36Kr Holdings (KRKR) FY 2026 earnings call transcript

Thank you very much. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the 36Kr Holdings First Half 2026 Earning Conference Call. The company's financial and operational results were released earlier today and have been made available online. You can also read the earning price released by visiting the IR section of our website, ir. 36kr. com. Participants on today's call will include our chairman and CEO, Mr. Da Gang Fong, and our chief financial officer, Mr. Xiang Li. Mr. Fong will start the call by providing an overall of companies and a performance highlight of first half in Chinese, followed by English interruptions. 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 Security Detigation Reform Act of 1995.

Forward-looking statements involve inherent risk and uncertainties. As such, the company result may be material or different from the views expressed today. Further information regarding those and the other risks and uncertainties, The report of the current concern is included in companies' perspectives and now the public filing is filed with the USFEC. The company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statement except as required under the applicable law. Please note that 36Kr's earnings price release, and this conference call includes discussion of un-audited GAAP financial measures as well as un-audited non-GAAP financial measures. 36Kr earnings price release conflations of un-audited non-GAAP measures to the un-audited GAAP measures. And please note that all amount numbers are in RMBs.

I will now turn the call over to our chairman and CEO Mr. Da Gong Fung. How please go ahead.

Thank you. Hello everyone. Thank you for joining 36Kr First Half 2026 Earning Conference Call. In the first half of 2026, in the continued high-co-economic uncertainty, the company sustained its possibility to be able to achieve the potential. I will now turn the call over to management for the next year. The key takeaway from this period's result is that our profitability is not a product of short-term financial adjustment, but sustainable commercial values built on the interplay of three strengths, content influence, industrial service capabilities, and technological application properties. The total revenue was 124 million RMB in the first half of 2026, up 33.7% The growth profit was 82.68 million RMB, up 33.1% year-over-year, with a growth profit margin of 66.4%.

Net income was 15.37 million RMB, while cash reserves continued to increase, providing ample liquidity to support ongoing operations and strategic investment. Thank you. Good morning, I will now turn the call over to management for the next day. In the single technology or industry cycle, we draw our sharp insight into technology and innovation trends. Back by years of expertise and robust assets to consistently capitalize on opportunities unlocked by 60 waves of industry transformations from artificial intelligence and embodied intelligence to emerging industries such as nuclear fusions, quantum computing, and brain-computer interface. Whatever the next wave of technological innovation emerge, 36Kr Lovrig is visionary content layout and commercial service capabilities to engage with the service, 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 stress down 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 width of technology Let's take a closer look at our major business process for the period in the three areas, content ecosystem, commercialization and industrial service, technology and product.

our company did not leave the report. We're in the right place of the news, we're continuing to make the news on Twitter via Twitter via Twitter via Twitter, so we just keep doing this. We're currently planning to get a full-time feature at the moment of the news about the news. We've got information on Twitter at the station, and we're planning to keep the news on Twitter. We continue to expand our footprint across various channels, crafting a comprehensive circulation metrics in compasing major new media platforms like Weibo, Xiaohongshu, TouTiao, ZhiHu, Bilibili, Douyin, and Quaisho 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.

Thank you. Thank you. I will now turn to chance and remain focused on enhancing content quality, consistently delivering high cyber work while maintaining the influence of our flagship channels, including 36Kr and 36Kr Pro. We've ramped up our efforts to spotlight the Emergency of Intelligence, our AI-focused account, covering the latest developments from AI industry chains, including the Biden's DIPSEC team. DIPSEC, Tencent Hunyuan, and Alibaba's Tong Yi Tianwen built on a content model containing exclusive access to information within DIPSEC interviews. The channel has established a strong industry footprint in AI coverage. In addition, Hortco. Kr, Sharpender is a focus on embedded intelligence value chain, differentiating itself through first to report coverage on stand-up funding and indeed founder interviews.

Its follower increased by approximately 27%, attracted by coverage spanning key segments across the value chain, including brain chips, tackle sensors, robot study manufacturing, and on-device computing power. Its hardcore KR conversation series offered in deep perspective from founders and their technology roadmap and strategic choices. Building a differentiated content mode 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 a balancing board coverage with tips of experts in specialized domains to provide users with invaluable insights into industry trends and evolving business dynamics. 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.

Thank you. I will be able to answer the question. In short videos, our exceptional content creation capabilities earned us wide-speed visibility and wave review from users. Our radio followers reached 9.63 million. In the first half of 2026, we produced a total of 75 short videos, We have a lot of videos, including a blockbuster on Douyin that garnered over 8.4 million waves. Another video platform, we consistently create in-depth pieces that generate more than 1 million waves each. On the commercial video side, we continue to produce high-quality content, working closely with companies in support of clients' digital and intelligence.

Good morning, and welcome to the 36Kr Holdings Inc. Thank you. For live streaming we made full use of our existing contents for specific account assets to actively develop live streaming products and explore new avenues for growth and innovation At China Appliance and Electronic World Expo 2026, held from March 12 and 15, 36Kr launched the Anthony AI live stream, conducting live on-site coverage from eight of the most popular brand provisions and the profiling time-leading brands in-depth, giving audience a first-hand look at the latest real-world application of AI technologies, broadcast simultaneously across device platforms. The last game garnered 1.358 million total views and racked up over 80 million impressions network work. During this year, World Artificial Intelligence Conference in July, 36Kr served as ecosystem partners and special supporting media partners, drawing hand with the organizing committee to launch the KR Talk Future, The live team combined expert panels, live examination coverage, where you highlight an in-depth interview with companies, counting 51.8 million total views, and engaging 61,000 viewers across the 36Kr live team metrics.

Thank you. Thank you. In terms of event IT, the future evaluated the 36Kr's role from that the knee-observe of industry trends to facilitate for industry cooperation. On May 19 to 20, 2026, we hosted the 2026 AI Partner Summit in Beijing, Yizhou, seemed to take AI to the front line. The summit focused on shifting AI from technical discussion to practical implementations. featuring a main forum and an AI plus industry matchmaking meeting that connected technology providers with business holding real industry demand. Over the two days event, they facilitated more than 100 rounds of in-depth closed-door matchmaking seasons, helping companies identify potential area of collaborations around specific scenarios. Our 2026 AI Partner Summit gathered approximately 120 million waves and attracted over 1,000 on-seat attendees.

In addition, from June 16 to 17, 2026, we hosted waves 2026 in Tanyu, Guangdong, themed this middle summer. This summit gathered a great generation of investors, industry leaders, scientists, and emerging entrepreneurs for 15 in-depth roundtable discussions and dozens of talks covering core topics such as AI, hardcore technology, embedded intelligence, going global, healthy care, and youth innovation. The event also features the challenge for intelligent youth and the national AI Plus scenario application competition finals. It's focused on three checkups, AI agents, embodied intelligence hardware, and lightweight one-person entrepreneurship, providing young innovators and their project with a platform for exposure evaluation and I will now turn the call over to management for the next week. Kr has developed a highly effective customer service system.

This has enabled us to achieve commercialization breakthrough in this unprecedented wave of technological innovation. 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 hardcore technology, our customer base growth significantly. New customer working with 36Kr for the first time accounted for approximately one-third of our total customer base in the period. AI on the foundation models, robotic and embodied intelligence, and more the primary source of our new customers. We also acquired the new customer in the consumer goods, health care, travel and mobility, education and training sectors. This is for statistics here of leadership in new economic communication and our outstanding customer service capabilities.

In terms of commercialization of online results, we generated 104 million RMB in revenue from online advertising service in the first half of the year. The last year of 2016, up approximately 40% year over year. Our flagship channels including 36Kr and 36Kr Pro maintained industry leading commercial values. In the meantime, the influence of our sub-vertical media channels such as the emergency of intelligence, hardcore KR, 36Kr auto, future consumption, Tide and OU 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 help propel the continued growth in our revenue from online advertising service. I'm going to turn the call over to the E&C. In institutional and entrepreneur service, we continue to optimize our business structure, establishing a dual engine growth model, driven by our submit and ranking alongside content communications. As the primary market gradually recovered, institutional demands for communication service start. With content focused on institutional funding raising and the portfolio company financing growth rapidly, driving revenue to nearly double year over year, we fully leverage the vertical accounts such as WIB and the 36Kr industry futures to connect the content enterprise, Good morning, and welcome to the 36Kr Holdings Inc. Thank you. In terms of industrial service commercialization, in addition to hosting large-scale events in key regions, we continue to advance recurring day-to-day industrial service.

Our three-year strategic operations project with Hangzhou, Tiantang, New Area, including the Chinese Enterprise International Service Center Operation Project and the AI Prenominar 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 Chiantang Embodied Intelligence Industrial Park, delivering a diverse range of operational activities built around brand approaches, resource connections, and enterprise service. This initiative effectively enhanced the park's industry profile, supporting investment inflows and the industry service. Building on this project, we continue to deepen our industrial service capabilities in the Yangtze River Delta, lying the foundation of replication across the region. Furthermore, at this year's WEV event, we showcase the Yangtze River Delta Industrial Resource for Great Bay Area entrepreneurs and investors.

Continues to bridge technological innovation and real-world industry applications. Our industry service ends progressively shifting from one-off events towards ongoing operation and deeper customer partnership. In applying AI technologies, we continue to pursue a dual-track-hole strategy, improving internal efficiency while productizing our AI capabilities for external stakeholders. In the first half of 2026, we hosted the PR-2022. The initiative focuses on the AI application challenge internally to deepen adoption of AI tools across our operations. The initiative focuses on identifying practical, replicable, and high-value use case for improving productivity with AI.

First, treating a culture where everyone knows how to use AI, AI can be applied everywhere, and AI is consistently using to improve 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. I a 3SYN AI We also continue to optimize our 36Kr project recommendations product. Using foundation model technology, we enable online AI-contacted 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 project helps entrepreneurs secure coverage and connection for 1117 projects, increasing the conversion rate by nearly 80% year over year. On the product side, 36Kr and Softness The company has jointly launched the 36Kr Co-operate on Intelligence, which has many programs aimed at retailer investors.

It's daily sentiment and analysis reports for public companies and experts 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. I will now turn the call over to management for the next year. Thank you. Thank you. Our AI review hub at AI. 36Kr. com was launched at the end of the 2025. It is positioned as a of AI tools, a community platform combining AI tools discovery and authentic user reviews. Primaries serve individual and enterprise users seeking guidance in selecting AI tools. Anchored in professional review content and powered by product capability upgrades, our AI review segment continues to grow across user scale, ecosystem development, and commercial values.

On the content side, we continue to scale volume while improving quality, publishing accumulative 4,000 and 1962 AI review articles, nearly 10 times the 560 articles published as of the end of 2025. Content appeal and user engagement are raising in fact. Ecosystem appeal also continues to stress them, with 42 companies voluntarily listing their products on our AI review hub, reflecting board market recognition of our positioning as the of the AI application segment. We also comprehensively expanded our review network, adding 260 new reviewers, and launching our campus ambassador initiative, building a job 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 ecosystems, established tracking shop.

At the product capability levels, we complete a case upgrade to call modules such as promotional placement, new community formwork, leader boards, and the product database. We also roll out our AI review agent with build testing capabilities, creating an end-to-end AI-powered workflow from conversations to review to content posting. Commercially, we achieved a meaningful breakthrough on the strength of our team in deep product review content. We secured a paid commercialization partnership with Kualing and Kaisho. AI validating our closed-loop model from professional review content to commercial modernization. In short, our AI review segment continued to progress rapidly, made by growing industry influence, gathered ecosystem breadth and depth, and the expanding motivation. To sum up, in the first half of 2026, we maintained a solid financial position, while steadily advancing our content innovation, commercialization upgrades, and commercialization upgrades.

With that, I will now turn the call over to our CFO, Mr. Xiang Li, who will discuss the topic of the industry and technology verticals, become a trusted authority of value, a facilitator of resource connections, and contribute to shopping industry standards in the AI year.

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 forecast of the 2026 financial performance. Please note that all amounts are in RMB, unlike otherwise stated. Our company's total revenue increased by 33.7% to $124.6 million in the first half of 2026, from 93.2 million in the same period last year. Online advertising services revenues The increase by 38.9% to 103.5 million in the first half of 2026, from 74.5 million in the same period last year. The increase was primarily attributable to surging demand from the AI sector for all advertising solutions. Price value added services revenue increased by 25.4% to 15.3 million in the first half of 2026 from 12.2 million in the same period last year.

The increase was primarily driven by our ongoing refinement of service offerings aimed at a margin improvement. Subscription Foreign services revenue were 5.8 million in the first half of 2026, compared to 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 41.9 million in the first half of 2026, a slight decrease of 1.4 percent from 42.5 million in the same period last year. The decrease was primarily given by the company's strict cost control measures. Gross profit increased by 63.1% to 82.7 million in the first half of 2026 from 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 The sales and marketing expenses were $29.2 million in the first half of the 2026, remaining flight year-over-year, reflecting or disassembling approach to sales spending. Federal and administrative expenses were $24.1 million in the first half of the 2026, an increase of 20.5% from $20 million in the same period last year. The increase was primarily related to the increase in allowance for stock-for-accounts and the payroll-related expenses. Research and development expenses were $6.4 million in the first half of 2026.

Remaining slides year-over-year, primarily reflecting or continued focus on R&D efficiency and strategic programs prioritizations. 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 19.7 thousand in the first half of 2026, compared to 89.6 thousand in the same period last year. Other expenses were $7.7 million in the first half of 2026 compared to $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 $27,000 in the first half of 2026 compared to $4,000 of income tax credit in the same period last year. Net income. Net income was $15.4 million in the first half of 2026 compared to a net loss of $4.8 million in the same period last year.

Non-GAAP adjusted net loss was $15.4 million in the first half of 2026, compared to a non-GAAP adjusted net loss of $4.7 million in the same period last year. Net income attributable to 36Kr Holdings Inc's ordinary shareholders was $15 million in the first half of 2026. Compared to a net loss attributable to 36Kr Holdings Inc's ordinary shareholders of $5 million in the same period last year. Basic and diluted net income per ADS was 7.058 and 7.056 respectively in the first half of 2026, compared to basic and diluted net loss per ADS of 2.307 in the same period last year. Certain balance sheet items, as of June 30, 2026, the company had cash and the cash equivalents, restrictive cash and short investments of million an increase of 6 from million And we will now open the call to questions Operator I going to turn the call to the please go ahead.

That's a great question. And the differentiation advantage in AI content coverage comes down to 3K areas. First off, first of our board based platform reach our content metrics, Spence AI, Hubcoin technology, Going Global, Consumer Goods, Automotive, Gaming Healthcare, and other verticals. We have 36.52 million followers across a diverse range of mainstream media platforms, including Weibo, Xiaohongshu, Touliao, Zhihu, Bilibili, Douyin, and Kuaishu, among others. This allows advertisers on our platform to reach not only the AI industry audience, but also up, steam, and down in business and cross-sector users simultaneously. Something specialized AI media outlets cannot easily deliver.

The 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 quality. We don't simply follow the latest trends. We insist on real deeps. We consistently offer incentive, original perspectives on industry development and sectors analysts, providing users with invaluable insights into industry trends and evolving business dynamics.

The B-man, the P-play environment, is a common-set-out relationship between the digital and real estate industry. The 36Kr has a strong-set-out relationship between the brand and the real estate industry. The 30Kr has a strong-set-out relationship between the brand and the company. This is the standard-to-end industry. Our end-to-end industrial service is to advertise 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 have facilitated more than 100 runs of e-dips, closed-door matchmaking systems, centered on real-world AI information scenario, 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 get more than brand exposures.

They can also access industry resource and business partnership opportunities, an integrity value perception that specialized media outlets cannot easily provide. Thank you. For the second question regarding the engine, I see four area 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 customer growth will be a key driver. Over the first half of the year, approximately 40% of our new customer came from the AI sector, and we continue to see strong momentum in the segment. In the medium term, three other areas will run in colors.

First, we will deepen the commercialization of our sub-vertical content metrics. Our content such as the Emergency of Intelligence and the Hub Core KR have achieved a significant follower growth, which is now unleashing their commercial values.

Second, we will scale the multisamination of AI products. Our AI review hub, ai. 36kr. com, secured a paid commercialization partnership with Koleen and the data and the user base of the 36Kr cooperative only intelligence has doubled year over year.

Third, we will replicate our industrial service model across regions with the channel model now validated. We can roll it out in another region. Thank you. In terms of balancing investment and profitability, our philosophy is clear. We invest where we see a clear path to return. Our financial results over the first half reflected this discipline. Growth profit margin continue to improve due to our ongoing efforts to control costs and optimize our customer mix. We place a high survey already on financial health and our continually improve operating efficiency while keeping our cost-based lanes. At the same time, we continue to invest in content. This is a core strength that we continuously build the reinforce, the reliance, and the sustainability of our business operations.

We will never pressure growth on the expense of possibilities. Even investors, every investment must have a clear business rationale and a clear path to return. Thank you, Lindsay.

Thank you, Inc. Our strategy positioning in AI years is crystal clear. We have always been the picks and the shelf supplier, and even in technology industries. No matter how technology evolves, enterprise demands for building industry and access to industry resources and the connections will remain strong. As AI adoption accelerates, the demand is only increasing. Our content influences industrial service and technological application capabilities, working concerns to form a closed loop.

As for the mix between the two, content advertising remains our business foundation and our traffic gateway. While industrial service are our growth engine and the driver of matching expansions, the relationship between them is a flywheel, not a substitution. Our content influence builds customer trust and stresses our ability to connect to industry resources. In turn, our industrial service deepen our content and industry insights, ultimately attracting more advertising customers.

The first half of the year, we continue to deepen our three-year strategy cooperation. Our project with Hangzhou, Tian, and our 2026 AI partners in Beijing, Yichang, also stressed out our ecosystem influence. Our industrial service and the gradually evolving from one-off event towards ongoing operations. That said, content advertising will remain foundational to our revenue base. In the first half of these years, our flagship channels contribute nearly half of online advertising revenues, and both broad videos and institutional communication revenues doubled year over year. With both growth and gaming momentum, we are confident in our future trajectory. Thank you.

Okay. Thank you once again for joining us today. If you have further questions, please feel free to contact the 36Kr's 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.