36KR Holdings (NASDAQ:KRKR) released quarterly financial results and hosted an earnings call on Thursday. Read the complete transcript below.

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Summary

36KR Holdings Inc. reported a 33.7% year-over-year revenue increase, reaching 124 million RMB for the first half of 2026, driven primarily by growth in online advertising services.

The company achieved a gross profit of 82.68 million RMB, up 33.1% year over year, with a gross profit margin of 66.4%, reflecting strong operational efficiency and cost control.

Strategic initiatives included expanding their content ecosystem across major media platforms, enhancing AI and industrial services, and launching new content formats to diversify revenue streams.

The company continued to capitalize on trends in AI, robotics, and other emerging technologies, leveraging its industry insights and content influence to attract a broader customer base.

Management highlighted strong growth in the AI customer segment, with AI-related clients comprising approximately 40% of new customers, and discussed plans to replicate successful industrial service models in new regions.

Operational highlights included significant follower growth on various media platforms, successful content diversification into short videos and live streaming, and the introduction of new AI-based products and services.

Future outlook remains positive, with a focus on maintaining profitability while investing strategically in content and technology to drive growth.

Full Transcript

OPERATOR

Thank you for standing by and welcome to the 36KR Holdings Inc. 2026 First Half Earnings Conference Call. All participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question-and-answer session. If you wish to ask a question, you will need to press the star key followed by the number one on your telephone keypad. I would now like to hand the conference over to management to begin. Please go ahead.

Investor Relations

Thank you very much. Hello everyone and welcome to 36KR Holdings' first half 2026 earnings conference call. The company's financial and operational results were released earlier today and have been made available online. You can also view the earnings press release by visiting the IR section of our website, ir.statisticskr.com. Participants on today's call will include our Chairman and CEO, Mr. Dagongfeng Pao, 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 English interpretations. 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 this discussion will contain forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. As such, the company’s results may be materially different from the views expressed today. Further information regarding those and other risks and uncertainties is included in the company's prospectus and other public filings as filed with the U.S. SEC. The company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statement except as required under applicable law. Please note that 36KR's earnings press release and this conference call include discussion of unaudited GAAP financial measures as well as unaudited non-GAAP financial measures. 36KR's earnings press release contains reconciliations of unaudited non-GAAP measures to the unaudited GAAP measures, and please note that all amounts are in RMB. I will now turn the call over to our Chairman and CEO, Mr. Dagongfeng Pao. Please go ahead.

Dagongfeng Pao, Chairman and CEO

Thank you. Hello everyone. Thank you for joining 36KR's first half 2026 earnings conference call. In the first half of 2026, in the continued macroeconomic uncertainty, the company sustained its profitability trend and maintained solid results across all operating metrics. The key takeaway from this period's results is that our profitability is not a product of short-term financial adjustment, but sustainable commercial value built on the interplay of three strengths: content influence, industrial software service capabilities, and technological application prowess.

Total revenue was 124 million RMB in the first half of 2026, up 33.7% year over year. Gross profit was 82.68 million RMB, up 33.1% year over year with a gross 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. Those operating results stem from our long-standing strategy of being the picks and stones in the technology industry.

Rather than going all in on a single technology or industry cycle, we draw on sharp insight into technology and innovation trends, backed by years of expertise and robust assets, to consistently capitalize on opportunities unlocked by successive waves of industry transformations, from artificial intelligence and embodied intelligence to emerging industries such as nuclear fusion, quantum computing, and brain-computer interface. Wherever the next wave of technological innovation emerges, 36KR leverages visionary content layout and commercial service capabilities to engage with the server, business, capital, technology, and local industrial stakeholders across the value chain. The 36KR Industry Future Initiative is a primary example of this capability. By consistently providing forward-looking insights into the latest technology trends, we strengthen the competitive barriers around our content ecosystem, enhance our operating resilience across technology cycles, and deliver long-term sustainable growth in commercial value in the waves of technological evolution. Let's take a closer look at our major business progress for the period in the three areas: content ecosystem, commercialization and industrial service, technology and product.

First, content ecosystem. We consistently strengthened our content ecosystem during the period, maintaining 36KR's content influence across China's new economy and technology innovation sectors. We continue to expand our footprint across various channels, crafting a comprehensive circulation matrix encompassing major new media platforms like Weibo, Xiaohongshu, Toutiao, Zhihu, Bilibili, Douyin and Kuaishou, among others. Broader channel exposure brought us wider overall dispositions and higher visibility of our premium content.

At the end of June 2026, we had approximately 36.52 million followers. Meanwhile, we stayed attuned to trends and remained focused on enhancing content quality, consistently delivering high-caliber work while maintaining the influence of our flagship Chinese outlets including 36KR and 36KR Pro. We ramped up our efforts to spotlight the emergence of intelligence. Our AI-focused account covered the latest developments from AI industry giants including the ByteDance Star Team, DeepSeek and Alibaba Tongyi.

Tianren built an account model combining exclusive access to information with in-depth interviews. The channel has established a strong industry footprint in AI coverage. In addition, Hardcore KR sharpened its focus on the embodied intelligence value chain, differentiating itself through first-to-report coverage on standout funding and in-depth founder interviews. Its followers increased by approximately 27%, attracted by coverage spanning key segments across the value chain including brain chips, tactile sensors, robot body manufacturing, and on-device computing power.

Its Hardcore KR Conversation series offered in-depth perspectives from founders on their technology roadmaps and strategic choices, building a differentiated content moat in hardcore technology coverage. Other high-quality vertical-specific accounts like 36KR Auto, Future Consumption, 36KR Games, 36KR Finance and 36KR Industry Futures also continued to build momentum, balancing broad coverage with depth of expertise in specialized domains to provide users with valuable insights into industry trends and evolving business dynamics.

Beyond graphic and text content, we continue to diversify our content formats by delivering premium content across short and long-form videos, audio, live streaming and short plays. In short videos, our exceptional content creation capabilities earned us widespread visibility and rave reviews from users. Our video followers reached 9.63 million in the first half of 2026. We produced a total of 75 short videos, including a blockbuster on Douyin that garnered over 8.4 million views.

On other video platforms, we consistently created in-depth pieces that generated more than 1 million views each. On the commercial video side, we continue to produce high-quality content, working closely with companies in support of clients' digital and intelligence transformations, with one notable case achieving 230 million total exposure with a single breakout video. For live streaming, we made full use of our existing content-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 12th to 15th, 36KR launched the ANTME AI Lab, conducting live on-site coverage from eight of the most popular brand pavilions and the prevailing time-leading brands in depth, giving audiences a firsthand look at the latest real-world applications of AI technologies, broadcast simultaneously across diverse platforms. The live stream garnered 1.358 million total views and racked up over 80 million impressions network-wide.

During this year's World Artificial Intelligence Conference in July, 36KR served as ecosystem partner and special supporting media partner, joining hands with the organizing committee to launch the KR Talk series Future Lead Studio. The live stream combined expert panels, live exhibition coverage, video highlights, and in-depth interviews with companies, garnering 51.8 million total views and engaging 61,000 viewers across the 36KR live matrix. In terms of events, The Future elevated 36KR's role from that of a mere observer of industry trends to a facilitator for industry collaborations.

On May 19, 2026, we hosted the 2026 AI Partners Meet in Beijing Yizhuang, "AI to the Frontline." This meet focused on shifting AI from technical discussion to practical implementations, featuring a main forum and AI industry matchmaking meetings that connected technology providers with businesses holding real industry demand. Over the two-day event, we facilitated more than 100 rounds of in-depth closed-door matchmaking sessions, helping companies identify potential areas of collaboration around specific scenarios.

Our 2026 AI Partners Meet gathered approximately 120 million views and attracted over 1,000 on-site attendees. In addition, from June 16 to 17, 2026, we hosted Waves 2026 in Nansha, Guangdong. Themed "This Midsummer," 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, embodied intelligence, going global, healthcare and youth innovations.

The event also featured the Challenge for Intelligent Youth and the National AI Scenario Application Competition Finals. It focused on three areas: AI agents, embodied intelligent hardware and lightweight one-person entrepreneurship, providing young innovators and their projects with a platform for exposure, evaluation and feedback, and industry connections. Waves 2026 garnered 118 million views and attracted more than 2,000 on-site attendees. Harnessing our robust content influence and extensive content distribution channels, 36KR has developed a highly effective customer service system.

This has enabled us to achieve commercialization breakthroughs 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 grew significantly. New customers working with 36KR for the first time accounted for approximately one-third of our total customer base in the period.

AI, including foundation models, robotics and embodied intelligence, was a primary source of our new customers. We also acquired new customers in the consumer goods, healthcare, travel and mobility, education and training sectors. This answers for 36KR's leadership in new economy communication and our outstanding customer service capabilities. Meanwhile, In terms of commercialization of online resource, we generated 104 million RMB in revenue from online advertising service in the first half of 2026, up approximately 40% year over year. Our flagship channels including Statistics KR and Statistics KR Pro maintained industry leading commercial values. At the same time, the influence of our vertical media channels such as the Emergency of intelligence, hardcore kr36k, future consumption type and OUS 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 36K upro, 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. In institutional and entrepreneurial service, we continue to optimize our business structures establishing a dual engine growth model driven by our submit and ranking alongside content communications.

As the primary market gradually recovered, institutional demand for communication service surged with content, focus on institutional funding reason and the portfolio company financing growth rapidly, driving revenue to nearly double year over year. We fully leveraged the vertical accounts such as Waves and 36Kr Industry Futures to connect the content, enterprise capital technology and local industry resource further unlocking their commercial value.

In terms of industrial service commercialization, in addition to hosting large scale events in key regions, we continue to advancing recurring day to day industrial service. 1. Our three year strategic operation project with Hangzhou Tiantang new area including the Chinese Enterprise International Service Center Operation project and the AI Phenomena Community Operations Service project continued to progress steadily during this period. In the first half of the year we focus primarily on key industrial parks including the Qiantang Embedded Intelligence industry, delivering a diverse range of operational activities built around brand exposures, resource connections and enterprise service. This initiative effectively enhanced the park's industry profile, supporting investment inflows and industry building. On this project, we continue to deepen our industrial service capabilities in the Yangtze river deltas, laying the foundation of replication across the region. Furthermore, at this year's WAVE event we showcase the Yangtze River Delta's industrial resource for Great Bay Area entrepreneurs and investors, continues to bridge connection, technological innovation and real world industry applications.

Our industry service are progressively shifting from one off event towards ongoing operation and deeper customer partnership. In applying AI technologies, we continue to pursue a dual tracker strategy improving internal efficiency while productizing our AI capabilities for external stakeholders. In the first half of 2026 we hosted the KR AI Application Challenge internally to deepen adoption of AI tools across our operations. The initiative focused on identify protein practical applicable and high value use case for improving productivity with AI, fostering a culture where everyone know how to use AI, AI can be applied everywhere and AI is consistently used to improve efficiency. The competition brought improvement across customer sales process, video and image optimizations, internal process management and more while cultivating a company wide atmosphere of learning and knowledge sharing. We also continue to optimize our 36K project recommendations product. Using Foundation Model technology, we enable online AI conducted interviews to dig deeper into project and automatically generate project recommendations based on the interview content.

In the first half of 2026, our 36K project recommendations product helps entrepreneurs secure coverage and connection for 1,117 projects, increasing the conversion rate by nearly 80% year over year. On the product side, 36Kr and Soften jointly launched the 36Kr cooperate Omni Intelligence, which has many programs aimed at retire investors. Its daily sentiment analysis reports for public companies and experts insights help users make more informed decisions in stock market and other investment markets.

Cumulative users have reached 55,000 and 200, including more than 10,000 subscribers, up 50.8% and 61.7% respectively from 33,600 users and 6,187 subscribers at the end of 2025 and have more than doubled year over year. Our AI review hub at aifdracertificr.com was launched at the end of 2025. It is positioned as a DNP of AI tools, a community platform combining AI tools and authentic user reviews, primarily 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 continue to grow across user scale, ecosystem development and commercial values. On the content side we continue to scale volume while improving qualities, publishing accumulative 40001962 AI review articles, nearly 10 times the 560 articles published as of the end of 2025. Content appeal and user engagement are rising. Ecosystem appeal also continue to strengthen with 42 companies voluntarily listing their products on our AI Review hub, reflecting both market recognition of our positioning as the bnping of the AI application segment.

We also comprehensively expanded our review network, adding 25016 new reviewers and launching our campus Ambassador initiatives, building a dual tracker review network spanning both professional and student users. Meanwhile, we continue to broaden our external content distribution channels with diversified content disseminations, Economic Ecosystem, Deadly Tracking Shop. At the product capability levels we complete the case upgrade to core modules such as promotional placement, new community framework leaderboards and the product database.

We also roll out community AI Review agent with build testing blended testing capabilities, creating an end to end AI powered workflow from conversations to review to content postings. Commercially, we achieved a meaningful breakthrough on the strength of our team in deep product review content. We secured a paid commercialization partnership with Kerling and Quaso AI, validating our closed loop model from professional review content to commercial magnetization.

In short, our AI review segment continue to progress rapidly, made by growing industry influence, gather ecosystem breadth and deep and the expanding monetization capabilities. To sum up, in the first half of 2026 we maintained a solid financial position while steadily advancing our content innovation commercialization upgrade of AI industry applications. We will continue to build depth and emerging industry and technology verticals, become a trusted authority on value, a catalyzer of industry growth, 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. Go ahead, Hsiang.

Xiang Li, CFO

Thank you. Thank you for joining today's presentation. We will now review the first half of 2026 financial performance. Please note that all amounts are in RMB unless otherwise stated. Our company's total revenue increased by 33.7% to 124.6 million in the first half of 2026 from 93.2 million in the same period last year. Online advertising services revenues increased 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 our advertising solutions. Enterprise 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 margin improvement. Subscription 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% from 42.5 million in the same period last year. The decrease was primarily driven by the company's strict cost control measures. Gross profit increased by 63.1% to 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 by 6.6% to 59.6 million in the first half of 2026 from 55.9 million in the same period last year. Sales and marketing expenses were 29.2 million in the first half of 2026, remaining flat year over year, reflecting our disciplined approach to sales spending.

General and administrative expenses were 24.1 million in the first half of 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 doubtful accounts and the payroll related expenses. Research and development expenses were 6.4 million in the first half of 2026, remaining flat year over year, primarily reflecting our continued focus on R and 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 the 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 credits in the same period last year. Net income was 15.4 million in the first half of 2026 compared to a net loss of 4 point 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 ordinary shareholders was 15 million in the first half of 2026 compared to a net loss attributable to 36KR Holdings 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 cash equivalents, restricted cash and short term investments of 124.2 million, an increase of 6.9% from 116.1 million as of December 31, 2025. The increase was mainly attributable to positive cash inflow from operating activities.

Well, this concludes all our prepared remarks today. We will now open the call to questions. Operator, please go ahead.

OPERATOR

Thank you. If you wish to ask a question, please press star then one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press star then two. If you are on a speakerphone, please pick up the handset to ask a question. And the first question will come from Ling Yizhao with SWS Research. Please go ahead.

Ling Yizhao, Analyst at SWS Research

I would like to translate myself. Good evening. Good evening, management team. Thank you for giving me this opportunity, and my first question is: compared with other media outlets, what essential key differentiated in AI content coverage? Why do advertisers should sensually occur over specialized AI media outlets? And my second question is, looking ahead, what are the key growth engines for the company and how does management plan to balance increased investment in content and technology to drive growth with maintaining healthy profitability and solid cash flow?

Thank you.

Dagongfeng Pao, Chairman and CEO

And the differentiated advantage in AI content coverage comes down to three key areas. First, our broad-based platform reach. Our content matrix spans AI, hardcore 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, Toutiao, Zhihu, Bilibili, Douyin, and Kuaishou, among others. This allows advertisers on our platform to reach not only the AI industry audience, but also upstream and downstream businesses and cross-sector users simultaneously, something specialized AI media outlets cannot easily deliver. Second, our content model is built on exclusive information access combined with in-depth content output. At 36KR Holdings, we hold ourselves to extremely high standards for content quality. We don't simply follow the latest trends; we insist on real depth. We consistently offer incisive, original perspectives on industry developments and sector analysis, providing users with invaluable insights into industry trends and evolving business dynamics.

Our end-to-end industrial services mean advertisers choose 36KR not only for our professional content, but more importantly for our comprehensive service capabilities. For example, at this year's AI Partners Meet, we facilitated more than 100 rounds of in-depth, closed-door matchmaking sessions centered on real-world AI application scenarios, effectively connecting technology providers with companies looking for practical solutions. This demonstrates the strong capabilities we build in connecting the full industry value chain.

With 36KR, advertisers get more than brand exposure. They can also access industry resources and business partnership opportunities—integrated value perspectives that specialized media outlets cannot easily provide. For the second question regarding growth engines, I see four areas gaining traction in the near term. AI customer growth will be a key driver. Over the first half of the year, approximately 40% of our new customers came from the AI sector, and we continue to see strong momentum in this segment.

In the medium term, three other areas will run in tandem. First, we will deepen the commercialization of our sub-vertical content matrix. Our content, such as emerging intelligence and hardcore, has achieved significant follower growth, which is now unleashing its commercial value. Second, we will scale the monetization of AI products. Our AI review hub, ai.36kr.com, secured a paid commercialization partnership with Kaling Data, and the user data of the 36KR cooperative Omni Intelligence has doubled year over year.

Third, we will replicate our industrial service model across regions. With the Tiantang model now validated, we can roll it out in other regions. In terms of balancing investment and profitability, our philosophy is clear: we invest where we see a clear path to returns. Our financial results over the first half reflected this discipline. Gross profit margin continued to improve due to our ongoing efforts to control costs and optimize our customer mix.

We place a high priority on financial health and are continually improving operating efficiency while keeping our cost base lean. At the same time, we continue to invest in content. This is a core strength that will continuously build and reinforce the resilience and the sustainability of our business operations. We will never pursue growth at the expense of that. Every investment must have a clear business rationale and a clear path to return. Thank you, Lin.

OPERATOR

The next question will come from Rui Yin with Sealand Securities. Please go ahead.

Rui Yin, Analyst at Sealand Securities

Let me translate myself. What's the company's long-term strategic positioning in the AI era? How do you expect the mix between tech media outlet and industrial services platform to evolve in the future? Thank you.

Dagongfeng Pao, Chairman and CEO

Our strategic technology positioning in the AI era is crystal clear. We have always been the pick-and-shovel supplier in technology industries. No matter how technology evolves, enterprise demands for building industry insights and access to industry resources and connections will remain strong. As AI adoption accelerates, the demand is only increasing. Our content influence, industrial services, and technological application capabilities work in concert to form a closed loop.

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

In terms of how the balance will evolve, we expect the share of industrial services to increase. In the first half of the year, we continued to deepen our three-year strategic cooperation projects with the Hangzhou Tian area, and our 2026 AI Partners Meet in Beijing Yizhuang also strengthened our ecosystem influence. Our industrial services are gradually evolving from one-off events toward ongoing operations. That said, content advertising will remain foundational to our revenue base.

In the first half of this year, our flagship channels contributed nearly half of online advertising revenues, and both short videos and institutional communication revenues doubled year over year. With both growth engines gaining momentum, we are confident in our future strategy. Thank you.

OPERATOR

There are no further questions at this time. I would now like to hand the call back over to management for any closing remarks. Please go ahead.

Investor Relations

Okay, thank you once again for joining us today. If you have further questions, please feel free to contact 36KR Holdings Investor Relations through the contact information provided on our website.

OPERATOR

This does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

Disclaimer: This transcript is provided for informational purposes only. While we strive for accuracy, there may be errors or omissions in this automated transcription. For official company statements and financial information, please refer to the company's SEC filings and official press releases. Corporate participants' and analysts' statements reflect their views as of the date of this call and are subject to change without notice.