Operator, Conference Call Operator: Thank you for standing by, and welcome to Kanzhun Limited Second Quarter 2026 Financial Results Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker’s presentation, question and answer session. Today’s conference is being recorded. At this time, I’d like to turn the conference over to Ms. Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, ma’am.
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: Thank you, operator. Good evening and good morning, everyone. Welcome to our second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Joining me today are our Founder, Chairman and CEO, Mr. Jonathan Peng Zhao, and our Deputy CFO, Mr. Wang. 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 did not undertake any obligation to update the forward-looking information, except as required by law. During today’s call, management will also discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures for comparison purpose only.
For a definition of non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures, please see earnings release issued earlier today. In addition, a podcast replay of this conference call will be available on our website at ir.kanzhun.com. With that, I will now turn the call to Jonathan, our Founder, Chairman and CEO.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 大家好，欢迎参加公司2026年二季度业绩发布会。我谨代表公司全体员工、管理层和董事会，向我们的用户和投资人致以诚挚感谢。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the company’s second quarter 2026 earnings call. On behalf of all our employees, management and board of directors, I would like to express our sincere gratitude to our users and investors.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 今天主要给大家报告三个方面的内容：二季度的业绩、公司的增长策略的变化和股东回报。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: Today, I will mainly focus on three areas: second quarter results, changes in company’s growth strategy, and shareholder returns.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 先说一下业绩。二季度公司实现收入24亿元，同比增长14%。利润方面，二季度扣除股权激励费用后的经调整营业利润10.5亿元，同比增长19%。经调整营业利润率为43.8%，同比提升1.9个百分点。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: In second quarter, the company generated revenue of RMB 1.44 billion, up 14% year-on-year. In terms of profitability, adjusted income from operations, excluding share-based compensation expenses, was RMB 1.05 billion, up 19% year-on-year. Our adjusted operating margin was 43.8%, 1.9 percentage points year-on-year.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 截止到6月30号，过去12个月付费企业端客户数达到720万，同比增长11%。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: As of June 30th, the total paying enterprise customers in the past 12 months reached 7.2 million, up 11% year-on-year.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 多个核心经营指标本季度创下历史新高。二季度，BOSS Zhipin APP端平均月活跃用户规模，即MAU突破了7000万。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: Several key operating metrics reached record highs in this quarter. Average monthly active users, or MAU, are at exceeding 17 million in the second quarter.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 平台每个求职者平均收获的达成次数，同比环比均实现增长。再一次的，在用户规模增长的同时，用户收获也在提升。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: The average number of matches per job seekers increased both year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter. Once again, data has also proved that user outcomes also improved.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 接下来阐述一下公司增长策略在高线城市和低线城市的分化。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: Next, I would like to expand how the company’s growth strategy differs from higher tier and lower tier cities.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 今年二季度是公司IPO五年。熟悉我们的投资人会记得，五年来公司一直坚持公司增长的核心驱动力是用户增长。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: The second quarter of this year marks the fifth anniversary of the company’s IPO. Investors who are familiar with us will remember that throughout the past 5 years, we have constantly maintained that the core driver of the company’s growth is user growth.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 这是由市场空间决定的。中国有接近5亿城镇就业人口，有4000万以上活跃经营的企业。BOSS Zhipin自创业以来，累计服务了约3亿用户，累计服务了约2200万家企业。即使从今天看，也仍然有非常大的成长空间。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: This is determined by the size of the market. China has nearly 500 million people in its urban workforce and more than 40 million active businesses. Based on this, BOSS Zhipin has cumulatively served approximately 300 million users and approximately 22 million employers. Even from where we stand today, there is still considerable room to grow.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 其次，这是由我们的模式决定的。BOSS直聘独创了移动，加推荐，加直聊，它的第一性就在于极大地降低了招聘者和求职者的沟通成本。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: Second, this is determined by our model. BOSS Zhipin pioneered the mobile recommendation and direct chat model, and as a whole, this model substantially lowered the cost of communication between recruiters and job seekers.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 这个低成本启动了中国上千万的企业从传统招聘转向了移动互联网招聘，从而大规模地实现了招聘的数字化和招聘的移动化。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: This low-cost model enables tens of millions of companies to shift from traditional recruitment to mobile Internet recruitment, thereby digitalizing and mobilizing recruitment on a large scale.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 我们的绝大多数企业用户第一次使用我们的服务，也正是他们第一次使用网络招聘。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: For the vast majority of our enterprise users, the first time they used our services was also the first time they used online recruitment.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 第三，这是由我们的优势和需求决定的。双边网络效应给了公司强大的生命力。双边用户数量越大，种类越丰富，用户所表达的越多，用户的互动行为越多，我们就可以更好地服务用户。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: Third, this is determined by our strength and user needs. Double-sided network effects give the company strong vitality. The larger the user base on both sides, the greater the variety of users, the more users express themselves, and the more users interact, the better we can serve them.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 推动用户增长的过程，就是为推荐引擎源源不断地生产数字石油的过程。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: The process of driving user growth is also the process of continuously producing digital oil for the recommendation engine.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 过去几年我们连续看到，随着双边月活用户的增加，单个用户的收获也在增加。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: Over the past several years, we have consistently seen that as monthly active users on both sides have increased, user outcomes created have also improved.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: AI加入推荐引擎工作以后，不仅可以看到AI帮助提升了引擎的效能，与此同时，引擎也帮助AI很快地找到了增长的数据飞轮。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: With the engine supported by AI, we saw not only that AI improves the engine’s efficiency, but also that the engine helps AI quickly establish its data flywheel.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 接下来的五年，我们在三、四、五线城市和一、二线城市将采取不同的增长策略。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: Over the next five years, we will adopt different growth strategies for tier 3, tier 4, and tier 5 cities and for tier 1 and tier 2 cities.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 在三、四、五线城市，核心的增长驱动轮仍然是用户增长，最重要的追求仍然是提高用户渗透率。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: In tier 3, tier 4, and tier 5 cities, the core driver of growth will continue to be user growth, and our most important objective will remain user penetration.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 在一、二线城市，核心的增长驱动轮将在保持用户增长的前提下，增加合理的价格增长的因素。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: In tier 1 and tier 2 cities, while continuing to grow our user base, we will add reasonable price increases as a growth factor.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 关于我们的服务价格，先看一下Q2的实际情况。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: With regard to the pricing of our services, let me first take a look at the actual situation in the second quarter.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 这个Q2收入是24个亿，这个数字有十位数，还不错。但是我们在北京许多职位发布一个月的价格，就是买两杯咖啡的钱。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: Revenue in the second quarter was RMB 2.4 billion. That is a 10-billion number. It looks good, but here in Beijing, for many jobs, the price of a one-month job post is just the price of two cups of coffee.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 而每个月所发生的许许多多的达成，它的单价只够买一瓶矿泉水。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: The value of many, many mutual matches that happen in every month combined is only enough to buy one bottle of mineral water.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 什么叫达成？对于不太熟悉的人，我还是想在这里解释一下。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: What do we mean by mutual match? For those who are less familiar with us, let me explain again.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 我们平台上的一个达成，相当于在其他的招聘平台上，求职者对特定招聘者发起了一个投递，而该招聘者确认接受了这个投递。这样一个双边的确认是我们这里所说的一个达成。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: A mutual match on our platform is equivalent to a job seeker submitting an application to a specific recruiter on another recruitment platform, and that recruiter also confirming the acceptance of the application. That is what we call a mutual match.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 那么这样一个达成，在北京、上海、深圳、广州、杭州、成都，在许许多多的情况下，只能在7-Eleven买一瓶矿泉水。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: It is a sad combination. In Beijing, in Shanghai, in Shenzhen, in Guangzhou, in Hangzhou, in Chengdu, in many cities, one such match is worth only one bottle of mineral water at 7-Eleven stores.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 为了便于你们理解，我举一个成熟市场某头部招聘平台的数据。根据公开的资料，该平台一个click大约在$0.25到$1，转化成一个基础职位的投递大约在$5到$10之间。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: To make this easier to understand, let’s start data from the leading recruitment platform in a mature market. According to publicly available information, one click on that platform costs approximately $0.25-$1, while generating one application for a basic role costs approximately $5-$10.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 那么对于这样一个基础职位，有多少个投递才能产生一个达成？我没有别人的内部数据，我假设效率比较高，每5个投递，招聘者就愿意接受1个。那么一个达成的单价就在$25到$50一个。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: I do not have data on how many applications for such a basic role result in one match. If I assume, based on a high efficiency case, that a recruiter will accept one out of every five applications, that would translate into $25-$50 per match.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 这样朋友们，我们可以直观地感受一下两件事情。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: This, my friends, gives you an intuitive sense of two things.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 第一，与发达国家相比较，随着市场经济的发展，与此同时，随着对人才的重视程度的提高，随着人力资源服务行业的发展，中国企业服务的付费提升空间非常大。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: First, compared with developed countries, as importance placed on talent increases, the human resources services industry grows. There is considerable room for Chinese companies to increase what they pay for such services.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 当然这需要一个时间，时间的力量是很大的。比如有一个例子就是，今天在北京，一个很好的软件开发工程师的薪资跟在硅谷是差不多的。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: Of course, this will take time. Time is a powerful tool. One example is that today, the salary of a very good software engineer in China is roughly at the same salary as in Silicon Valley.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 第二，在北京与一个企业其他方面的开销相比较，我看了一下，有不少企业获得一个达成的单价大概是1/10个桶装水的价格。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: Second, compared with one aspect of the enterprise expense in Beijing, I have seen that many enterprises have achieved a unit price, which is about 1/10 of a mineral water.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 一个人力资源基础岗位的月综合人力成本，有时候可以换到1000个达成。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: The total monthly employment cost of junior human resources personnel could buy 1,000 unit of matches.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 因此可以看到，与北京企业的其他开销相比，我们领域的服务价格也有一些可以提升的潜力。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: Therefore, we can see that compared with Beijing, the service price in our field also has some potential to be improved.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 我换一个角度说，如果这件事情不改革，人力资源服务行业注定不会被企业重视，注定得不到优质的资源，整个行业就有萎缩的可能性。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: Put differently, if we do not reform this, the human resources service industry is destined not to be valued by companies. It is destined not to receive high quality resources, and it might shrink.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 因此，在IPO第二个五年开始的时候，公司的增长策略发生的变化就在于，对于成熟市场，即一线市场和部分二线城市，在提升用户体验的同时，逐步提升客户的付费金额，包括付费率的合理提升和达成单价的合理提升。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: Therefore, at the beginning of the second 5 years, the company’s growth strategy has changed, which is based on the first-tier market and some second-tier cities to improve the user experience while gradually increase the amount of customer payment in mature markets, including a reasonable increase in payment rates.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 这个过程实际上已经进行了一段时间了。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: This process has been sustained for a while.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 实际上我们现在看到的增长，其中有一部分正是这个过程的结果。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: The result growth that we have seen, part of the reason is that because of that.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 实际上这也是在上个季度，我们预测二季度的增长和利润的增长会更好，这也是其中的一部分原因。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: In fact, this also that in the last quarter, they would predict that growth and profit growth in second quarter will be better. That is part of the reason.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 对于在合适的时机和合适的地方转变增长模式，AI的应用起到了催化剂的作用，主要体现在三个方面。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: This is the right time and right place to change the growth model. Everyone application has played a critical role, which is mainly reflected in three elements.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 第一，AI的大规模应用提升了平台的推荐效率。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: First, the large scale application of AI increased the platform efficiency.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 第二，参加我们服务试点的一些白领和蓝领招聘的大客户，非常认同包括AI面试、AI辅助简历筛选等等在内的综合解决方案。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: Secondly, some big customers in the white collar or blue collar factories agree very much that they believe that the AI powered interview, AI assisted resume screening, and other competitive solutions will also help to them.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 第三，AI跟我们平台生意的结合，实际上是与平台上的求职者跟招聘者的追求一贯追求相一致的，也就是获得达成不是目的，获得入职才是目的。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: The combination of with our platform business is actually consistent with the pursuit of job seekers on the platform and within the recruiter. That is to achieve not the goal to do the recruitment, but to do a successful hire.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 这其实也就谈到了我们的闭环生意。越是接近服务到入职的环节，越是接近于按照入职来收费，则服务模式和商业模式就越接近于闭环。公司将持续投入这部分探索。在二季度，AI赋能与闭环的业务相关收益环比实现了快速增长。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: This brings us to our closed-loop business. The closer our services get to the actual hiring stage, and the closer we get to charging based on the successful hire, the more this model approaches a closed loop. The company will continue to invest in exploring this area. One point worth mentioning is that the revenue we received from our AI-enabled closed-loop business grew rapidly quarter over quarter in Q2.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 谈一下股东回报。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: Let me discuss shareholder returns.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 董事会今天通过决议，批准公司分派年度股息2.3亿美金。今年以来，公司已经累计回购约3亿美金，占总股本超过4.7%的股票。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: The board today passed a resolution approving the distribution of annual dividends of $230 million. Since the beginning of this year, the company has repurchased approximately $300 million worth of shares, representing more than 4.7% of its total share capital.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 2026年公司回购和分红的股东回报总额5.3亿美金，已经略微超过上一年经调整净利润的100%，也超过之前我们说过的50%。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: In 2026, the company’s total shareholder returns through share repurchase and dividends amounted to $530 million, exceeding 100% of last year’s adjusted net income, and also exceeding the 50% we previously committed to.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 我们和投资人一起分享公司成长的红利。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: We share the benefits of the company’s growth with shareholders.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 我的介绍就到这里。接下来将由我们的CFO文蓓为大家详细介绍一下财务情况。
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: That concludes my remarks. Next, our Deputy CFO Wenbei Wang will walk you through the financials in detail.
Wang Wenbei, Deputy CFO, Kanzhun Limited: Thanks, Jonathan. Hello, everyone. Now let me walk through the details of financial results of the second quarter of 2026. We continue to deliver a high quality set of financial results this quarter, marked by solid revenue growth and further improved profitability. Our revenue achieved accelerated trend, reaching RMB 2.4 billion, representing 14% year-on-year growth. Recruitment demand in the second quarter remained broadly stable. We drove revenue and profit growth through user base expansion and improved monetization from higher value services. The number of paid enterprise customers increased by 11% year-on-year to 7.2 million over the trailing 12 months ended June 30, 2026. Importantly, the paying ratio among active enterprise users improved for the fourth consecutive quarters, reflecting our sustained progress in monetization.
ARPU for the quarter increased 7% year-on-year, driven by more efficient and valuable services, including an expanded suite of AI-powered features, which encouraged higher customer spending. Revenue growth was broadly balanced across different account sizes this quarter, with both key accounts and small size accounts showing healthy momentum. Moving to the cost side, our total operating costs and expenses increased by 6% year-on-year to RMB 1.5 billion this quarter. Total share-based compensation expenses dropped by 19% year-on-year to RMB 186 million. As a percentage of revenue, share-based compensation expenses continued its downward trend to 7.8% this quarter, down 3.1 percentage points year-on-year. We expect share-based compensation expenses as a percentage of revenue to remain at a high single-digit level for the full year of 2026. In the second quarter, we sponsored the FIFA World Cup and increased our investment in AI-related cloud services.
Meanwhile, our headcount grew sequentially, driven by stable growth in recruitment demand. Despite these investments, our profitability continued to improve. Excluding share-based compensation expenses, our adjusted operating margin expanded by 1.9 percentage points year-on-year to a record high of 43.8%. This was primarily driven by our strong operating leverages, disciplined execution, and ongoing efforts to enhance operating efficiencies through AI applications. Looking into each segment, cost of revenues increased by 2% year-on-year to RMB 312 million this quarter. This increase was mainly due to higher survey and bandwidth cost, partially offset by lower App Store commission fees and improved operating efficiency as we widely leverage AI in our daily operations, verification, and customer services. As a result, our gross margin went up by 1.6 percentage points year-on-year to 87%.
Sales and marketing expenses increased by 38% year-on-year to RMB 581 million this quarter, mainly due to the marketing campaign of 2026 FIFA World Cup, as well as an increase in sales employee-related expenses related to higher cash revenues. Our R&D expenses were RMB 431 million this quarter, up 3% year-on-year. Excluding share-based compensation expenses, our adjusted R&D expenses increased by 7% year-on-year to RMB 361 million, mainly due to higher cloud service fees and server depreciation expenses related to AI infrastructure investment. Our G&A expenses decreased by 30% year-on-year to RMB 219 million this quarter, mainly due to lower employee-related expenses. Interest and investment income reached RMB 1.6 billion this quarter, compared to RMB 157 million for the same quarter last year.
This increase was mainly driven by investment income of around RMB 1.5 billion, arising from the fair value changes of one of our invested companies, which went public in January 2026. Income tax expenses were RMB 515 million this quarter, compared to RMB 97 million the same quarter last year. This increase was also mainly due to the RMB 367 million tax impact from the aforementioned investment income, withholding tax of RMB 20 million, as well as the RMB 10 million provision for the top-up tax under the OECD Pillar Two rules and higher income from operations. Our net income reached RMB 1.9 billion this quarter, up 173% year-on-year. Excluding share-based compensation and net gains from the aforementioned investments, our adjusted net income increased by 9% to RMB 1.03 billion. Net cash provided by operating activities was RMB 945 million this quarter, down 10% year-on-year.
This decrease was mainly due to higher advertising and marketing expenditures and tax payment, as well as lower interest and investment income received, partially offset by increased cash collection from customers. As of June 30, 2026, our cash position, including cash equivalents, short-term time deposits, and short-term investments, but excluding investments in securities, stood at RMB 18.8 billion. Our strong cash position and cash-generating capability enable us to sustainably deliver our shareholder return commitments. As Jonathan just mentioned, the board declared an annual cash dividend of approximately $230 million, combined with over $300 million in share repurchase. We have completed year to date, which represents roughly 4.6% of our total outstanding shares. Our total shareholder return so far this year has exceeded $530 million, representing an over 100% shareholder return ratio compared to the adjusted net income last year.
Cumulatively, we have now bought back over 10% of our total shares outstanding. For the third quarter of 2026, we expect our total revenues to be between RMB 2.41 billion and RMB 2.5 billion, a year-on-year increase of 11.4% to 15.6%. That concludes our prepared remarks. Now we would like to take questions. Operator, please go ahead.
Operator, Conference Call Operator: Thank you. 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. Please stand by while we compile the queue in the roster. We will now proceed to take our first question. The question comes from the line of Timothy Zhao of Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead, Timothy. Your line is open.
Timothy Zhao, Analyst, Goldman Sachs: 好的，赵总、文蓓，晚上好，感谢接受我的提问。那我的问题是关于AI的。首先，可否请各位曾进一步分享一下我们目前AI产品的一些最新进展？刚刚我们谈到的这个闭环服务，整体的收入规模是怎样的？我们看到AI对于匹配效率的提升，可不可以分享一些量化的指标，包括用户的反馈是怎么样的？第二个问题是关于我们的大模型南北阁，我们看到在这个最新的大模型南北阁4.2-3B这个模型上面也取得了一个很好的成绩，想请各位曾再分享一下，我们相比于上一代的模型，在新模型想要解决的问题有哪些？那我们对标的一些头部大模型来比的话，我们的侧重点有哪些不同？那我很快翻译一下。Thank you very much for taking my question.
My first question is regarding your AI monetization. Could you share more color on the latest progress of your AI products? For the closed-loop services that you just mentioned, could you share any color on the overall revenue scale? How do you think about the overall AI impact on the matching efficiency, and is there any quantitative metric that you can share that will be great. Secondly is on your Nanbeige large language model. I noticed that you recently launched Nanbeige4.2-3B model. Just wondering what is the improvement versus the last generation and how do you compare the latest model versus the top large language model in the market and what is your different competitive position? Thank you.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 在AI的找人这件事情上，跟我们以前的找人的过程不太一样。归根到底就是一部分用户在刚刚使用我们的推荐系统，我们对这个用户也不太认识的情况下，他会用一些搜索来帮助他自己。但是之前的搜索呢，众所周知，它的query是很短的。而这个大语言模型其实给了我们一个可能性，其实你可以用非常非常长的query，当然它还可以用多轮对话的方法来，物理上看你的query变得更长，那实际上系统在逐步收敛你到底想干嘛。这件事情是这一波大语言模型所固有的能力。所以很长的query，很长的上下文，以及多次的沟通形成的记忆与沉淀，确实就可以帮助我们来更好地服务于一些要求也比较高，用传统的推荐跟搜索不太能服务好，专业度相对高这样的人。
Wang Wenbei, Deputy CFO, Kanzhun Limited: Okay, thank you for your question. About AI talent sourcing that we are currently use, there is something slightly different. It is well known that when some of our customers started to use our recommendation system, we began to know them. He used some of the search functions to help himself. But the search functions, as we all know, the problem is the query is relatively short. The large language model just gave us a possibility that you can use a very long query. Also, you can use multiple round of conversations to make it look like long. But actually the system is just coming back to understanding what you really want. That’s the fundamental capability the large language model has.
A very long text and multiple rounds of communication that which can come out to understanding of our customer demand and better to serve some clients who have high requirement, who have the requirement for high professionalism and which uses better traditional recommendation search model cannot serve. That just bring our search capability to the next level.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 然后在这个基础上就比较容易理解这个AI sourcing可以给我们产生一个新的价值。众所周知，我们已经服务过超过3亿的中国用户。实际上上个月活跃的用户只有7000万。随着我们覆盖的用户的渗透率越来越高，实际上7000万比3亿这样的数，有可能会变成1亿比4亿这样的可能性。实际上有很多的用户以某种形式沉淀在月活用户之外。这个时候，AI sourcing的价值就显得更加突出。
Wang Wenbei, Deputy CFO, Kanzhun Limited: Based on that fundamental we just discussed about, it’s quite easy to understand the new value AI sourcing has brought to us, which we have already served cumulatively more than 300 million users. But our monthly active users last month is just 17 million. As we further penetrate to new users, the 17 million monthly active users versus 300 million total users might turn into like 100 million versus 400 million. This creates ability that we can expand our service to a lot of new users that not within the monthly active users scope.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 实际上是谁最需要去联系到我们，把它叫做沉在水底的、沉默的用户呢？实际上往往这样的用户是更资深的，更专业的，比例会更高一些。所以实际上猎头是非常喜欢这部分用户，也是想方设法想联系到他们的。在这个过程中，这也就是我们可以用AI赋能于猎头这样一种作业其中的一个原因。
Wang Wenbei, Deputy CFO, Kanzhun Limited: The interesting part is who has the most needs to contact this kind of silent customers. This kind of customers or this kind of job seekers actually is more senior, more professional, and more likely to be liked by the headhunters. The headhunters always try to contact them. In this process, that’s part of the reason we are applying this function to both our own and third party headhunter work stream.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 在这个地方就又涉及到了我们讲的一个追求闭环的工作。我宁可理解成是一个一环扣一环的这么一个过程。实际上现在AI在我们平台上已经帮助到刚才提到的AI sourcing candidates，我们也用AI帮助客户去筛选简历。实际上现在用AI面试的人在我们平台每天超过1万场的面试。实际上随着这个一环扣一环日益接近入职这一环，我相信我们在不断地在AI的帮助下，有条不紊地推进这个过程。
Wang Wenbei, Deputy CFO, Kanzhun Limited: This is more and more getting close to our pursuit of closed loop service. My understanding of the closed loop service is more like just one stage to another stage, the process interlocking. We are using AI to help our customers sourcing candidates. We are using AI function to help them to screen resumes. Our AI interview functions are now working on more than 10,000 interviews every day. Stage by stage, we are getting more and more close to our onboarding, and AI is just helping us to accelerating this process and achieving our goal.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 南北阁4.2有一个3B的模型，还挺巧的，就是在今天的凌晨。今天的凌晨有一个大家知道的，有一个知名的机构，做测评比较有名的一个机构。
Wang Wenbei, Deputy CFO, Kanzhun Limited: For Nanbeige4.2-3B, it is quite a coincidence that early today, a very well-known testing institution.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: Artificial Analysis 是做测评比较有名，它联合一个叫 Liquid AI，Liquid AI 专门就是做小模型的这么一个机构，他们联合测评选择了 iPhone 17 Pro 和三星 Galaxy S26 进行测评。实际上在工具调用、指令遵循、知识幻觉、科学推理和数学五个领域，南北阁的 3B 模型获得了五个第一这样一个成绩。
Wang Wenbei, Deputy CFO, Kanzhun Limited: A very well-known testing institution, Artificial Analysis, combined with Liquid AI to do a drawing testing on small sized model on both iPhone 17 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S26. 南北阁 4.2-3B has achieved number one in five areas, including following the true transforming orders, scientific illusion, scientific interference and mathematics theoretical errors. 南北阁 has achieved number one in all those five areas.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 上一版的南北阁4.1-3B实际上成绩也不错，它主要是在较好的推理协作和基础工具的调用能力上。今天这个被人拿去测试的是南北阁4.2-3B。它进一步挑战了小模型处理更复杂的agent任务，比如说代码智能题、办公智能题等等多人复杂工作的调用场景。
Wang Wenbei, Deputy CFO, Kanzhun Limited: Actually, our previous model 4.1-3B also achieved quite nice results. This model has been quite good in inference writing, fundamental advanced truth reasoning. On the contrary, 4.2-3B, this small size model, is better to handle more complicated agent truth and functions, including coding intelligence entity and maybe office working intelligence entity, etc.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 我们相信，在AGI这样一个漫长的道路上，除了用超大模型烧超多电力，花超多钱是一件很多人做的事。另外就是用小模型也可以解决具体的问题，产生产业的价值。比如在手机、智能手机、车辆、具身智能的机器人等等，它有很多的价值。So far，南北阁已经多次证明了在小模型领域我们处于领先的位置，所以我们还是会坚持在这件事情上的投入。
Wang Wenbei, Deputy CFO, Kanzhun Limited: We believe on the road to pursue AGI, there is one way, mega size models, super consuming of electronic powers, investing a lot of money. That a lot of big companies are doing. There is another way that maybe a smaller size model can help solving some specific problems and also create its own value. For example, the application in smartphones, on mobile vehicles, on intelligent robots, etc. In those areas, those smaller size model, we are in the leading position and have proven our value. That is our answers to the first two questions. Operator, let us proceed to the next one.
Operator, Conference Call Operator: Thank you. We will now proceed to take our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Eddy Wang of Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead, Eddy, your line is open.
Eddy Wang, Analyst, Morgan Stanley: 赵总、文蓓，感谢接受我的提问。我这边可能也是两个问题。第一个其实想请教一下，最近宏观对我们的影响，特别下半年，因为这次业绩季，大多数互联网公司的业绩似乎都受到了宏观和消费的负面的影响。所以我想请教一下，从BOSS我们来看的话，这样的宏观情况下，我们会受多大的影响？以及我们如果通过自身运营上的调整，能多大程度上抵消，比如说一些负面的宏观影响。这是第一个问题。第二个问题也是关于AI的。我想问一下，我们在AI应用与服务上相关的未来的成本结构，会不会影响我们整体的利润率的水平？此外，可能还想确认一下，我们会不会像某一些互联网公司一样，大幅地增加整个AI相关的资本投入？对，那我自己翻译一下。Thank you management for taking my question.
My first question is related to the macro impact. What is your view on the macro impact on our company, especially for the second half of this year? As most internet company that has reported second quarter results have mentioned that the macro overhangs and the weak consumption. To what extent will BOSS be affected under such a macro backdrop? How much of this macro-driven pressure can be offset through our operation improvement? The second question is related to the AI development, AI service and the product we have launched and probably will launch. Do you expect they will have different cost structure and will this affect our overall margin? In addition, do we have plan to materially ramp up the CapEx as we have seen with some of the other internet companies? Thank you.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 关于宏观的情况，我尊重你们专业的观察，我就不再赘述。那么从我们的角度，创业12年来，我们什么日子都见过，你们见过的我们见过，你们没见过的我们也见过。我们始终保持了公司一个让投资人比较放心的一个增长的态势和诚恳的态度，所以我们会继续保持。
Wang Wenbei, Deputy CFO, Kanzhun Limited: Thank you for your question regarding the macro situation. I actually respect your professional observation and I will not talk too much about it. I have been starting our business for more than 12 years and we have experienced a lot, whether you have experience, or not experience, we have all gone through that. We have always maintained to be a very stable and maybe trustworthy business, and we will continue to maintain this very stable operation.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 我说一下我的机会。我的一个机会是市场空间。So far我们服务过3亿用户和2200万家公司。众所周知，中国企业的平均生命周期是比较短的。According to央行某一年的数据，中国企业的平均生命周期是小于三年的。所以我说我们服务过2200万家中国公司，其实这里面相当多的已经归于尘土，变成了新的元素，参加了新的公司的诞生。
Wang Wenbei, Deputy CFO, Kanzhun Limited: We have a big opportunity here with our potential market size. We have served over 300 million customers and more than 22 million enterprises. It is well known that the average life cycle, according to the People’s Bank of China’s enterprise, is less than three years. Within all those 22 million companies we have served, a lot of them are not active anymore. They have turned into new elements and beginning new companies.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 即使我们为了便于计算，便于观察，我们把这个4000万家企业当做是一个固态的一个存在，我们其实仍然有一半的空间。何况说从未来发展看，每年都有新的企业诞生，而我们服务过的企业很多已经不存在了，所以这个空间会变得更大。
Wang Wenbei, Deputy CFO, Kanzhun Limited: For ease of observation, even we consider those 40 million enterprises as a fixed situation, we have more than double of our market to grow. On top of a lot of new companies are emerging every year. Our actual market size is even bigger.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 与此同时，说这个paying ratio的事情，从全国来看，我们一年服务的企业数量要超过1000万家。但实际上，50%以上的企业是免费的，是不付钱的，我们是免费服务的。那么从这个意义上来讲，这也是我们的空间。
Wang Wenbei, Deputy CFO, Kanzhun Limited: The second opportunity is in the paying ratio. Our actual annual served number of enterprises is more than 10 million, and over 50% of them are using our service for free. From that perspective, this is our second driver or second growth opportunities.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 我以某一个一线城市为例子。这次的开会，我们给大家报告了我们在一线城市接下来有可能做的一些事。我以某一个一线城市为例子，如果包括了免费的服务，实际上这个城市的所有客户7月份获得的一个达成的单价是一个等于X。但如果这部分免费的，如果我们用最低的标准进行收费，那么实际上整个城市的达成单价平均看会涨15%。
Wang Wenbei, Deputy CFO, Kanzhun Limited: I will use one first-tier city as an example. We just reported that we intend to increase monetization for certain first-tier cities. In this particular city, including both paid and free service, the average cost per mutual match our customers can get for this city, for example, is like X RMB. If we turn those free customers into our lowest level of paying customers, then those costs will grow by at least 15%.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 说到这里，我觉得不论是投资人还是客户，还是公众，都不必担心这是一个什么价格。因为我们刚才描述过，在这个一线城市，非常非常多的企业获得的一个达成的单价，就是在7-Eleven买一瓶矿泉水的价格。所以一瓶矿泉水和1.15瓶矿泉水对于一个企业经营者来讲，我觉得都是公平的。
Wang Wenbei, Deputy CFO, Kanzhun Limited: Please rest assured both our investors, clients or public, that actually this is a very minimal changes. I just explained that for a lot of our customers, the average cost to achieve a mutual matching is only the price of one mineral water at 7-Eleven. Either one bottle of mineral water or 1.15 bottle of mineral water is a very minimal cost to every enterprises.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 所以Eddie，我想正如我们这些年来一起见过的很多事，我想我们还是会不仅是survive，而且我想我们还是会变得更好。
Wang Wenbei, Deputy CFO, Kanzhun Limited: Eddie, just as we go through all these years, I am confident we are not only surviving, we should and we will be better and better.
Operator, Conference Call Operator: All right, thank you.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 然后你问我一个问题，我特别感谢你看得起我，问我这个问题。因为那些成本，就是投入巨大的AI的成本去搞军备竞赛，我想他们一定有他们的理想，他们的信仰，但是关键是他们有实力。我觉得我们当时选择了follow先进的大模型公司的所谓尾灯战略，然后在AI applications上选择了我们的优先级，以及在pretrain模型上面，我们的lab选择了做小模型，这都是我们去面对AGI这样一场伟大的进军，我们选了我们可以做的事情。所以我想谢谢你信任我，我们是不会有动到成本结构，然后影响公司的经营的这个程度的AI投入。我们会保持住现在的投入，你也知道我们的盈利水平还不错，所以我们在产研上的投入一直是在20%到25% revenue的水平上。这里面我觉得我们还是会舍得花钱，在增量部分给予我们的AI science团队更多的支持。但是你让我去在这样的情况下，把现金流的安全感打掉，我是不会这么做的。
Wang Wenbei, Deputy CFO, Kanzhun Limited: About the second question, thank you Eddy for asking me that. Actually all those large companies who have invest a lot of CapEx for like arm race or things like that, I think they have their ambitions, they have their beliefs, but most importantly, they have that financial capabilities. For a company like us, we chose the path of following all the tail light strategy, and we prioritize AI applications in the smaller type companies. That is our approach, our strategy to facing this AI maybe disruption or AI impact what we can do. Thank you for your trust, but I believe our investment in the AI will not impact our overall cost structure and impact our operation capability and financial markets. We will maintain current level of investment. As you know, we have good profitability, so we will maintain around like 20% to 25% of R&D expenses, and we will spend incremental money on the AI and to give more support. But I will not sacrifice our safety on our cash flow. I won’t do that. Just don’t worry. That’s our answer to those two questions. Thank you.
Operator, Conference Call Operator: Thank you. We will now proceed to take our next question. The next question comes from Wei Xiong of UBS. Please go ahead, Wei. Your line is open.
Wei Xiong, Analyst, UBS: [Foreign language] Thank you management for taking my questions. First, it is encouraging to see our margins have been maintaining at a very healthy level. Could we quantify the benefits from AI in our internal use to drive better efficiency and lower costs? How much room of further improvement do we see? Also, after the investment in FIFA World Cup, how should we think about the investment plans, the expenses, and the margin trends in the second half? Second, could we please get an update on your overseas business, including OfferToday? How should we think about if there is any plan to expand into other markets? Thank you.
Wang Wenbei, Deputy CFO, Kanzhun Limited: Thank you. I will take the first question on margin. So actually we have been leveraging AI in all aspects of our daily operations, including security, notifications, sales and marketing and operating earning and everywhere. But to quantify it, maybe it may be more easier in the cost line. Since 2023, we have been witnessing that alongside with our user growth, our overall headcount of operating employees maintain stable. As a result, the employee-related cost as a percentage of revenue continue to go down and help to contribute around 2 percentage points of our gross margin. You can see our gross margin now stayed at a very healthy high 80s level. We believe we at least maintain this very high gross margin level.
For our outlook for the second half, yes, we have sponsored the FIFA World Cup, but the cost will be evenly distributed or recognized within Q2 and Q3. Apart from that, we will maintain our current investment level of the cloud service rental cost for our AI model training. We are expecting maybe in Q3, the margin level should be similar to Q2, and for the full year as we expected at the beginning of this year, our overall adjusted operating margin can still slightly increase.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 谢谢你关心OfferToday。OfferToday我们想在五年以后，今年再加五年，希望OfferToday能够给公司带来每年1到1.5亿美金的revenue。这个是我们对香港这个市场的一点信心。同时我们觉得这是一个中菜，没有那么快，也没有那么慢。五年以后的那一年，大概有1亿美金到1.5亿美金的revenue，这是对香港的看法。
Wang Wenbei, Deputy CFO, Kanzhun Limited: Thank you for your concern about OfferToday. Our current goal for OfferToday is in maybe five years from today, it can bring the company with $100 million-$115 million of revenue, that is around about the market size of Hong Kong. We call it maybe a middle dish, not too fast, but not too low.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 然后类似的middle，我觉得还是可以看一些大城市。OfferToday在一个大城市如果能够适应，可能要两三年，然后成长大概要五年。那么五年以后的第六年，它能够带来1亿美金到1.5亿美金的revenue，我们会认为这是一个非常值得去投入的城市。这就是OfferToday要去的一些地方，我觉得它可能要去的地方，这种中菜，可能会是包括一些发达的亚洲的大城市，避开高风险的地缘政治的因素的亚洲的发展的大城市，以及我觉得是相对发达，比较发达的欧洲的大城市。这个就是OfferToday给我们的启发，简单讲叫做三年的适应期，五年的发展期，然后1到1.5亿美金的revenue，作为一个city market，或者是一个city cluster market，这是我们的一个标准的一个想法，看看有多少这样的cities。
Wang Wenbei, Deputy CFO, Kanzhun Limited: The lessons we learned from OfferToday is that it took around 2-3 years for our new business like OfferToday to enter into a market. Then next additional five years to grow to achieve $100 million-$115 million of revenue. We consider this kind of place or this kind of city worth investing. Of course, those cities are in Asia and Europe. Of course, we need to avoid those high geopolitical risk areas. To sum up, 2-3 years of adaption and mature, five years of development, there are still a lot of cities of this size and worth investing.
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Kanzhun Limited: 另外就是我们有一些叫慢菜，就是要看很久时间，大概要看十年左右，十年到十五年，也希望有类似刚才这样的收益。那么这样的市场的画像大概就是国民的平均年龄比较年轻，它是个年轻的国家，它是一个比较有趣的发展中国家。它的人口接近1个亿左右规模，或者小一点。所以按这个画像去看的话，就应该像越南，然后比方像阿根廷，比方像巴西。按这个画像去看，这个就是十年到十五年以后，我们寄希望于这样的市场能够更多接纳我们所创造的这种模式，并且能够在那个时候给公司带来一个不错的收益。所以这个是关于我们大的话题，叫OfferToday启发我们的海外业务发展。
Wang Wenbei, Deputy CFO, Kanzhun Limited: Also we have some markets we call it slow dish, maybe take a longer term around 10-15 years, which can also achieve a revenue like $100 million-$115 million. The profile of this kind of market is maybe generally younger in the average age of the citizens and is a developing country, but it is developing quite orderly. Its total population is around slightly less than 100 million. Some place like Vietnam, Argentina or Brazil. In 10-15 years, we are hoping this kind of city can accept the new models like we have created, and bring about nice profit or revenue to company by them. This topic is about OfferToday and what lessons it can give us to developing our overseas business. That is our answers to all the questions today. Thank you.
Operator, Conference Call Operator: Thank you. Due to time constraint, that concludes today’s question and answer session. At this time, I will turn the conference back to Laura for any additional or closing remarks.
Laura Zhan, Senior Manager of Investor Relations, Kanzhun Limited: Thank you once again for joining us today. If you have any further questions, please contact our IR team directly. Thank you.
Operator, Conference Call Operator: Thank you for your participation in today’s conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect.