout of the whole network. Through Weibo, Xiaohongshu, TouTiao, Zhihu, Bilibili, Douyin, Kuaishou, and other new media distribution channels, we will achieve a comprehensive distribution coverage of high quality content, helping high quality content to obtain broader exposure and broadcast. The continuous and high-quality content output will also bring us a more diverse user ecosystem and further improve user year-on-year. As of the second half of 2025, the number of fans on the whole network has exceeded 36.57 million, First, content.

We consistently fortified our content ecosystem in 2025, leveraging our PLS content creation prowess to steadily extend our influence. In terms of a content dissemination network, we expanded our footprint across diverse channels, crafting a comprehensive circulation matrix, encompassing major new medium platforms like Weibo, Xiaohongshu, Touqiao, Zhihu, Dili, Douzhan, 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 and diversified our user demographics, further elevating user engagement in the sickness. As of the first half of 2025, we had over 36,000 0.57 million followers, marking 17 consecutive quarters of growth. In terms of content, we express the content gradually through pictures, long and short videos, audio and live broadcasts, and so on.

In terms of pictures, we continue to create high-quality content while maintaining high-quality content while maintaining high-quality content while maintaining high-quality content while maintaining high-quality content while maintaining high-quality content while maintaining high-quality content while maintaining high-quality content while maintaining high-quality content while maintaining high-quality content while maintaining high-quality content while maintaining high-quality content while maintaining high-quality content while maintaining high-quality content while maintaining high-quality content while maintaining In the field of AI, 3D cars, future consumption, 3D games, iOS, 3D finance, etc., the content of the oil-based hammer type continues to accumulate. The coverage content covers a wide range and accumulates depth in the segment area, leading users to insight into industry trends and commercial hot spots. At the same time, the company continues to create exclusive content for young users, and publishes young types of media such as Hulang Research Institute, Chaosheng, PIDE, etc. to reach out to more young groups. In early 2025, Our first three and six and future industries as a company to pay attention to city innovation and technology to set up a new content channel for future industrial influence. In the past half year, the company has published more than 60 articles and articles. Among them, the single report has received more than 70,000 public number readouts, and the whole platform has exposed more than 100,000. At present, the company's standard number is fully covered with artificial intelligence, artificial intelligence manufacturing, digitalization, dual carbon ESC, hard technology, consumer life, and many other fields to build a solid content ecosystem.

We explored a growing area of content formats throughout the first half of 2025, including text graphics, short and long-form videos, audio and live streaming, enriching our content offering with a greater diversity of styles. For taxing the graphics, we continued to create high-quality content on multiple fronts while maintaining our existing content metrics. During our flagship channels, including 36KR and the 36KR Pro, we continuously broadened our reach in sub-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. These accounts enrich 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 same time, we continue to tailor content experiences for younger generations with our old youth and TIDE sub-vertical medium channels, greatly extending our content reach by successfully engaging younger audiences. At the start of 2025, we rolled out 36K, our industry future, an all-new content channel, spotlighting urban innovation in the state-of-the-art technologies, building our influence in emerging industries. Within six months, we released more than 60 articles, including a notable feature on the innovative pharmaceutical sector in Zhejiang Province, which garnered over 70,000 page views on our official WeChat account and more than 100,000 total exposure. Our accounts cover artificial intelligence, global expansion, advanced manufacturing, digitalization, dual carbon and ESG, hardcore technology, consumer lifestyles, and much more, comprising a thriving content ecosystem. In the first half of 2025, on the 36-year official account alone, 339,000 articles achieved over 100,000 page views.

Meanwhile, Wave's followers expanded by 44% year-over-year.

In terms of short video, our exceptional content creation capabilities earned us wide-spread visibility in the RAVE 85 users. Our video followers exceeded 9.5 million at the end of the first half of 2025. Our VitaChannel followers surged by 69% year-over-year. Following the debut of the 36K attack on Douyin in 2025, we released the broadcaster videos such as AI Confident and AI Creator. In addition, our video undercover multiple host life garnered over 10 million views on Xiaohongshu, Douyin, WeChat Channels, and Bilibili.

In terms of live broadcast, in 2025, we will use our human resources, infrastructure, and financial resources to fully utilize our WeChat video account to develop a series of security accounts. . . . . The company has created a large number of full-scale reports, exciting conversations, full-scale technical discussions, and long-term real-time predictions. The technology new products are integrated into a super live broadcast room, with a total exposure of 50.2 million. The company's live broadcasts have a total number of 1.12.7 million viewers. In addition, China's home electronics association has held the China Home Electronics and Consumer Electronics Conference in 2025. The company is the first robot specialty exhibition area. The company has accepted five robot companies and has created a future robot specialty exhibition area, which deeply reflects the robot intelligence in the home electronics industry. For live streaming, this year we optimized our resources with a streamlined team and fully leveraged the VTAC channels to cultivate an area for content-specific accounts.

including the Big Deal, Global Expansion, Golden Shovel, and the 36KR CEO Tips. We also unveiled AI Insider, an 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 a professional cutting-edge high-quality live streaming content that brought together leading voices in AI, focusing on scenario and application-driven insights. The live stream combined full conference reporting, expert panels, cutting-edge technology insights, future training forecasts, and tech product scoops, gathering 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 robot themed exhibition, Future Plus, in partnership with five robotics companies, showcasing the immense potential upside of embodied artificial intelligence in home appliances in the home settings. With this exhibition, the 36 KRB chat channels live stream to 175,000 live views and 151,000 likes in a single session. while our Omnichannel live streaming garnered over 1.04 million views in total, racking up over 80 million views across diverse platforms.

At the IP Summit, in the first half of 2025, we scheduled to hold the Wills Conference. This year's conference will be attended by Hang Chuang Ying, Hangzhou's two New City Managers, Jujiao Founder Xing Jiyuan, at the Investors' Conference and the Entrepreneurs' Conference, and those innovative entrepreneurs, full of creativity, young scientists and creators, and top investors. to discuss AI technology revolution, global wave, and value acquisition, and explore the world of business in their eyes, the world of business ideals, and the future. This BIOS conference is expected to cover more than 150 million users. In addition, on April 18, 2025, the 2025 AI Cousins Conference hosted by YoSanRig will be held in Shanghai. The theme of this conference is SuperHP, focusing on the subversive transformation of AI super applications to thousands of pages. The conference will delve into how AI technology can rebuild business logic and rebuild the industrial framework, . . . . . . . . . .

In terms of the event IP, we successfully hosted WAVES in the first half of 2025, co-hosted by HICAP and Hangzhou Liangzhu New Town Management Committee. This year's WAVES centered on the new era of winter 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 the value reassessment, sharing insights into their business aspirations and their perspectives on the future. This year's WAIT event amassed over 150 million views. In addition, on April 18, 2025, 36KR hosted the 2025 AI Partners Meet at Moshu 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 in the reshaping industry landscapes and exploring AI super apps' limitless possibilities. We invited executives from AMD, Baidu, Qihoo, Qualcomm, Goofish, Danhua Technology, TAL Education, 2-1 Group, and the best bound to explore trending topics such as industry AI adoption, AI computing power, AI search, AI-powered imaging, and breakthroughs in AI education. Our 2021 AI partners will meet GONNAR's over 130 million views.

In the first half of 2025, we will continue to make breakthroughs Next, commercialization.

In the first half of 2025, our deep expertise in innovation in content and IT sparked continuous commercialization breakthroughs, including client structure optimization, stronger commercialization of sub-vertical media channels for younger audiences, new momentum in live streaming and video revenue, and meaningful progress in industrial service commercialization.

Based on the rich content and diversified channels, customer structure optimization allows us to continuously expand our services and product types, making our commercialization capabilities more and more sustainable. In the Internet customer, the AI model industry continues to grow, and the relevant industry income is still rising. Direct income increased by 52% compared to last year, and the retail network income increased by 27% compared to last year.

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 internet client portfolio, the AI in 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 SMCG segment grew by 27% year-over-year. As multiple brands' clients acquired last year, we purchased our offerings in the first half of 2025.

In terms of young people's media entrepreneurship, Hulang, Chaosheng, and other young people's media entrepreneurship income has increased by 30%. Among them, the number of brand customers in young people's media has increased by 33%, and the increase has reached 102%. This indicates that our 2C content has been continuously recognized by the brand.

Regarding the commercialization of the sub-vertical median channels for younger audiences, revenue from those channels like OU's NTIDE increased by 30% year-over-year, with brand clients spending doubling year-over-year of an impressive 1-2%, reflecting sustained brand recognition of R2C content.

In terms of live video business commercialization, based on the 2025 Science and Technology Conference, such as AWE and WAIC, we have also increased the development of live video products for the conference. We have opened a low-caliber product line for the rich market demand. As the original high-caliber, the content of the new commercialization transmission is good. In this way, we provide more live video products for more customers, especially those who are in the early stages of their career, and help them reach more potential users. With the continuous improvement and innovation of live content in Chuhai Railway, we first achieved the breakthrough of Guangjiaohui customers.

As for live streaming and video commercialization, leveraging major technology exhibitions in 2025, including AWS and WAIC, we stepped up our development of live streaming offerings tailored for event coverage. To address diverse market needs, we launched a low RPU product line, effectively complementing our existing high RPU premium commercialization content offerings. This expanded the appeal of our video and live streaming offerings to more clients, particularly our early stage startups, 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 and earning high recognition from the organizers with our live streaming content. Looking ahead, we will continue to explore a new live stream format in the scenarios delighting both our users and clients with richer content scenarios in a more diverse service model.

In terms of commercialization of industrial services, Chuhai is an important part of the industrial service. In the beginning of 2025, 36H and Hangzhou's TianTang New Area Intellectual Property Group Co., Ltd. will reach a cooperation agreement on the China-China International Service Center operation service project and successfully complete the signing. The main purpose of the joint cooperation is to introduce the professional organizational operation capability of 36H, and a wide range of overseas resources to help Hangzhou build its own unique corporate overseas service ecosystem and business system, and to build its own regional overseas brand, and to enhance its overseas influence. In the first half of 2025, we will hold 11 overseas themed events and continue to provide overseas-related services to our customers. On the other hand, the influence of the U.S. overseas industry continues to expand, and we are looking forward to the expansion of commercial aerospace, advanced manufacturing, new energy and new materials, and the transformation of the urban industry and the landing of the U.S. overseas industry, which will attract more than 200

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 Area Construction and Investment Group Company for the Chinese Enterprise International Services Center operations project. This collaboration will leverage our expertise in organizational operations in online content distributions as well as our vast network of global expansion resources to support the Tiantang New Area to be in building a unique service ecosystem and operational framework for cooperative global expansion. This initiative aims to create a powerful brand for Tiantang New Area, 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 in the future industry development, including low-altitude economy, commercial aerospace, otherwise manufacturing in 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.

In addition to the innovation of the content and the breakthrough of commercialization, in 2025, we will also continue to expand the media interface, continue to upgrade AGI-based simple applications, and further enhance our content production and commercialization efficiency.

Beyond these announcements across content and commercialization, we continue to expand the boundaries of the meeting in 2025, consistently joining cutting-edge AGI applications to further optimize content production and commercialization efficiency.

The year 2020 is also a year of high-density information in the field of domestic AI. In the early years of 2020, DeepSeq, which has caused chaos in and out of China, has become the only deep-seq founder of the only two exclusive deep-seq media in the world. Therefore, Sinovac has launched the Diffuser Project in Q1. Based on our years of creative media experience and media experience, we have summarized a set of communication routes that can be passed on to Chinese technical enterprises and Chinese tech brands. In addition to smart cable and text messages, 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 the only tech media outlet 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 roadmap for Chinese tech companies, advancing towards brand globalization. In addition to our text in the 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 in recognition from within the industry and beyond.

In addition to the sensitive perspective of the content section, the AIGC technology is closely related to the content ecosystem. Our AI report, which will be released in the second half of 2024, The bottom of the product is fully integrated with the use of large model technology and AI algorithms, including AI machine interview, report content production, etc. The bottom has involved many large model manufacturers, including Doubao, Tongji, Qianwen, etc. In March 2025, Dipshick was introduced, and so far, through the latest AI report, the company that has reported the implementation project or financing has reached 993. The AI report has helped us improve the efficiency of our content staff, and greatly improved our past short-term problems, and has further helped us improve the coverage of our initial company.

In addition to AI-focused content, we have actively integrated AIGC technology in our content default system to enhance efficiency company-wide. Our AI meeting coverage product, launched in the second half of 2024, leverages large-scale AI model technologies in the AI algorithm to produce AI-powered interviews and generate content. The underlying system incorporates multiple developers' large AI models, such as Doubao and Tongyi Tianwen. Among others, we also integrated DeepSeq in March 2025. To date, AI meeting coverage has covered 993 companies, highlighting their latest initiatives or fundraising ventures. AI meeting coverage has meaningfully improved our content team's efficiency.

substantially easing previous manpower limitations and enhancing our coverage of startups.

In addition, we launched the 36KL Cooperate 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 225,000, including 4,220 subscribers.

In the second half of 2025, we, as an exclusive technology and financial media partner, will launch Doubao. After the launch, we will maintain a 10% growth rate per week. At the same time, we expect to launch user reviews and discovery brands in the field of AI tools in the second half of 2025.

In the first half of 2025, as Doubao's exclusive technology and finance medium partner, we launched the Doubao AI Agent. Since its launch, we have achieved a consistent 10% weekly increase in user interactions. We plan to roll out a 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 businesses in identifying the ideal AI tools, all while facilitating user experience sharing.

AI products and tools will further test the simplicity, sensitivity, and execution of AI technology applications. In 2025, with AI technology and the natural compatibility of the content production industry, we will re-use AIGC technology in the advantage of information recognition, text processing, and image production, etc. to achieve steady performance. In addition, we continue to expand the business boundary and actively promote the application of AI technology in multi-dimensional scenarios. The introduction of these AI products has improved our customer service coverage and reliability, making many companies and enterprises that were unable to cope with the past difficulties and human resources become our customers.

However, the advancement of AI products and tools further underscores 36KR's foresight acumen and outstanding execution capabilities in AI. Leveraging the inherent synergies between AIGC technology and the content production industry, we maximize 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 enhance the coverage and the precision 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.

In summary, 36KR comprehensively improves its operating efficiency throughout 2025.

Thanks to our PLS content creation proudness, robust IT assets, deeply engaged users in 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 product and 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 the 2025 financial performance. Please note that all amounts are in RMB unless otherwise stated. Total revenue was $93.2 million in the first half of 2025 compared to $102.4 million in the same period last year. Online advertising services revenue was $74.5 million in the first half of 2025 compared to $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, or ongoing optimization of our customer structure to control credit risk, which lead to decreased revenues goals. Enterprise value added services revenue were 12.2 million in the first half of 2025 compared to 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 improvements. Subscription services revenue were $6.4 million in the first half of 2025, compared to $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 $42.5 million from $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 $50.7 million from $45.5 million in the same period of 2024 Growth profit margin was 54.4 percent in the first half of 2025, representing an increase of 10 percent from 44.4 in the same period of 2024. The increase in growth margin were primarily driven by savings in payload-related cost following the strategic workforce optimization. Operating expenses decreased by 52.3% to $55.9 million from $117 million in the same period of 2024. The decrease was primarily attributable to strategic cost of management action. including target workforce reductions and streamline low-cost spending. Sales and marketing expenses were $29.4 million in the first half of 2025, a decrease of 35.1% from $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 $20 million in the first half of 2025. a decrease of 68.2% from 62.8 million in the same period last year. The decrease was primarily attributable to the decrease in the allowance for doctoral accounts, payroll-related expenses. Research and development expenses were 6.4 million in the first half of 2025. a decrease of 27.1% from 8.8 million in the same period last year. The decrease was primarily due to the decrease in average compensation level for research and development personnel. As we restructured our R&D team, Shared base compensation expenses recognized in cost of revenue, sales and marketing expenses, research and development expenses, as well as general and new expenses totaled $90,000 in the first half of 2025, compared to $50,000 in the same period last year. Other income was $0.4 million in the first half of 2025, compared to $24.3 million of expenses in the same period last year. The change was mainly due to the decrease in long-term investment loss. Income tax credit was $4,000 in the first half of 2025. compared to $70,000 of income tax expenses in the same period last year. Net loss was $4.8 million in the first half of 2025. Compared to net loss of $95.9 million in the same period last year, non-GAAP adjusted net loss was $4.7 million in the first half of 2025. compared to non-GAAP-adjusted net loss, $95.9 million in the same period last year. Net loss attributable to 36 KR Holding Inc.' 's ordinary shareholders was $5 million in the first half of 2025. Compared to net loss attributable to 36KR Holding Inc's ordinary shareholders of 94.4 million in the same period last year. Based on the diluted net loss per ADS were both 2.307 in the first half of 2025 compared to 44.859 in the same period last year. As of June 13, 2025, the company has a cash equivalence and a short-term investment of $75.1 million. Well, this concludes all our prepared remarks today. We will now open the call to questions. Operator, please go ahead.

Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star 2. If you are on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask your question. For the benefit of all participants on today's call, if you wish to ask your question to management in Chinese, please immediately repeat your question in English. Your first question comes from Yun Dejiang from SWS Research. Please go ahead.

Good evening.

I have two small questions. The first is, I saw that the company's financial situation in the first half of 2025 I would translate the question in English.

It was 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?

Okay, thank you, Yun Da. First of all, after two years of continuous efforts and operations, we have adopted a series of cost-effectiveness measures in terms of cost-effectiveness, including lower-end offices, cutting down on human resources for the product and technology industry, adjusting the standard line of business, and increasing the performance of the main business.

First of all, through sustained operational efforts over the past two years, we have implemented a series of cost reduction and efficiency boosting measures. Those include relocating to an office building with lower rent cost, streamline 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 $60 million year-over-year, and net loss was narrowed by more than $90 million RMB.

Next, our net profit rate returned to more than 50% in the first half of the year. This is mainly due to our adjustment of customers and businesses, and stricter cost control. In the past six months, we have optimized low-power products and customers with poor return performance. In addition, we have implemented stricter price control standards.

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 six months, we optimized our product portfolio and client structure, Additionally, we implemented more rigorous project approval standards internally to enhance cost management. 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 a profitability and we predict that we will have profits at the end of 2025.

That's all answer for this question.

Thank you. Your next question comes from Ruoyin from Sealand Securities. Please go ahead.

Thank you for your question and how we interpret it for you.

Well, there are two questions. The first question is, could you manage to share the future plan for your new initiative of industrial service business?

Okay, thank you, Henry. On the one hand, in 2025, many of our key IP activities will continue. In the next half of the year, we will have the opportunity to hold WISE, AI Partner, and Future Industry Conference. In addition to our IP summit, we will make changes to the content of our industry services in 2025, and we will also make changes to the structure of our organization. The content layout of our company's industry services will improve. 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 WISE, the AI Partner Conference for all industries, the Industrial Future Conference, and more. Beyond this, IPE submits 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, Our new all-new content channel spotlighting urban innovation, our state-of-the-art technologies, and our reach across emerging industries have published over 60 articles within the past six months. A lot of the articles of 36K, our industry future, garnered and amassed 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.

In the future, we will continue to develop overseas related business. In the year 2024, overseas business will take the lead. In addition to Southeast Asia, Japan, the Middle East, and Europe, we will continue to expand our global network. and the Beijing-based Wangsu Group to jointly dig up Beijing-based overseas service providers and overseas enterprise resources. In early 2020, for the first time, we took on the role of the local government overseas service center to operate the business and build investment groups in the new area of Hanzhou and cooperate with the China-China International Service Center to operate the project. In the first half of 2020, we held overseas activities that were more than one time.

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 will further strengthen our global network and collaborate with the China Council for the promotion of international treaties, Beijing Sub-Council 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 Services Center in our capacity as a media entity, partnering with Hangzhou Tiantang New Area Construction and Investment Group Company on the Chinese Enterprise International Services Center operations project. In the first half of 2025, we hosted a total of 11 events on global expansion. As our business adjustments are implemented in the second half of the year, our industrial services will fully commercial opportunities with optimized offerings that are more sustained and profitable. While the second question from Celand in red, is how does the company position itself in generative AI across content in the product offerings?

Okay, thank you. Before this DeepSync was launched, we were the world's only technology media with two exclusive interviews with Liang Wenfeng. Due to the influence we had in the AI channel, in the second half of 2025, we launched the KKG account on Tiktok, and also launched a new live broadcast of the AI community. As a supplement to the picture content, we will soon have multiple exposure videos. In the second half of 2025, we will also launch the future human lab picture account,

Before DeepSeq gained widespread attention, we were the only tech media outlet worldwide to have exclusively interviewed DeepSeq's founder, Dan 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 delivers 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 explore their experiences and challenges while using AI tools.

As we mentioned earlier, the development of AI products in the 2020 company layout, the latest AI report, uh, uh, uh, 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 or fundraising ventures. 36KR Cooperative 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 Doval's exclusive technology and finance medium partner, we launched our Doval AI agent, achieving a consistent 10% weekly increase in user interaction following this launch. 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, and a community space for experiencing sharing. This platform will assist both individuals and businesses in identifying the ideal AI tools for their needs.

In 2025, we will continue to upgrade the AI content layout and maintain the advantages of early reporting.

In 2025, we will continue to develop our AI content ecosystem, maintaining our edge in covering the latest AI trends and consistently delighting users with the 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 questions.

Thank you. As there are no further questions, I'd now like to turn the call back over to the company for closing remarks. No.

Yeah, please say the closing remarks.

This concludes the conference call. You may now disconnect your line. Thank you.