Kanzhun - Earnings Call - Q1 2025
May 22, 2025
Transcript
Operator (participant)
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to Kanzhun Limited's first 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 a 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.
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
Thank you, Operator. Good evening and good morning, everyone. Welcome to our first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Joining me today are our Founder, Chairman, and CEO, Mr. Jonathan Peng Zhao, and our Director and CFO, Mr. Phil Yu Zhang. Before we start, we would like to remind you that today's discussion may contain forward-looking statements, which are based on management's current expectations and observations that involve known and unknown risks, 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 cautions 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-GAAP financial measures for comparison purposes only.
For a definition of non-GAAP financial measures and the reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial results, please see the earnings release issued earlier today. In addition, a webcast replay of this conference call will be available on our website at ir.zhipin.com. Now, I will turn the call to Jonathan, our Founder, Chairman, and CEO.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 大家好，欢迎参加我们公司2025年一季度业绩发布会。我谨代表公司全体员工、管理层和董事会，向长期信赖我们的用户、持续支持我们的投资人致以诚挚的谢意。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
Hello everyone, thank you for joining our company's first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. 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.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 围绕投资人的关心，这次我主要报告几个方面的事情。一是我们聚焦在保证利润上，成果不错；二是大家关心的关税战对我们业务的影响。我的观察是，影响还没有扩大；三是AI的事情在取得进展。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
In response to key investor concerns, I would like to report on a few main topics. First, we have remained focused on driving profitability with encouraging results. Second, regarding the ongoing tariff war, which is a concern for many, my observation is that its impact on our business has not intensified. Third, we have continued to make solid progress on the AI front.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 我首先报告一下主要的业绩数字。一季度公司实现收入19.2亿元，同比增长13%；净利润5.1亿元，同比增长112%。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
Let me start with an overview of our financial performance. In the first quarter, the company achieved a GAAP revenue of CNY 1.92 billion, up 13% year-on-year. Our net income reached CNY 510 million, reflecting a 112% year-on-year growth.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 这几年的不确定性促使公司制定了一个战略，这就是公司要聚焦在少数的正确的事情上，从而增加经营的确定性。基于此，去年底公司明确地提出了要保利润。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
The various uncertainties of recent years have prompted the company to formulate a strategy, which is to focus intensely on very few high-impact priorities to enhance operational certainty. Based on this, at the end of last year, we clearly proposed to guarantee profits.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 不考虑理财等其他收益，一季度经调整后营业利润为6.9亿元，营业利润率达到36%。去年一季度是23%，利润率同比提升了13个百分点。总体上，这个成绩体现了公司落实战略目标的执行力以及优秀的经营杠杆效应。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
Excluding other income, such as wealth management income, our adjusted operating income was CNY 690 million for the first quarter. Adjusted operating margin was 36%, up 13 percentage points year-on-year, compared to 23% the same period last year. Overall, this achievement demonstrated the company's capability to implement strategic goals and exceptional operational averages.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 搞好利润涉及到控制成本和收入增长。关于成本，其中有两件事情值得提到。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
Increasing profitability involves both cost control and revenue growth. With respect to cost, there are two things worth mentioning.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 第一是SBC下降。本季度的股权激励费用绝对值环比下降10%，占收入的比例同比缩小接近4个百分点。之前我们做过预测，随着公司在IPO之后时间越长，以及随着公司收入的增长，SBC对利润的影响会出现绝对值及占比都下降的趋势。这个趋势还将持续。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
First is the decrease of SBC expenses. Our share-based compensation expenses this quarter were down by 10% quarter-on-quarter. As a proportion of revenue, this represents a narrowing of nearly 4 percentage points year-on-year. We have previously predicted that the longer time passes since the IPO, as well as the growth of our revenue, the impact of SBC expenses on profits will decline in both absolute value and percentage. This trend will continue.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 第二是市场投放效力的提高。今年1到4月，公司累计新增完善用户超过1,500万人。一季度BOSS直屏APP端平均完善MAU是5,756万人，同比增长24%。其中春节过后的3月，APP端月活用户规模接近6,500万人，且单个用户的达成数量同环比均保持上涨。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
Second is the improvement of marketing efficiency. From January to April this year, the company added over 15 million verified new users. In the first quarter, the average verified monthly active users on the BOSS Zhipin app reached 57.56 million, up 24% year-on-year. Post-Chinese New Year, monthly active users in March approached 65 million. The average number of achievements per user continued to increase both quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 在市场费用减少的前提下，我们依然保持了强劲的用户增长，受益于我们的模式所具备的双边网络效应，以及我们持续注重提升用户满意度。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
We maintained robust user growth despite the decrease in marketing expenses, benefiting from the two-sided network effects of our model and our continued focus on improving user satisfaction.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 我们的收入增长核心驱动因子仍然是由用户增长和渗透率提升带动，因此收入增长与用户增长呈现出高度相关的结构性变化。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
Our core revenue growth drivers are still the growth of users and the increase in penetration rate. Therefore, revenue growth and user growth showed a highly correlated structural change.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 第一，新增用户当中蓝领群体占比超过45%，带动蓝领收入占比在一季度继续提升至超过了39%。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
First, blue-collar new users accounted for over 45% of our total new users in the first quarter, driving their shares of revenue up to more than 39%.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 第二，随着新增用户在三线及以下城市的扩大，我们看到三线及以下城市的收入贡献同比亦提升了3个百分点，至超过了23%。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
Second, alongside with the higher growth rate of new users among tier-three and lower-tier cities, the revenue contribution from tier 3 and below goes up by 3 percentage points to over 23%.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 第三，小微企业我们可以定义是雇员在100人以下的企业，在平台日益变多，并导致小微企业所贡献的收入占比在同期创历史的新高。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
Third, revenue from enterprises with fewer than 100 employees hit a record high contribution for the period due to the higher growth rate of the smaller-sized companies.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 很多人关心的关税战的影响，我们也非常重视。到现在为止，我们总的结论就是关税战对我们平台求职招聘供求关系这件事并未构成严重影响。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
Many people are concerned about the impact of the tariff war. We also take it seriously. So far, our overall conclusion is, with regard to the job seeking and recruitment supply and demand relationship, no severe impact of the war has been observed so far.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 总体上我们观察到，春节以来平台在企业端的招聘需求仍然保持着恢复的态势。1到4月平均新增发布职位数同比涨了17%。活跃用户的付费率环比有改善。那么带动公司在截止到3月31日之前的整个12个月，付费企业端的客户数同比增长12%到638万。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
In general, we observe that hiring demand from enterprises has continued to show a recovery trend since Chinese New Year. From January to April, average new job postings grew 17% year-on-year, while the paying ratio improved sequentially, boosting total paid enterprise customers in the 12 months ended March 31st to 6.38 million, up 12% year-on-year.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 从行业的维度观察，以餐饮零售为代表的服务业蓝领招聘需求，4月份以来环比持续回暖。制造业招聘需求在关税的影响之下显示了它的韧性，4月份的新增职位数同比保持增长。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
From industry perspective, recruitment demand for blue-collar workers, represented by urban service sectors such as catering and retail, has been continuously and steadily rebounding since April. Manufacturing recruitment has demonstrated resilience despite the impact of tariffs, with the number of new job postings maintaining year-on-year growth in April.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 这个时期的白领招聘需求也呈现出了企稳回升的态势，其中广告行业、专业服务行业、互联网、金融、汽车等等行业在增速上同比增速上领跑。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
Meanwhile, recruitment demand for white-collar has also stabilized and begun to recover, with industries such as advertising, professional services, internet, finance, and automotive leading in year-on-year growth rate.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language]
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
Since last quarter, market has been very concerned about AI. We also attach great importance to AI in our own daily operations in the recent two years. In this quarter, in terms of products and services, we continue to deepen application of AI technology and expand the scale and the penetration rate of AI testing users. Now allow me to expand on our AI developments. We'll break it down into three key aspects: AI 2C to job seekers, AI 2B to recruiters and AI to management.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language]
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
First, AI 2C. The first item is the grayscale testing, also known as phased rollout, we mentioned in our last earnings call, which is after a user contacts us search, we do not only need to give the result, but also provide an explanation by AI why the result is what it is. Initial outcomes showed promising results, and we have now rolled it out to all users.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] AI 2C的第二件事，上次我们报告会也说过，我们有一个ai的面试机器人，它陪用户去练习怎么面对面试。实验表明这件事情在增加推荐系统对于用户的理解上很有帮助，这个帮助是可见的。因此呢，现在我们已经把这个机器人开放给了所有的学生以及所有工作三年以内经验的年轻人。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
The second thing of AI 2C, which we also mentioned during our last call, is our AI-powered interview robot designed to help users practice interview skills. Our experiments have shown that it can meaningfully enhance the recommendation system's understanding of individual user behaviors, and the outcome is quite significant. Now we have officially launched it for all students and young people with up to three years of work experience.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language]
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
Moving on to AI to recruiters, one is the application of AI technology, which has to some extent supported our exploration in closed-loop services. The result is, in the first quarter, the number of enterprises we provide placement-like services grew by about 30% quarter-over-quarter. We are now starting to see some cash ins.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 另外一个是我们测试了一个agent，这个agent它可以去跟用户有一些交互，来理解它的一些个性化的招聘诉求。之后呢，就开始在整个平台来搜索适合这个招聘者的候选人。那么这个agent现在还在进化当中，我们so far看到它可以提高匹配的精准度。一个数据是这样，使用了这个agent的招聘者在跟求职者达成的意向的效率上提升了25%。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
The other one is an agent which can interact with the users. The agent can guide the enterprise users to convey their personalized recruitment demand and proactively search for suitable candidates across the platform. The agent is still evolving, but we have witnessed that this agent can effectively improve the matching accuracy. Enterprise users who have used the agent seeing a 25% increase in achieve their efficiency recruitment results.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 虽然如此，我们对于这个全面扩大这个招聘机器人去帮助所有的招聘者这件事还是保持极度谨慎的态度。我们的策略大概是这样两部分组成。首先，在招聘机器人的能力建设上我们没有设限。第二，在什么时候，在多大范围内，在什么条件下去推广这个招聘机器人，我们继续保持极度谨慎。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
That said, we remain extremely cautious about broadly expanding the robot's role of allowing it to somehow, even somehow partially replace human recruiters. Our current strategy is as follows: first, we place no limits on building the recruitment boss capabilities. Second, we are extremely prudent about when and how widely we will deploy the robot.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language]
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
The third is AI to management. Two things to talk about. First thing, the reformation of weekly reports. Now, after one finished their weekly report, we have our proprietary AI system to help create a concise summary version, which can still be revised by you. That way, you have two reports sent to your hire app. One is a summative AI plus modified; the other one is your original version. Until now, the supervisor's behavior is trying to check the concise version first, then move on to the longer one.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 刚才讲的这个其实是一个基础。那么它真正的实现价值的方向大概是这样的。现在呢，我们的AI会把一个人历史以来多次写过的周报来进行研究，连接在一起去看。同时来讲呢，会把相关的上下游部门的横向的周报进行研读。那么如果出现比较多的，一个人比较多的项目闭环，内容总是比较空洞，大词儿啊，大话比较多。那么这个呢，AI就会有所提醒。我理解这件事情其实是会有点价值的。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
That's some basic applications at today. The value to how to realize the value is the AI will study your historical weekly reports and also read across weekly reports from related departments. If there are too many projects that are not closed loop, or the content is empty, or there are too many big words, the AI will remind you. This is a supplement to human capabilities.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] AI to management的第二件事情是我们在人力资源的工作当中用AI，现在是搞一些评价。实际上如果完全依靠人对人进行评价，即使是所谓360度的评价，它也可能会受到两种噪音的影响。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
The second thing on AI to management is the use case for talent evaluation. When we merely rely on humans for performance appraisal, even so-called 360 degrees, there might be interference from two noisy sources.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 第一个就是人是健忘的。比如一个人他以前的劳动，以前的功劳会逐步被淡化。越是最近的 performance，那么在管理者那里就印象越深。这是一个很人性的东西。因此作为一个长期评价来讲，这样恐怕是不合适的。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
The first thing is forgetfulness. For example, a person's previous contributions will be downplayed, and recent performance will be more important. It's quite human natural, but this might not be appropriate as a long-term evaluation.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 第二个呢，就是我们这种智人其实都有一个本质，就是我们会让别人看到我们想让他看的东西。这也是非常人性的。与此同时呢，一个上级他有意识的或者无意识的，也会对于自己下级的信息进行某种筛选和改变，然后向上呈现。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
The second thing is also quite according to human nature. So a homo sapiens will see what others want you to see. One's superior may consciously or unconsciously filter and change their subordinates' information before presenting it upward.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 但是AI是客观的。那么在保护好一个员工的隐私跟尊严的前提下，AI可以看到更长时间的更客观的业绩和数据的变化。AI不会因为喜欢一个人，喜欢一个人的个性而喜欢他，也不会因为不喜欢一个人，一个有竞争关系的人而去贬低他。所以从这个意义上来讲，AI在人力资源管理当中的应用，它会是一个更平等的机会。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
However, AI is objective. Under the premises of protecting employees' privacy and dignity, AI can see the objective changes in past performance data. AI will not like an employee because it likes his characters, or will not evaluate him badly because it dislikes the employee. AI is neutral and impartial in terms of human resource applications.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 综上呢，对于AI在to C、to B跟to management三件事情上的尝试和探索，在我心里面甚至是一样重要的，是一样重要的。总体2025年第一季度还不错，今年总体的预感也还好，我们会继续努力。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
To sum up, for the AI to job seekers, to enterprise users, and to management, these three aspects, our exploration and the research are equally important. To sum up, the first quarter of 2025 was solid. On the whole, we are positive for the year ahead, and we will continue to work hard.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 我的部分就介绍到这里。接下来由我们的CFO Phil为大家介绍我们的财务状况，谢谢。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
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.
Phil Yu Zhang (CFO)
Thanks, Jonathan. Hello everyone. Now let me walk through the details of our financial results of the first quarter of 2025. We are delighted to record a solid start to the year, characterized by continuous expansion in our user base and engagement, and sustainable revenue growth. In this quarter, our revenues reached CNY 1.9 billion, representing a 13% year-on-year growth. We experienced a decent spring recruitment season with continuous improvement in enterprise hiring demand, evidenced by the growth of our cash collections, which has bottomed out from the last quarter. Revenues from key accounts and small-sized accounts both contributed higher growth rates in the quarter. Our paid enterprise customers grew by 12% year-on-year to 6.4 million in the previous 12 months, ended March 31st, primarily driven by the growth of enterprise users.
Paying ratio among active enterprise users increased on a sequential basis as the supply-to-demand situation of the labor market improved from the previous quarter. ARPPU increased by 5% year-on-year, mainly due to the expansion of paying amount from key accounts. Moving to the cost side, total operating costs and expenses decreased by 8% year-on-year to CNY 1.5 billion in the first quarter. Share-based compensation expenses dropped by 13% year-on-year and 10% quarter-over-quarter to CNY 252 million, shrinking for the third consecutive quarters. Excluding share-based compensation expenses, adjusted operating costs and expenses decreased by 6% year-on-year to CNY 1.2 billion, and our adjusted operating margin reached 36%, up by 13 percentage points year-on-year. A showcase of our disciplined cost control and high operating leverage, despite Q1 normally having the lowest margin within the full year due to seasonality.
Cost of revenues increased by 5% year-on-year to CNY 311 million this quarter. Gross margin went up by 1.1 percentage points to 83.8% compared to the same period of last year, as a testimony of our AI application to improve our operating efficiency. Sales and marketing expenses decreased by 15% year-on-year to CNY 491 million during this quarter, primarily due to decreases in advertising and marketing expenses and employee-related expenses. However, our strong brand recognition enhanced the marketing efficiency, and superior user engagement guaranteed that we can still maintain robust user growth momentum. Our R&D expenses decreased by 9% year-on-year to CNY 424 million in this quarter, and it was relatively stable sequentially. This decrease was primarily driven by lower employee-related expenses and reduced public cloud expenses related to AI. Our G&A expenses were CNY 266 million in this quarter, remaining relatively stable both year-on-year and quarter-over-quarter.
Our net income reached CNY 512 million in this quarter, up 112% year-on-year, while adjusted net income increased by 44% to CNY 764 million. Net margin improved to 26.6%, up 12 percentage points year-on-year, while our adjusted net margin increased to 39.7%, up 8.6 percentage points year-on-year. Net cash provided by operating activities reached CNY 1.0 billion in this quarter, up 11% year-on-year. Our cash position totaled CNY 14.8 billion as of March 31st, 2025. Our strong cash generation and robust cash position provide financial flexibility to execute growth initiatives and enhance shareholder returns. Now, for our business outlook, for the second quarter of 2025, we expect our total revenues to be between CNY 2.05 billion and CNY 2.08 billion, with a year-on-year increase of 7.0%-8.5%.
Please note this growth rate will also bottom out this quarter, driven by continued improvement of cash collection growth in the year. That concludes our prepared remarks. Now we would like to answer questions. Operator, please go ahead.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. We will now begin the question and answer session. To ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star one one again. We will now take our first question from the line of Eddy Wang from Morgan Stanley. Please ask your question, Eddy.
Eddy Wang (Executive Director)
[Foreign language] 谢谢赵总与各位晚辈接受我的提问。那我这边两个问题，第一个是可不可以请分享一下，就是关税战开始到缓和在过去这一个月当中，我们从微观层面上有没有看到这个企业招聘需求的变化，以及这个变化是怎么样演变的这个过程。另外就是说近期是否看到这个企业招聘需求有更强劲的复苏，这是第一个问题。然后第二个问题是，其实如果我记得没错的话，在去年可能5月之后，这个宏观变弱叠加这个毕业季招聘需求供需关系，然后就也开始走弱了。那对比去年同期，今年四五月目前的走势大概是怎么样的，招聘需求不同的行业、不同规模企业之间的变化又是怎么样的，然后这样的趋势是不会延续到这个今年六七月份的这个毕业季。我自己很快翻译一下。 Thank you for taking my questions. I have two questions. The first one is that would you please give us a debrief of how the hiring demand evolved over the past months from the start of the tariff war till it eases, and have we seen any signs of the recovery in hiring demand recently? And the second question is that if I remember correctly, after May last year, macro weakness coincided with a graduation season has led to a deterioration of recruitment demand. How does the current recruitment demand trend in April and May compare with the same period last year? And have we seen different trends among different industries and different sizes of the enterprises? Will such trend continue into the graduate season in June and July? [Foreign language] 谢谢。
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 大家都关心这个关税战的事，那个我回答你第一个问题。我们主要还是看招聘者发布职位跟求职者找工作这样一组供求关系，对我们平台来说是一个最有影响的关系。那么首先是整个供求关系，今年以来，今年以来总体上处于持续改善的一个趋势当中，这个趋势没有什么疑问。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
Thank you for your question. About the first one, which is tariff war, everybody is concerning. We are still looking from the supply and demand perspective of job seekers posting job expectations and recruiters posting job postings. This is the most important, has the most high importance to our platform. In general speaking, the improvement, the recovery or recruitment trend, continued recruitment trend is still the case, that is undoubtedly.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 然后刚才在报告当中说到一个我们的一个总的观点，这也是很严肃的一个观点，就是整个关税战对我平台供求关系的影响。我观察的结论就是这个影响尚未扩大。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
The view we talked during our prepared remarks, which is quite serious, that in general speaking, the tariff war impact on our overall supply and demand relationship is still quite limited.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 客观上讲，我们有一个要讲一下的是，就是我们平台上的行业跟地区都非常的广大，非常的分散，其中外贸出口的相关行业和地区，它的职位数和收入的贡献迄今为止在我平台占比都较低。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
Objectively speaking, we have a quite diversified industry and location distribution, so the export-related industries, both in terms of revenue and the number of job posting contributions, are quite low.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 看一个数据上的趋势，4月份跟5月份整体的新增职位数以及这个职位在线能活跃的情况，活跃的职位数都保持了一个良好的增长，没有看到相比3月份，没有看到相比3月份有明显的回落。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
If we look at the detailed numbers, for example, in April and May, the total number of new job postings and active job postings have kept a good growth rate. We haven't seen any significant fallback compared to March.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 对于受到关税影响，关税战影响较大的行业，比如外贸类的职位，这个职位的增长在4月初看到一些环比增长的放缓，但是到5月中旬之后已经恢复了增长的趋势。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
For industries which affected bigger by the tariffs, such as export-related jobs, we saw some slowing in terms of growth rate in the beginning of April, but it has recovered after mid-May.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 关于你的第二个问题，关于你的第二个问题，我们看到的大的景象是刚才说过的，今年的招聘求职供求关系是持续的向好。那么刚才你问的也比较具体，那这个比例关系5月份 versus 春节之后的这个变化，今年跟去年，今年5月份对春节以后，去年5月份对春节以后来看，今年的趋势要好于去年同期。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
The second question regarding the overall recruitment market, so the overall supply and demand relationship has continued to improve in this year. Let's take a detailed look at after the days after May compared to the same days after the Spring Festival. This year we saw better growth trend compared to last year between after May, especially after Labor Day holiday and after Spring Festival.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 可以分开说一下，几个数，4月份到现在为止新发的职位和发职位的招聘者的数量，这两件事情的环比趋势好于去年。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
Let's look at some detailed numbers. In April till today, since April till today, the number of newly posted jobs and the number of recruiters who posted jobs number, the sequential trend are better compared to last year.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 其中蓝领在3到5月份的同比增幅逐月在扩大，尤其是服务业。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
Among which the blue-collar sector, especially urban service blue-collar sector, the year-on-year growth rate continued to enlarge from March to May.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 刚才你问到6到7月毕业季会怎么样，我只能说我挺难去预测，但是我的体感是，我的感觉是6、7月份也会不错，因为很快就来了。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
About our prediction for June and July, the graduation season, it's hard to say we can predict precisely, but according to my personal feelings, it could be okay since it's coming.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 以上是我的回答，Eddy。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
That is my answer to your question, Eddy, and Operator, let's move on to the next one.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Timothy Zhao from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead, Timothy.
Timothy Zhao (Equity Research Analyst)
[Foreign language] 好的，感谢关于曾接受我的提问。那我这边有两条问题想要请教一下。第一个是关于我们的AI的进展，那因为我们知道BOSS在内部测试一些针对B和C的这个AI的功能，那想请教一下目前测试的反馈是怎么样，那我们预计在什么时候可以正式推出我们的这个AI的货币化的一些工具，以及我们怎么去衡量它对我们的收入的提升。那第二个是想请教一下我们的一个利润，特别是考虑到最新的一个宏观的影响和用户增长和货币化率的一些变化，那之前公司30个亿的这个 non-GAAP operating profit 的一个预期是否会有改变，那我们在下半年的一个相对应还会有一些不确定性情况下面，我们会有哪些的措施来保证这个利润的一个实现，那如果看到更长远的话，那公司未来的一个利润的利润率的空间以及应该会怎么考虑，另外可不可以再请公司分享一下我们的这个 capital allocation 的一些计划。那我很快翻译一下。 Thank you, management, for taking my questions. Two questions here from my side. First, we understand that the company has been internally testing the AI features for both enterprises and job seekers. Could management share what is the feedback so far and what is the plan for the company to launch the AI monetization features? Secondly, is considering the latest macro environment as well as the monetization rate as well as user growth? Just wondering how does management see the CNY 3 billion non-GAAP operating profit target for this year? And into the second half, what are our leverage to make sure this CNY 3 billion target is achievable? What is the longer-term market expansion as in room for the company? Additionally, could management share about our plan for capital allocation? Thank you.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 的事情，另外关于我们利润的那个 target 以及相关的问题，我想请我们 CFO 来回答，最后来回答。我先说第一个，就是实际上刚才在我报告的时候谈到了不少 AI 的事情，我们可以总结说我们进行的一系列的灰度实验，总体的反馈是比较正面的。这其实也取决于我们进行灰度实验之前本身也比较谨慎，我们在 AI 这件事情上态度一直是谨慎的，熟悉我们的投资人和分析师应该是了解这一点。那么你刚才。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
Thank you for your question. I will take the first one regarding AI, and our CFO will answer the second question regarding the margin. About AI, it's good to summarize that our series of phased-out AI product testing has quite positive feedbacks, we have just mentioned, and this is based on that we have been continued to be very cautious in terms of using AI, and I think analysts and investors who are familiar with us know our views.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 刚才也提到了有些我们做灰度测试的其实已经全量给特定的用户群在使用了，这也是一个循序渐进的过程。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
We just mentioned that some of our testing products have already opened to all of our users. It's a gradual process.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 不过你问到我这个，因为跟钱有关系，你问我什么时候搞货币化，我其实是可以说一点，它不是钱，但是这里面有钱味，你能闻到钱的味道。我想讲两个数据给你。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
Regarding the monetization, I would like to share two data with you.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 那第一个就是说，在灰度使用了我们 AI 招聘功能的这些招聘者，在同样的劳动量的情况下，就是他还是要做点劳动的，不是完全机器替代的，他的达成效率其实是提高了四分之一。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
For the recruiters who have grayscale used our AI recruitment function, his efficiency of achievement increased by 25% under the same amount of conversations.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 另外就是我们的 AI 沟通助手，我们这件事情在大规模的内测当中积累了服务了超过 9 million 对的对话，那么实际上是在他的帮助之下，求职者的达成率有 15% 的提升。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
The AI communication assistant has accumulatively served over 9 million conversations during our massive grayscale test. The job seekers who have been responded by the AI communication assistant, his achievement rate increased by 15%.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 我觉得从原理上提高了效率，然后提升了感受，然后节约了时间和劳动，这里面都能闻到钱味，但是我还是会说在 AI 这件事赚钱上我们会比较谨慎，我会把它看作是一个慢钱，但是有可能是 some real money.
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
In principle, the AI products can improve the efficiency, increase your user experience, and save you some time, but in reality, we are still quite cautious. My view is we might be relatively gradually and slowly on the AI adoption of monetization, but it must be some real money.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language]
Phil Yu Zhang (CFO)
I'd like to answer the profitability and margin question. As Jonathan mentioned in the prepared remarks earlier, even under current conditions with many external uncertainties, the company's overarching goal for this year is to secure a solid bottom line growth first, then try our best to grow faster with our business. In the first quarter, we had a good start, and we managed to reduce costs to improve overall efficiency for most of the cost and expenses items. Our marketing fees dropped in absolute amount versus last year, but we still achieved satisfactory new user growth. We had higher revenue, but our sales guys, number of our sales dropped. Headcounts for R&D, administrative cost, and operation functions kept stable. Our internal AI tools kicked in for the platform's operation and verification jobs, which leads to improvement of our gross margin.
You should know that our margin in the first quarter is the lowest due to the seasonality. With all the measures mentioned above, there is still room to improve in the second quarter, second half of the year. We are confident with our CNY 3 billion non-GAAP operating profit target for the full year. This is the comment for the profitability and margin. Regarding the shareholder return topic, the company currently has more than $2 billion cash and equivalents on hand. We consider shareholder returns a very important topic, and we like to do whatever feeds us. Currently, our share repurchase program is still ongoing, and we definitely will continue. At the same time, we are studying and doing some assessment for other means, other measures to increase our shareholder return. Please stay tuned. We would like to do it step by step.
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
Okay, that's our answer to those two questions, and Operator, let's move on to the next one.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. Next question comes from Wei Xiong from UBS. Please ask your question, Wei.
Wei Xiong (Equity Research Analyst)
[Foreign language] 好的，赵总，宇哥，文贝，晚上好。感谢管理层接受我的提问。那我也有两个问题想请教。首先我想追问一下 AI 这方面，因为观察到其实人力资源行业也已经开始广泛地应用 AI，那咱们目前有没有看到竞争格局上有什么正在发生或者潜在会发生的变化？那咱们能不能借助 AI 进一步地拓展我们的服务内容？那第二个问题是咱们之前也介绍了在蓝领跟下沉市场方面的进展，那想请管理层再更新一下目前咱们在蓝领这边的情况，主要今年有哪些 KPI，然后我们在交付这些新业务的进展是怎么样的？那我也自己翻译一下。 Thank you, management, for taking my question. First, with the wider adoption of AI in the human resources industry, are we seeing any changes or expecting any potential changes in the competitive landscape? And can we leverage AI to actually further expand our service offerings? And secondly, could management share more updates regarding our blue-collar recruiting business? What are the key KPIs for this year, and how is our progress in the new businesses such as placement services? Thank you.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 关于 AI 是不是已经使得我们行业的竞争格局发生改变，我的看法会偏保守。我有一个界定，就是这一代 AI，就是现在我们看到的主流的大语言模型，以及迄今为止市面上已经能看到的应用，把这两个放在一起，我觉得还看不到能够使得我们行业竞争格局发生根本改变的机会。总体还比较的平稳。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
About your first question of how AI will impact the competitive landscape, my view is relatively conservative. My assessment is for this generation of AI technology and all the AI applications we can observe from the market, we have not seen any revolutionary or disruptive changes, so the competitive landscape is relatively stable.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language]
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
I also have some predictions that globally, amongst the human resource industries, there is a new generation of AI products that can change the overall landscape. There must be push by the new generation of AI technology, which might be like the 1.5 or 2.0 generation.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 因此虽然我们没有看到行业的竞争格局有颠覆性的变化，但是我们还是会放非常重的资源在 AI 这件事情上。比如说我们去年以来我们买了十多个亿的芯片，使得我们能够搞一些自研和小范围的测试性的推理服务。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
Even though we haven't observed any revolutionary changes of the industry, we still place very high importance on AI and AI-related investment. For example, last year, actually since 2023, we have bought more than CNY 1 billion of chips, which is enough for us to conduct self-develop research and small-scale inference.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 在 AI 发音之上，我们仍然支持一个小规模的实验室来保持我们自己的预训练的能力，尤其是对于开源的先进模型的复现能力。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
In terms of AI science, we still maintain a small-scale lab for us to be able to conduct pre-training of our own model and replicate all those open-source models.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 实际上我们也有信心，就是在 AI applications、AI agents 上面，我们其实是有点，不能说优势，就是适合 AI 来发挥现实的作用。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
In fact, we are actually quite confident that in terms of using AI science for AI application, our business scenario is actually quite suitable to applicate the power of AI for AI to have some effects on our business.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 那么在这个过程当中，我们比刚刚看到 ChatGPT 的时候，到现在我们其实那个时候的恐慌跟好奇，到今天我们其实是更确定性地感到这一代大语言模型已经能够给我们手里的工作带来帮助。所以我觉得这个工作变得更现实了。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
Compared to the first emergence of ChatGPT, when we felt a little bit panic or curious at that time, now we have more certainty on the AI technology can actually help with our business and with more real feelings.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 刚才提到的一个话题还可以再说一句，就是很多互联网招聘企业都想追求一个闭环的过程。那么这件事情其实在 AI 的帮助下会看到一些效果。我觉得我们会更有确定性地去证明这件事可以大规模地实现，或者证明这件事情不能大规模地实现，我觉得都更现实了。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
A lot of online recruitment platforms have long been pursuing the closed loop or placement service. Now with the help of AI technology, we have more certainty to confirm that whether we can achieve closed loop service in a big scale or not.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 目前看到蓝领的领域还有占到了我们新增用户的 45%，蓝领的收入超过了我们收入的 39%。我们确实是越来越重视这个工作，与此同时三线以下城市的收入也在增加，这个确实是我们应该更加重视的方向。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
With blue-collar sector, new user contribution more than 45%, revenue contribution more than 39%, and increased revenue contribution from third tier and below cities. These aspects actually are becoming more and more important for our daily operations.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 我更愿意用一个词来形容我们在服务蓝领和服务第一线城市的时候的感受，这个词就是事情会更加简化，会更加简洁。不管是蓝领还是第一线城市的白领，对我们软件的使用都会，他们希望会更加简单、更加简洁，有更加简化的服务流程和内容，这也是我们努力方向。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
If we want one word to summarize our future efforts to serve the blue-collar and the lower tier city users, it's our service and products will be more simple and clear.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 那你看蓝领的交付这件事情，其实蓝领交付的这件事情是我们在蓝领这件事情上一直在花资源、花时间的一件事情。现在我觉得蓝领的交付这个生意，它的本质可能是效率以及结果的可靠性。那么如果是这样的话，AI 能帮的忙就比较清晰了。那我也愿意是我们现在看到的 AI 给我们交付带来的帮助也是因为这个原因。我也愿意是这样的，那我们现在还在持续地投入。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
In terms of placement business, especially on the blue-collar placement, we have been spending a lot of resources and time. The key point is to guarantee the efficiency and the reliability of your results. If AI application can really help with those two aspects, then we do feel some confidence in this prospect, and that's why we want to further invest in this area.
Jonathan Peng Zhao (Founder, Chairman, and CEO)
[Foreign language] 以上是我的回答，熊总。
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
That's my answer to your question. Operator, I think that's the last one due to the time constraint.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. Yes, 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.
Wenbei Wang (Head of Investor Relations)
Thank you, Operator, and thank you everyone for joining our call today. If you have any further questions, please contact our AI team directly or TPG Investor Relations. Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect your lines.