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As portfolios go, the one put forward by John Arnold, the billionaire energy trader turned philanthropist, doesn't get simpler.
Anna Edwards, Lizzy Burden and Adam Linton break down today's key themes for analysts and investors on "Bloomberg: The Opening Trade." Chapters: 00:00:00 - MLIV 00:00:02 - S&P Futures 00:01:20 - Central Bank Hawkishness 00:02:35 - US Jobs Report, Inflation 00:03:03 - Yen Intervention -------- More on Bloomberg Television and Markets Like this video?
Treasury yields fell in Asian trade even as oil prices rose. Bond investors are gradually shifting their focus to growth risks from the Middle East war from inflation fears.
European stocks are expected to start the new trading week in negative territory as the war in Iran showed no signs of ending soon as it entered its fifth week.
It was supposed to be another boom year for the US economy. But for many Americans, that outlook changed rapidly.
The war in Iran has sparked chaos across financial markets, leaving some investors and market makers reluctant to take on risk, making trading harder and costlier - a scenario regulators watch closely.
Energy and utilities are favored for Q2 2026 amid geopolitical volatility, while industrials require selectivity and energy-intensive sectors face headwinds. Private credit emerges as a significant recession risk, with BDCs needing close monitoring due to delayed stress visibility and elevated redemption pressures.
Bank of Japan Gov. Kazuo Ueda joined a growing chorus of officials pledging to monitor the yen closely, as the Middle East conflict continues to pressure the currency and stoke inflation concerns.
Market volatility is high, but I believe we are near a bottom after a ~16% Nasdaq decline; patient investors should hold quality growth names. AI adoption and productivity gains, especially among the Magnificent 7, will drive the next leg higher as sentiment turns and oil fears subside.
Despite doomsday fears over new tariff policies, major stock market indexes have held up strongly over the last year. The real threat to economic growth right now involves geopolitical tensions between the United States and Iran.
Barclays sees the dollar remaining supported by elevated energy prices near-term, but expects it to weaken more broadly once tensions in the Middle East decline a few months down the line.
Signs of escalating tensions in the Middle East, rather than a quick ending to the conflict, were weighing on stocks and other assets.
U.S. stock-index futures fell and oil prices surged again on Sunday, following sharp losses on Wall Street on Friday, as investors are waking up to the reality that the economic effects of the Iran war — now entering its fifth week — are likely to last longer than first expected.
Operator: Good day, and welcome to the Tongdao Liepin Group 2025 Annual Results Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to [ Catherine Zhang ]. Please go ahead. Unknown Executive: Okay. Thank you, operator. Hi, everyone. Thank you for joining us on today's conference call to discuss our results for the full year 2025. The company's financial and operating results were published and were posted on the company's IR website at ir.liepin.com. On today's call, Mr. Rick Dai, company's Chairman and CEO, will kick off with our business operations and highlights. After that, Mr. Tim Tian, our CFO, will continue with detailed financial review. After prepared remarks, we will be able to answer your questions. All remarks will be in Chinese followed by English translation. Before we continue, I would like to remind you that this call may contain forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provisions. Such statements are based on management's current expectations and current market and operating conditions and related to events that involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the company's control, which may cause the company's actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Future information regarding this and other risks, uncertainties and factors is included in the company's filings with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under law. Please note that certain financial measures that we use on this call are expressed on a non-GAAP basis. Our GAAP results and the reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures can be found in our earnings press release. I will now turn the call over to our Chairman and CEO, Rick. Please go ahead, sir. Kebin Dai: [Interpreted] Dear investors, welcome to Tongdao Liepin Group's 2025 Annual Results Conference Call. On behalf of the group, I would like to express our sincere gratitude to all our investors for your steadfast support and trust. In 2025, amid macroeconomic structural adjustments and the profound changes in the job market, the group firmly adhered to the strategic theme of deepen value within the [Technical Difficulty] in business inflection point driven by AI technology enablement and refined operations. For the full year, total revenue was RMB 1.986 billion, down 4.6% year-on-year. However, looking at leading cash billing indicators, cash billings turned from decline to growth in the second half, showing positive signs of recovery. Gross margin improved to 76.6%, making the second consecutive year of increase. On the profit front, due to lagging revenue recognition and lower interest income, non-GAAP operating profit was RMB 206 million, down 10.2% year-on-year, and non-GAAP net profit attributable to shareholders was RMB 142 million, down 16.6% year-on-year. Excluding other income such as interest and government grants, non-GAAP operating profit actually improved significantly, up 24.7% year-on-year. The recruitment market in 2025 was defined by 2 major trends, structural recovery and the reshaping impact of AI. Structurally driven demand powered by technology and innovation grew rapidly with a notable stronger technology oriented trend and job types. Since the third quarter of 2025, new job posting on Liepin's platform turned from decline to growth year-on-year, a trend that accelerated from the end of fourth quarter. All major industries stabilized in the second half with sectors such as automotive, finance, advanced manufacturing, IT and Internet and advertising and media showing strong growth. Key secondary industries, including insurance, AI, smart hardware and automotive manufacturing and parts, the new job posting increased by over 45% year-on-year. In December, we witnessed a surge in job demand in hot areas such as aerospace, embedded intelligence and AI-related fields. This trends indicate the effectiveness of China's economic recovery and industrial upgrade and reflect that after period of adjustment, the mid-or high-end recruitment market is entering a critical phase of bottoming out and recovery. The breakthrough development of AI technology is profoundly reshaping the recruitment market. The Liepin 2025 talent supply and demand trend report defined a triangular structure model for AI talent covering management talent with an AI-oriented mindset, AI technical talent and application-oriented talent empowered by AI. Among this, application-oriented talent constitutes the largest group, becoming the main driver of employment with the market value of AI composite talent continuing to rise. Aligning with this trend, Liepin has firmly embedded the perception that AI talent on Liepin AI recruitment with Liepin in users' minds. We are pleased to see that the number of individuals on our platform who listed AI skills on their resume increased by 81.8% year-on-year. In the first week following the 2026 Spring Festival, this figure surged by 139.7% year-on-year among active talent. Meanwhile, more employers are using AI to empower recruitment. According to Liepin 2025 China AI Talent Singularity Report, 81% of enterprises have adopted AI tools across their talent management process. In the first week after the holiday, new job posting require AI tools increased by 215.6% year-on-year, offering an average salary 25% higher than positions without such requirements. Amid this rapid wave of AI adoption, we focused on driving customer growth and enhancing monetization through a rich and user-friendly portfolio of AI products. By year-end, verified enterprise customers reached 1.474 million, up 3.2% year-on-year and the number of paying enterprise customers reversed, declined, growing to 72,000, up 5.3% year-on-year. On technical foundation, we maintain a strategy of synergizing general purpose and industry specialized capabilities while integrating mainstream open source large language models, we continuously strengthened our self-developed vertical model Tongdao Huicai building reinforcement learning capabilities based on our user feedback and behavior data, creating an automated closed loop from data collection, review feedback to model integration. Through this analysis and semantic understanding of recruitment requirements, combined with domain-specific data training, we achieved inter upgrades in job matching capabilities and optimized the overall model cost. During the year, our large language model agent application technology was granted with multiple national patents. We can now built an AI product metric fully covering the BHC tripartite ecosystem. Cash bill from AI products surged from RMB 10 million in 2024 to over RMB 100 million in 2025, a nearly tenfold increase year-on-year. This marks a significant transition where our AI application capabilities have evolved from functional innovation into a sustainable revenue growth engine, laying a solid foundation for future large-scale expansion. Specifically, the AI account and intended candidate searching are the core products driving commercialized revenue growth. AI account customer coverage reached 93% by year-end, and we upgraded to the AI Pro account in the fourth quarter, embedding the new AI-assisted search feature, which automatically generates precise search keywords to help enterprise efficiently discover composite talent and empower professional recruiters. The recruitment AI agent intended candidate searching now operates with full process AI automation. Currently, 65% of trial orders can be fulfilled with interested candidates within 2 hours and the monthly repeat initiation rate among customers increased to 66%, consistently validating the product's strong fitness and practical value. Our AI interviewing process Duomian saw significant interview volume growth and continues to extend towards a comprehensive talent assessment system. On the candidate side, the AI Career partner Dora was fully launched in the fourth quarter, leveraging the perspective of senior headhunter, Dora basically optimized resumes, intelligently recommends positions and incorporate smart interview features, significantly improving candidate engagement and job seeking experience. During the year, registered individual users surpassed 116 million, up 10% year-on-year and the average MAU grew 15.3% year-on-year. On the headhunter side, the AI agent delivery assistant Xiao Yi embedded within the Duolie assistant was upgraded to version 2.0, becoming a core operational infrastructure for internal and external delivery teams. As of the reporting period, verified headhunters reached around 225,000, up 4.7% year-on-year and headhunters contact with individual users grew 24.2%. With this, Liepin has built a comprehensive AI product metrics covering the entire process of recruitment, interviewing, job seeking and headhunter delivery, creating a virtuous cycle within the BHC tripartite ecosystem and providing multidimensional support for the future growth. In 2025, by focusing on our user expansion for Liepin Pro and leveraging our rich AI product portfolio, we effectively boosted both new customer acquisition and retention rates. New subscriptions for Liepin Pro standard package increased by over 60% year-on-year, quickly driving capital for recruitment business from declined growth in the second half. Concurrently, by leveraging AI to empower sales teams, we deepened exploration of high potential users and improved sales lead efficiency. This result in a 286% increase in the customer reach-to-collection conversion rate at year-end compared to the first half of the year. Coupled with organizational flattening and deeper cost control and efficiency measures, our sales personnel efficiency achieved clear stabilization and subsequent growth. 2026 marks the start of the 15th 5-year plan period with emerging industry rising rapidly and structural opportunities continuing to unfold. We will see this historical opportunity to cultivate strategically for the industry and leverage our comprehensive BHC AI product metrics to address core customer needs, enhance product adoption and expand our user base. On the talent front, we will broadly cover high potential composite talent in emerging fields to solidify the foundation of our platform ecosystem. On the technology front, we will continue to use AI as our core engine, deepening its research and application within recruitment. Organizationally, we will further strengthen our management structure, enhance organizational effectiveness and build a team of professional skills in both business and AI, enabling broader market penetration. At the group level, we will leverage policy support and industry development opportunities to connect the supply and demand cycle for human resources, strengthen our well position in mid- to high-end white-collar recruitment, expand our generational lead in AI-driven recruitment while exploring innovative models for technology-driven labor in urban service blue-collar sectors, thereby solidifying our diversified comprehensive service capabilities. Finally, regarding shareholder returns, we have always valued the trust and support of our investors. In 2025, through special dividends and share buybacks, the total annual shareholder return amounted to HKD 254 million. This year, we are continuing our dividend distribution plan, proposing a dividend of HKD 0.20 per share, representing a payout ratio of 63% of non-GAAP net profit attributable to shareholders. Going forward, we will continue to explore diversified shareholder return programs consistently enhancing shareholder value on the foundation of stable operations and creating long-term value for our employees, customers and shareholders. That concludes my prepared remarks. Next, I will turn the floor over to our CFO Tim, to walk you through our 2025 financial performance in detail. Thank you all. Ge Tian: Thank you, Rick and [ Catherine ]. Once again, thank you, everyone, for joining our earnings release conference call. In the first half of this year, we experienced consistent pressures in the recruitment market. However, conditions improved in the second half. The number of new job posting on our platform bottomed out and started growing from the third quarter onwards, while cash flow turned positive year-on-year within the year. For 2025, the company recorded revenue of RMB 1.99 billion, representing a year-on-year decrease of 4.6% with a decline significantly narrowing compared with previous periods. Breaking it down by structure, the revenue decline was mainly attributable to talent recruitment and other human resource services to business users. This segment generated revenue of RMB 1.65 billion, down 6.2% year-on-year. This was primarily due to the deferred impact from reduced cash flow in 2024 and the first half of 2025, coupled with the overall incomplete recovery of the mid- to high-end recruitment market throughout 2025. In contrast, revenue from the talent development services to individual users maintained a steady growth, building on the high base last year, this segment's revenue increased by 5% year-on-year to approximately RMB 330 million. On the cost and expense side, Liepin Group maintained stable gross profit level in 2025 with gross margin improving by 0.6 percentage points year-on-year to 76.6%. This was mainly driven by an increased revenue contribution from AI products, optimized control of -- over low-margin products and enhanced efficiency of the delivery team. In 2025, the company continued to focus on internal cost reduction and efficiency improvement. The group's total operating expenses for the year amounted to approximately RMB 1.45 billion, a decrease of 5.3% in absolute terms year-on-year with the consolidated operating expense ratio declined by 0.6 percentage points to 72.9%. Sales and marketing expenses totaled RMB 897 million for the year, down 1.3% year-on-year, mainly due to straight-line labor costs and rental savings. Research and development expenses for 2025 were RMB 272 million, a year-on-year decrease of 10.4% with the R&D expense ratio falling by 0.9 percentage points to 13.7%. This efficiency gains stem from the widespread adoption of AI tools and optimized adjustments to the product and R&D optimization structure. General and administrative expenses decreased by 11.6% year-on-year to RMB 279 million with the G&A expense ratio dropping by 1.2 percentage points to 14%, primarily driven by improved management efficiency from organizational restructuring. Going forward, we will further deepen flat management, enhance versatile management capabilities and leverage AI to boost organizational productivity. In terms of profitability, the company recorded operating profit and net profit of RMB 166 million and RMB 103 million, representing a year-on-year decline of 13.5% and 23.1%, respectively. This was mainly affected by a significant drop in interest income and foreign exchange gain or losses compared to last year. After adjusting for share-based compensation and amortization of intangible assets arising from acquisitions, non-GAAP operating profit amounted to RMB 206 million, down 10.2% year-on-year. Non-GAAP profit attributable to equity shareholders was RMB 142 million, a year-on-year decrease of 16.6%. Excluding the impact of other income, annual adjusted operating profit increased by 24.7% year-on-year, reflecting further improvement in the quality of the company's profitability. In terms of cash flow, the group's net cash inflow from operating activities reached RMB 229 million this year, a substantial increase compared with last year, mainly affected by the combined impact of timing differences between revenue recognition and cash collection. enhanced supply chain bargaining power and optimized cash flow management. As of December 31, 2025, the company's total cash reserves exceeded RMB 2.6 billion, laying a solid financial foundation for future business development, exploration of new products and markets and enhanced shareholder returns. Regarding shareholder returns, the group's total dividend and share buybacks reached HKD 254 million in 2025 with the total shareholder returns accounted for 137% of the 2024 non-GAAP net profit attributable to equity shareholders and a consolidated annual shareholder return rate of 12.4%. For the next 3 years, we plan to distribute year-end dividend of no less than 50% of non-GAAP net profit attributable to equity shareholders of the company. This Friday, the group's Board of Directors approved an annual final dividend of HKD 0.20 per share, representing a payout ratio of 63%, exceeding our market commitment 50%. Based on the latest market position, the dividend yield stands at around 7%. Moving forward, the company will continue to refine its shareholder return mechanism, adopt diversified return plan and share development dividends with all shareholders. This concludes my presentation. Thank you all again. Operator, we can now open the floor for Q&A. Operator: [Operator Instructions] We will take our first question from Thomas Chong -- I'm sorry, we'll Xiao Yanyan with CICC. Yanyan Xiao: [Interpreted] Yanyan Xiao from CICC. I have 2 questions. One is regarding AI. So how does management view AI impact on the total addressable market for the mid- to high-end recruitment market? Also, there's been a lot of discussions about AI agents. Do you see them potentially disrupting or replacing traditional recruitment platforms? What's your strategy to navigate these challenges? And just a quick follow-up on the financials. Do you have any specific guidance for revenue and profit in 2026? Kebin Dai: [Interpreted] I will take this question. Thank you for your question. We have also noticed that the market discussion about AI replacing human labor. In our view, every tech revolution restructures the job market. The labor market in the AI era will gradually evolve into an hourglass structure. That will keep rising for 2 groups, high-end talent in innovation and strategic decision-making at the top and those relying on intensive personal interaction and on-site operation at the bottom. By contrast, mid-tier entry-level white-collar positions featuring standardized workflows and low added value and programmable test will face long-term pressure and gradual replacement risk. Popularization of AI growth on new industries and rules, positions such as AI and AI architects are emerging fast. Our demand for professionals in automated driving, AI-driven new drug R&D and other field is exploding. Competition for high-end cross-functional talent in the industry is becoming increasingly [Technical Difficulty] professionals and further consolidating our core competitive moat, especially our unique advantage of hundreds of millions of premium talent resources while maintaining our edge in the mid- to high-end white-collar recruitment market and extending our leading position in AI recruitment. We will also integrate full-time, part-time outsourced recruitment and human machine collaboration models for urban service blue-collar routes and explore innovation business model for tech-driven blue-collar services with our own new brand [indiscernible]. Regarding concern over whether AI agents will replace traditional recruitment platform, I think that AI will drive differentiation rather than [indiscernible] disruption in software and HR services. Platform with exclusive industry data, key integration into corporate process and strong participation in clients' talent decision-making will retain solid advantages. In contrast, service provider with homogeneous products will face risk of marginalization. Going forward, we will deepen our industry data, strengthen sector-specific areas and follow a technological trend, deliver better services for AI talent better meet enterprise talent demand and enable accurate talent matching with resilience. For the second question, I will -- answered by Tim. Ge Tian: [Interpreted] I will take this question. As I mentioned, our cash billing turned positive year-over-year in the second half of 2025, driving full year cash billing to start declining and stabilize. In Q1 2026, we are pleased to see this growth trend continuing. On this basis, we expect the full year cash billing in 2026 to maintain a mid-single-digit growth, which will drive full year revenue to return to growth. In terms of the gross margin, we will continue to focus on AI products in 2026. Strictly control projects with low gross margins and prioritize high-margin online products and delivery efficiency. Therefore, we expect the gross margin for 2026 to remain broadly flat or achieve a slight increase. On expenses, we anticipate a rise in overall operating expenses in 2026. Mainly due to higher marketing costs and increased manpower expenses at our subsidiaries, but it's not very much. As I said, overall expenses for the main Liepin platforms will remain at a relatively low level. Against this backdrop, operating profit will keep improving. However, due to the combined impact of declines in overseas interest rates and reduced the principal from shareholder return payout, wealth management income will continue to decrease in 2026. Excluding this portion of nonoperating income, the group's revenue resumes growth and the flexibility of the marginal operating margin gradually unfolds. The group's operating leverage will improve and strengthen, and this is my answer. Operator: We will move next to Thomas Chong with Jefferies. Thomas Chong: [Interpreted] I will translate the question myself. My question is about the recent hiring industry situation as well as our thoughts about the second half outlook. And my second question is about the OpEx trend, in particular on marketing as well as new user acquisition cost outlook. Kebin Dai: I will take the first question, and Tim will answer the second one. The number of new job postings on our platform offers a leading indicator of trends in the recruitment market. In Q3 and Q4 of 2025, new job posting numbers achieved double-digit year-on-year growth with the growth momentum accelerating quarter-by-quarter. In the first week after this year's spring festival, new job postings on the platform rose 18.8% year-on-year. Active talent volume increased 15.7% year-on-year and headcount released job enterprises grew 34.17% year-on-year. Since the start of Q1, the uptrend in the new job posting has continued and become even more pronounced after holidays. Total new jobs in the first 3 days of March exceeded 20% year-on-year, and this reflects a recovery in hiring activity and talent. By industry, finance, automobile and high-end manufacturing remains the core sector with the strongest recruitment demand. Emerging trends such as artificial intelligence, new energy and smart hardware are seeing explosive demand and showing enterprise expanding demand for innovation talent. In contrast, recruitment growth in traditional sectors has remained relatively moderate, including real estate and lifestyle services, highlighting structural divergence across industries. From my observation, compared with the past 2 years, large enterprises now have greater density in hiring. In terms of the recruitment structure, they continue to focus on technical platform and talent with high talent density, while SMEs prioritize core positions in sales, medicine and technology. Overall, supported by the positive momentum in new job posting and an increase in new contracted clients in 2025, Liepin's client base continues to strengthen. We are confident to outperforming the mid- to high-end recruitment market and delivering sustained growth in cash billing throughout 2026. Ge Tian: Thomas, I will take the second question, and thank you for your question. In terms of the 3 major expenses, we expect overall operating expenses to rise slightly in 2026. SME expenses are projected to increase by approximately single digit year-on-year, mainly driven by higher marketing channel costs for our online certification training business as well as rising personnel expenses because of the steady revenue growth in the flexible staffing recruitment overall staff number and related marketing expenses will remain stable with marketing expenses continuing to account for a portion of the total. In terms of the administrative expenses and R&D expenses, the overall level is expected to remain stable or slightly [indiscernible]. We will continue to [indiscernible] and focus on improving organization efficiency. For market promotion and user acquisition, we adhere to the strategy of replacing conventional marketing spending with high-quality products. We will put more efforts and funds into continuously launch of AI products. Meanwhile, leveraging our unique positioning advantages in the mid- to high-end talent market and the brand awareness of AI talent our [indiscernible], we will attract more end users, optimize the user experience and enhance user stickiness and that's it for our questions. Unknown Executive: In the interest of time, that concludes our Q&A session. Thank you once again for joining us today. If you have any other questions, please contact us through IR e-mail, ir@liepin.com. Have a great day. Bye-bye. Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that will conclude the call. We thank you for your participation. You may disconnect at this time. [Portions of this transcript that are marked [Interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]
Operator: Good day, and welcome to the Tongdao Liepin Group 2025 Annual Results Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to [ Catherine Zhang ]. Please go ahead. Unknown Executive: Okay. Thank you, operator. Hi, everyone. Thank you for joining us on today's conference call to discuss our results for the full year 2025. The company's financial and operating results were published and were posted on the company's IR website at ir.liepin.com. On today's call, Mr. Rick Dai, company's Chairman and CEO, will kick off with our business operations and highlights. After that, Mr. Tim Tian, our CFO, will continue with detailed financial review. After prepared remarks, we will be able to answer your questions. All remarks will be in Chinese followed by English translation. Before we continue, I would like to remind you that this call may contain forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provisions. Such statements are based on management's current expectations and current market and operating conditions and related to events that involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the company's control, which may cause the company's actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Future information regarding this and other risks, uncertainties and factors is included in the company's filings with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under law. Please note that certain financial measures that we use on this call are expressed on a non-GAAP basis. Our GAAP results and the reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures can be found in our earnings press release. I will now turn the call over to our Chairman and CEO, Rick. Please go ahead, sir. Kebin Dai: [Interpreted] Dear investors, welcome to Tongdao Liepin Group's 2025 Annual Results Conference Call. On behalf of the group, I would like to express our sincere gratitude to all our investors for your steadfast support and trust. In 2025, amid macroeconomic structural adjustments and the profound changes in the job market, the group firmly adhered to the strategic theme of deepen value within the [Technical Difficulty] in business inflection point driven by AI technology enablement and refined operations. For the full year, total revenue was RMB 1.986 billion, down 4.6% year-on-year. However, looking at leading cash billing indicators, cash billings turned from decline to growth in the second half, showing positive signs of recovery. Gross margin improved to 76.6%, making the second consecutive year of increase. On the profit front, due to lagging revenue recognition and lower interest income, non-GAAP operating profit was RMB 206 million, down 10.2% year-on-year, and non-GAAP net profit attributable to shareholders was RMB 142 million, down 16.6% year-on-year. Excluding other income such as interest and government grants, non-GAAP operating profit actually improved significantly, up 24.7% year-on-year. The recruitment market in 2025 was defined by 2 major trends, structural recovery and the reshaping impact of AI. Structurally driven demand powered by technology and innovation grew rapidly with a notable stronger technology oriented trend and job types. Since the third quarter of 2025, new job posting on Liepin's platform turned from decline to growth year-on-year, a trend that accelerated from the end of fourth quarter. All major industries stabilized in the second half with sectors such as automotive, finance, advanced manufacturing, IT and Internet and advertising and media showing strong growth. Key secondary industries, including insurance, AI, smart hardware and automotive manufacturing and parts, the new job posting increased by over 45% year-on-year. In December, we witnessed a surge in job demand in hot areas such as aerospace, embedded intelligence and AI-related fields. This trends indicate the effectiveness of China's economic recovery and industrial upgrade and reflect that after period of adjustment, the mid-or high-end recruitment market is entering a critical phase of bottoming out and recovery. The breakthrough development of AI technology is profoundly reshaping the recruitment market. The Liepin 2025 talent supply and demand trend report defined a triangular structure model for AI talent covering management talent with an AI-oriented mindset, AI technical talent and application-oriented talent empowered by AI. Among this, application-oriented talent constitutes the largest group, becoming the main driver of employment with the market value of AI composite talent continuing to rise. Aligning with this trend, Liepin has firmly embedded the perception that AI talent on Liepin AI recruitment with Liepin in users' minds. We are pleased to see that the number of individuals on our platform who listed AI skills on their resume increased by 81.8% year-on-year. In the first week following the 2026 Spring Festival, this figure surged by 139.7% year-on-year among active talent. Meanwhile, more employers are using AI to empower recruitment. According to Liepin 2025 China AI Talent Singularity Report, 81% of enterprises have adopted AI tools across their talent management process. In the first week after the holiday, new job posting require AI tools increased by 215.6% year-on-year, offering an average salary 25% higher than positions without such requirements. Amid this rapid wave of AI adoption, we focused on driving customer growth and enhancing monetization through a rich and user-friendly portfolio of AI products. By year-end, verified enterprise customers reached 1.474 million, up 3.2% year-on-year and the number of paying enterprise customers reversed, declined, growing to 72,000, up 5.3% year-on-year. On technical foundation, we maintain a strategy of synergizing general purpose and industry specialized capabilities while integrating mainstream open source large language models, we continuously strengthened our self-developed vertical model Tongdao Huicai building reinforcement learning capabilities based on our user feedback and behavior data, creating an automated closed loop from data collection, review feedback to model integration. Through this analysis and semantic understanding of recruitment requirements, combined with domain-specific data training, we achieved inter upgrades in job matching capabilities and optimized the overall model cost. During the year, our large language model agent application technology was granted with multiple national patents. We can now built an AI product metric fully covering the BHC tripartite ecosystem. Cash bill from AI products surged from RMB 10 million in 2024 to over RMB 100 million in 2025, a nearly tenfold increase year-on-year. This marks a significant transition where our AI application capabilities have evolved from functional innovation into a sustainable revenue growth engine, laying a solid foundation for future large-scale expansion. Specifically, the AI account and intended candidate searching are the core products driving commercialized revenue growth. AI account customer coverage reached 93% by year-end, and we upgraded to the AI Pro account in the fourth quarter, embedding the new AI-assisted search feature, which automatically generates precise search keywords to help enterprise efficiently discover composite talent and empower professional recruiters. The recruitment AI agent intended candidate searching now operates with full process AI automation. Currently, 65% of trial orders can be fulfilled with interested candidates within 2 hours and the monthly repeat initiation rate among customers increased to 66%, consistently validating the product's strong fitness and practical value. Our AI interviewing process Duomian saw significant interview volume growth and continues to extend towards a comprehensive talent assessment system. On the candidate side, the AI Career partner Dora was fully launched in the fourth quarter, leveraging the perspective of senior headhunter, Dora basically optimized resumes, intelligently recommends positions and incorporate smart interview features, significantly improving candidate engagement and job seeking experience. During the year, registered individual users surpassed 116 million, up 10% year-on-year and the average MAU grew 15.3% year-on-year. On the headhunter side, the AI agent delivery assistant Xiao Yi embedded within the Duolie assistant was upgraded to version 2.0, becoming a core operational infrastructure for internal and external delivery teams. As of the reporting period, verified headhunters reached around 225,000, up 4.7% year-on-year and headhunters contact with individual users grew 24.2%. With this, Liepin has built a comprehensive AI product metrics covering the entire process of recruitment, interviewing, job seeking and headhunter delivery, creating a virtuous cycle within the BHC tripartite ecosystem and providing multidimensional support for the future growth. In 2025, by focusing on our user expansion for Liepin Pro and leveraging our rich AI product portfolio, we effectively boosted both new customer acquisition and retention rates. New subscriptions for Liepin Pro standard package increased by over 60% year-on-year, quickly driving capital for recruitment business from declined growth in the second half. Concurrently, by leveraging AI to empower sales teams, we deepened exploration of high potential users and improved sales lead efficiency. This result in a 286% increase in the customer reach-to-collection conversion rate at year-end compared to the first half of the year. Coupled with organizational flattening and deeper cost control and efficiency measures, our sales personnel efficiency achieved clear stabilization and subsequent growth. 2026 marks the start of the 15th 5-year plan period with emerging industry rising rapidly and structural opportunities continuing to unfold. We will see this historical opportunity to cultivate strategically for the industry and leverage our comprehensive BHC AI product metrics to address core customer needs, enhance product adoption and expand our user base. On the talent front, we will broadly cover high potential composite talent in emerging fields to solidify the foundation of our platform ecosystem. On the technology front, we will continue to use AI as our core engine, deepening its research and application within recruitment. Organizationally, we will further strengthen our management structure, enhance organizational effectiveness and build a team of professional skills in both business and AI, enabling broader market penetration. At the group level, we will leverage policy support and industry development opportunities to connect the supply and demand cycle for human resources, strengthen our well position in mid- to high-end white-collar recruitment, expand our generational lead in AI-driven recruitment while exploring innovative models for technology-driven labor in urban service blue-collar sectors, thereby solidifying our diversified comprehensive service capabilities. Finally, regarding shareholder returns, we have always valued the trust and support of our investors. In 2025, through special dividends and share buybacks, the total annual shareholder return amounted to HKD 254 million. This year, we are continuing our dividend distribution plan, proposing a dividend of HKD 0.20 per share, representing a payout ratio of 63% of non-GAAP net profit attributable to shareholders. Going forward, we will continue to explore diversified shareholder return programs consistently enhancing shareholder value on the foundation of stable operations and creating long-term value for our employees, customers and shareholders. That concludes my prepared remarks. Next, I will turn the floor over to our CFO Tim, to walk you through our 2025 financial performance in detail. Thank you all. Ge Tian: Thank you, Rick and [ Catherine ]. Once again, thank you, everyone, for joining our earnings release conference call. In the first half of this year, we experienced consistent pressures in the recruitment market. However, conditions improved in the second half. The number of new job posting on our platform bottomed out and started growing from the third quarter onwards, while cash flow turned positive year-on-year within the year. For 2025, the company recorded revenue of RMB 1.99 billion, representing a year-on-year decrease of 4.6% with a decline significantly narrowing compared with previous periods. Breaking it down by structure, the revenue decline was mainly attributable to talent recruitment and other human resource services to business users. This segment generated revenue of RMB 1.65 billion, down 6.2% year-on-year. This was primarily due to the deferred impact from reduced cash flow in 2024 and the first half of 2025, coupled with the overall incomplete recovery of the mid- to high-end recruitment market throughout 2025. In contrast, revenue from the talent development services to individual users maintained a steady growth, building on the high base last year, this segment's revenue increased by 5% year-on-year to approximately RMB 330 million. On the cost and expense side, Liepin Group maintained stable gross profit level in 2025 with gross margin improving by 0.6 percentage points year-on-year to 76.6%. This was mainly driven by an increased revenue contribution from AI products, optimized control of -- over low-margin products and enhanced efficiency of the delivery team. In 2025, the company continued to focus on internal cost reduction and efficiency improvement. The group's total operating expenses for the year amounted to approximately RMB 1.45 billion, a decrease of 5.3% in absolute terms year-on-year with the consolidated operating expense ratio declined by 0.6 percentage points to 72.9%. Sales and marketing expenses totaled RMB 897 million for the year, down 1.3% year-on-year, mainly due to straight-line labor costs and rental savings. Research and development expenses for 2025 were RMB 272 million, a year-on-year decrease of 10.4% with the R&D expense ratio falling by 0.9 percentage points to 13.7%. This efficiency gains stem from the widespread adoption of AI tools and optimized adjustments to the product and R&D optimization structure. General and administrative expenses decreased by 11.6% year-on-year to RMB 279 million with the G&A expense ratio dropping by 1.2 percentage points to 14%, primarily driven by improved management efficiency from organizational restructuring. Going forward, we will further deepen flat management, enhance versatile management capabilities and leverage AI to boost organizational productivity. In terms of profitability, the company recorded operating profit and net profit of RMB 166 million and RMB 103 million, representing a year-on-year decline of 13.5% and 23.1%, respectively. This was mainly affected by a significant drop in interest income and foreign exchange gain or losses compared to last year. After adjusting for share-based compensation and amortization of intangible assets arising from acquisitions, non-GAAP operating profit amounted to RMB 206 million, down 10.2% year-on-year. Non-GAAP profit attributable to equity shareholders was RMB 142 million, a year-on-year decrease of 16.6%. Excluding the impact of other income, annual adjusted operating profit increased by 24.7% year-on-year, reflecting further improvement in the quality of the company's profitability. In terms of cash flow, the group's net cash inflow from operating activities reached RMB 229 million this year, a substantial increase compared with last year, mainly affected by the combined impact of timing differences between revenue recognition and cash collection. enhanced supply chain bargaining power and optimized cash flow management. As of December 31, 2025, the company's total cash reserves exceeded RMB 2.6 billion, laying a solid financial foundation for future business development, exploration of new products and markets and enhanced shareholder returns. Regarding shareholder returns, the group's total dividend and share buybacks reached HKD 254 million in 2025 with the total shareholder returns accounted for 137% of the 2024 non-GAAP net profit attributable to equity shareholders and a consolidated annual shareholder return rate of 12.4%. For the next 3 years, we plan to distribute year-end dividend of no less than 50% of non-GAAP net profit attributable to equity shareholders of the company. This Friday, the group's Board of Directors approved an annual final dividend of HKD 0.20 per share, representing a payout ratio of 63%, exceeding our market commitment 50%. Based on the latest market position, the dividend yield stands at around 7%. Moving forward, the company will continue to refine its shareholder return mechanism, adopt diversified return plan and share development dividends with all shareholders. This concludes my presentation. Thank you all again. Operator, we can now open the floor for Q&A. Operator: [Operator Instructions] We will take our first question from Thomas Chong -- I'm sorry, we'll Xiao Yanyan with CICC. Yanyan Xiao: [Interpreted] Yanyan Xiao from CICC. I have 2 questions. One is regarding AI. So how does management view AI impact on the total addressable market for the mid- to high-end recruitment market? Also, there's been a lot of discussions about AI agents. Do you see them potentially disrupting or replacing traditional recruitment platforms? What's your strategy to navigate these challenges? And just a quick follow-up on the financials. Do you have any specific guidance for revenue and profit in 2026? Kebin Dai: [Interpreted] I will take this question. Thank you for your question. We have also noticed that the market discussion about AI replacing human labor. In our view, every tech revolution restructures the job market. The labor market in the AI era will gradually evolve into an hourglass structure. That will keep rising for 2 groups, high-end talent in innovation and strategic decision-making at the top and those relying on intensive personal interaction and on-site operation at the bottom. By contrast, mid-tier entry-level white-collar positions featuring standardized workflows and low added value and programmable test will face long-term pressure and gradual replacement risk. Popularization of AI growth on new industries and rules, positions such as AI and AI architects are emerging fast. Our demand for professionals in automated driving, AI-driven new drug R&D and other field is exploding. Competition for high-end cross-functional talent in the industry is becoming increasingly [Technical Difficulty] professionals and further consolidating our core competitive moat, especially our unique advantage of hundreds of millions of premium talent resources while maintaining our edge in the mid- to high-end white-collar recruitment market and extending our leading position in AI recruitment. We will also integrate full-time, part-time outsourced recruitment and human machine collaboration models for urban service blue-collar routes and explore innovation business model for tech-driven blue-collar services with our own new brand [indiscernible]. Regarding concern over whether AI agents will replace traditional recruitment platform, I think that AI will drive differentiation rather than [indiscernible] disruption in software and HR services. Platform with exclusive industry data, key integration into corporate process and strong participation in clients' talent decision-making will retain solid advantages. In contrast, service provider with homogeneous products will face risk of marginalization. Going forward, we will deepen our industry data, strengthen sector-specific areas and follow a technological trend, deliver better services for AI talent better meet enterprise talent demand and enable accurate talent matching with resilience. For the second question, I will -- answered by Tim. Ge Tian: [Interpreted] I will take this question. As I mentioned, our cash billing turned positive year-over-year in the second half of 2025, driving full year cash billing to start declining and stabilize. In Q1 2026, we are pleased to see this growth trend continuing. On this basis, we expect the full year cash billing in 2026 to maintain a mid-single-digit growth, which will drive full year revenue to return to growth. In terms of the gross margin, we will continue to focus on AI products in 2026. Strictly control projects with low gross margins and prioritize high-margin online products and delivery efficiency. Therefore, we expect the gross margin for 2026 to remain broadly flat or achieve a slight increase. On expenses, we anticipate a rise in overall operating expenses in 2026. Mainly due to higher marketing costs and increased manpower expenses at our subsidiaries, but it's not very much. As I said, overall expenses for the main Liepin platforms will remain at a relatively low level. Against this backdrop, operating profit will keep improving. However, due to the combined impact of declines in overseas interest rates and reduced the principal from shareholder return payout, wealth management income will continue to decrease in 2026. Excluding this portion of nonoperating income, the group's revenue resumes growth and the flexibility of the marginal operating margin gradually unfolds. The group's operating leverage will improve and strengthen, and this is my answer. Operator: We will move next to Thomas Chong with Jefferies. Thomas Chong: [Interpreted] I will translate the question myself. My question is about the recent hiring industry situation as well as our thoughts about the second half outlook. And my second question is about the OpEx trend, in particular on marketing as well as new user acquisition cost outlook. Kebin Dai: I will take the first question, and Tim will answer the second one. The number of new job postings on our platform offers a leading indicator of trends in the recruitment market. In Q3 and Q4 of 2025, new job posting numbers achieved double-digit year-on-year growth with the growth momentum accelerating quarter-by-quarter. In the first week after this year's spring festival, new job postings on the platform rose 18.8% year-on-year. Active talent volume increased 15.7% year-on-year and headcount released job enterprises grew 34.17% year-on-year. Since the start of Q1, the uptrend in the new job posting has continued and become even more pronounced after holidays. Total new jobs in the first 3 days of March exceeded 20% year-on-year, and this reflects a recovery in hiring activity and talent. By industry, finance, automobile and high-end manufacturing remains the core sector with the strongest recruitment demand. Emerging trends such as artificial intelligence, new energy and smart hardware are seeing explosive demand and showing enterprise expanding demand for innovation talent. In contrast, recruitment growth in traditional sectors has remained relatively moderate, including real estate and lifestyle services, highlighting structural divergence across industries. From my observation, compared with the past 2 years, large enterprises now have greater density in hiring. In terms of the recruitment structure, they continue to focus on technical platform and talent with high talent density, while SMEs prioritize core positions in sales, medicine and technology. Overall, supported by the positive momentum in new job posting and an increase in new contracted clients in 2025, Liepin's client base continues to strengthen. We are confident to outperforming the mid- to high-end recruitment market and delivering sustained growth in cash billing throughout 2026. Ge Tian: Thomas, I will take the second question, and thank you for your question. In terms of the 3 major expenses, we expect overall operating expenses to rise slightly in 2026. SME expenses are projected to increase by approximately single digit year-on-year, mainly driven by higher marketing channel costs for our online certification training business as well as rising personnel expenses because of the steady revenue growth in the flexible staffing recruitment overall staff number and related marketing expenses will remain stable with marketing expenses continuing to account for a portion of the total. In terms of the administrative expenses and R&D expenses, the overall level is expected to remain stable or slightly [indiscernible]. We will continue to [indiscernible] and focus on improving organization efficiency. For market promotion and user acquisition, we adhere to the strategy of replacing conventional marketing spending with high-quality products. We will put more efforts and funds into continuously launch of AI products. Meanwhile, leveraging our unique positioning advantages in the mid- to high-end talent market and the brand awareness of AI talent our [indiscernible], we will attract more end users, optimize the user experience and enhance user stickiness and that's it for our questions. Unknown Executive: In the interest of time, that concludes our Q&A session. Thank you once again for joining us today. If you have any other questions, please contact us through IR e-mail, ir@liepin.com. Have a great day. Bye-bye. Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that will conclude the call. We thank you for your participation. You may disconnect at this time. [Portions of this transcript that are marked [Interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]
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