The recruitment app operator’s revenue has slowed steadily over the last three years as it solidifies its dominant position in China

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Key Takeaways:

  • Kanzhun’s revenue grew 14.1% in the second quarter, similar to last year’s growth rate but slower than its 24% growth in 2024
  • The Boss Zhipin recruitment app operator is using AI and deeper penetration of China’s smaller markets to expand at home, while also looking for opportunities abroad

What do you do to keep growing when you’re already the big "boss" in your home market? If you’re Kanzhun Ltd. (NASDAQ:BZ)(2076.HK), more commonly known in China for its leading Boss Zhipin recruitment app, you start looking overseas for new opportunities.

That was a highlight in the company’s second-quarter earnings report, released on Tuesday, where it dangled the possibility of expanding its OfferToday international service beyond its current Hong Kong base to other developing markets like Brazil, Vietnam and Argentina.

The reality is that Kanzhun is huge in China, estimating it has served around 300 million of the country’s 500 million urban workers over the course of its 12-year history. The company also estimates it has served 22 million enterprise customers over that time, compared with around 40 million active businesses nationwide right now.

Kanzhun detailed many of the things it’s doing to keep growing its business in China, including getting more of users to pay for its services and moving beyond its stronghold in major cities into smaller markets. It’s also improving its efficiency through greater economies of scale and use of AI to match employers with employees.

But there’s no escaping the fact that Kanzhun is no longer the high-growth company it once was. Its revenue has continued to grow every year since its 2021 IPO, which is no easy feat in the current challenging economic environment. But that growth rate has slowed steadily from 32% in 2023 to 24% in 2024 and just 12.4% last year.

The growth rate slowed further to just 7.6% in the first quarter of 2026. So, against that backdrop, its latest growth rate of 14.1% in the second quarter looks like a nice rebound, as the figure climbed to 2.4 billion yuan ($357 million) in the three-month period from 2.1 billion yuan a year earlier, according to its latest report.

The roughly two dozen analysts who follow the company expect Kanzhun to stabilize at its current growth rate, with most forecasting around 12.5% growth this year and next. Most are also broadly positive on the company, with 21 of the 23 polled by Yahoo Finance rating Kanzhun a "buy" or "strong buy," while the other two rate it a "hold."

It’s not difficult to see why they are broadly positive, since China is probably the world’s largest employment market for traditional urban-based jobs, and Kanzhun is such a clear leader in that market. The company is the world’s second biggest publicly listed recruitment specialist, with a market cap of about $8 billion, behind only Japanese giant Recruit Holdings (6098.T), according to the CompaniesMarketCap website.

But in terms of valuation ratios, Kanzhun looks relatively weak compared to its peers, possibly due to the weak state of China’s economy and its slowing growth. Kanzhun currently trades at a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of just 12.4, a fraction of Recruit Holdings’ 50, and also behind the 15 for Switzerland’s Addeco (ADEN.SW) and 39 for U.S. giant Robert Half (NYSE:RHI).

Long road abroad

Against that backdrop, we’ll take a deeper dive into Kanzhun’s latest results, starting with its international expansion that could put the company back on a stronger growth track. That expansion is coming from its OfferToday subsidiary, which launched in Hong Kong in 2024 and was a leading force in the city by the end of last year based on its mobile daily active user count, company officials said on their earnings call for the fourth quarter of 2025.

Hong Kong is a popular first stop for Mainland Chinese companies expanding abroad due to the city’s many cultural similarities, and thus they can expand relatively quickly there. But such expansion into less familiar markets will probably require more time, Kanzhun founder and Chairman Zhao Peng said on the latest earnings call. So, anyone expecting fast results from this global expansion might want to think again.

"The lessons we learned from OfferToday is that it took around two to three years for our new business like OfferToday to enter into a market," said Zhao. "Then (it took) the next additional five years to grow to achieve $100 million to $115 million of revenue. We consider this kind of place or this kind of city worth investing."

He described cities like Hong Kong as "a middle dish – not too fast, but not too slow." But the bigger prize will come through expanding to entire countries with populations closer to 100 million, markets he described as "slow dishes." He said development of such markets will take longer, perhaps 10 to 15 years, to achieve annual revenue of around $100 million.

There’s no evidence that the company has officially entered any markets outside Hong Kong just yet. But Zhao said markets the company is targeting include places like Vietnam, Argentina and Brazil, suggesting it’s laying the groundwork to enter those countries. While there’s no guarantee it will succeed, the company’s strong track record in China, which has many similar qualities to other developing markets, should give it a decent chance.

Back in China, most of the company’s latest business metrics told a similar story, namely of healthy numbers and slowing growth. Its total paying enterprise customers, which provide the vast majority of its revenue, rose 11% year-on-year to 7.2 million for the 12 months through June, while its average revenue per paying user (ARPPU) during the second quarter rose 7%. The company forecast more of the same in the third quarter, predicting its revenue would rise 11.4% to 15.6% during the period.

Its cost of revenue grew by just 1.6% in the second quarter, far slower than its revenue growth rate, helping the company to improve its gross and operating margins. But heavy marketing spending related to the World Cup weighed on its bottom line, as its adjusted net income rose just 9.4% to 1.03 billion yuan from 941 million yuan a year earlier.

The company has quite a lot of cash, and gave some of that back to investors through its declaration of a $230 million dividend, in addition to $300 million it has spent to buy back its shares so far this year.

Investors were quite positive on the report, bidding up Kanzhun’s U.S.-listed shares by 22% in the two trading days after the announcement. But even after that rally, the stock is still down 12% this year, and its Thursday close of $18 is still slightly below the $19 it sold shares for in its 2021 IPO. The stock could enjoy some potential upside in the near-term if investors decide it’s undervalued, which looks quite possible. But any upside from a return to strong double-digit revenue growth looks to be at least a few years away.

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Benzinga Disclaimer: This article is from an unpaid external contributor. It does not represent Benzinga’s reporting and has not been edited for content or accuracy.