KRKR

Overall Strategic Positioning

• The company maintains long-term positioning as a "picks and shovels" player in the global technology industry, rather than overcommitting to a single technology or industry cycle.
• Leverages long-term trend insights, robust content capabilities, and commercial infrastructure to capitalize on opportunities from successive waves of technological transformation, including AI, embodied intelligence, nuclear fusion, quantum computing, and brain-computer interfaces.
• Sustained profitability in H1 2026 is rooted in sustainable commercial value from three core strengths: content influence, industrial service capabilities, and technological application prowess, rather than short-term financial adjustments.

Content Ecosystem Expansion

• Maintains a 36.52 million total follower base across major Chinese new media platforms (Weibo, Xiaohongshu, Douyin, Bilibili, etc.) as of end of June 2026.
• Expanded vertical AI-focused content: The Emergency of Intelligence (AI industry coverage built on exclusive access + in-depth interviews) and Hubcore KR (embedded intelligence value chain coverage, 27% follower growth in H1 2026) have established strong industry footprints. Other vertical accounts (36Kr Auto, Future Construction, etc.) continue to grow.
• Diversified content formats: Total cross-platform video followers reached 9.63 million in H1 2026; produced 75 short videos, with top content gaining over 8.4 million views. Live broadcasts from major industry events (China Appliance and Electronic World Expo, World Artificial Intelligence Conference) garnered over 130 million combined views network-wide.
• Offline industry events upgraded 36Kr from industry trend observer to cooperation connector: 2026 AI Partners Meet (Beijing) facilitated over 100 rounds of B2B matchmaking with over 1,000 on-site attendees; Waves 2026 (Guangdong) gathered 2,000+ on-site attendees for discussions across core emerging tech topics, and hosted an AI innovation competition for young founders.

Commercialization Progress

• New customers accounted for approximately one-third of total customers in H1 2026, with AI, foundation model, robotic, and embodied intelligence sectors as the largest source of new customers, alongside growth from consumer goods, healthcare, and mobility.
• Online advertising revenue grew ~40% year-over-year, driven by growing commercial value of vertical sub-channels and 2x year-over-year revenue growth from short video commercialization. New product offerings (such as 36KR Probe) enabled differentiated pricing to support growth.
• Institutional and enterprise service revenue nearly doubled year-over-year, driven by surging demand for fundraising and portfolio company communication services amid primary market recovery.
• Recurring industrial services: The 3-year strategic cooperation project with Hangzhou Qiantang New Area (including industrial park operation and AI community services) progressed steadily, laying a foundation for regional model replication, and bridging innovation across the Yangtze River Delta and Greater Bay Area.

AI Technology Application

• Internal AI adoption: Hosted the internal KR-Star AI Application Challenge to identify high-impact productivity use cases across sales, content creation, and internal operations, building a company-wide AI-focused learning culture.
• External AI productization: AI-powered project recommendations improved conversion rate by nearly 80% year-over-year for 1,117 startup projects; Collaborate on Intelligence (daily public market sentiment analysis product) reached 55,200 total users (10,000+ paid subscribers), up 50.8% and 61.7% respectively from end-2025, doubling year-over-year.
• AI review hub (ai.36kr.com): Grew to 4,062 total published AI tool reviews, added 260 new reviewers, secured 42 voluntary product listings from AI companies, and achieved its first paid commercial partnerships with industry players, validating its closed-loop business model.

• Management identified four clear growth engines: near-term growth from AI sector new customer acquisition (40% of new H1 2026 customers came from AI, with strong sustained momentum), medium-term growth from deepening commercialization of high-growth vertical content accounts, scaling monetization of existing AI products, and replicating the proven Hangzhou industrial service model to additional regions.
• Management expects the revenue contribution of industrial services to increase steadily over time, while content advertising will remain the core foundational revenue base for the company. The two segments operate as a flywheel: content influence builds trust and resource connectivity, while industrial services deepen industry insights to attract more advertising customers.
• The company will maintain disciplined capital allocation, requiring all new investments to have a clear business rationale and path to return, while prioritizing continued investment in core content capabilities to reinforce long-term business sustainability, balancing growth investment with sustained profitability and strong cash flow.

• Online advertising services: Revenue of 103.5 million RMB, up 38.9% year-over-year. This segment contributed 83.1% of total first half 2026 revenue. Growth was driven by surging advertiser demand from the AI sector.
• Enterprise value added services: Revenue of 15.3 million RMB, up 25.4% year-over-year. This segment contributed 12.3% of total first half 2026 revenue. Growth was fueled by ongoing service refinement focused on margin improvement.
• Subscription services: Revenue of 5.8 million RMB, down 9.4% year-over-year from 6.4 million RMB in H1 2025. This segment contributed 4.6% of total first half 2026 revenue. The decline resulted from a strategic shift in the segment's customer composition.

Total company revenue for H1 2026 was 124.6 million RMB, up 33.7% year-over-year from 93.2 million RMB in H1 2025. Gross profit reached 82.7 million RMB (gross margin 66.4%), up 63.1% year-over-year, while net income was 15.4 million RMB, compared to a net loss of 4.8 million RMB in the prior year period.

• The company noted that forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from management projections, with additional risk factors detailed in the company's public filings with the U.S. SEC.
• Key headwinds referenced include continued macroeconomic uncertainty that could impact customer advertising and industrial service demand.
• The company reported an increase in other expenses to 7.7 million RMB in H1 2026 from 0.4 million RMB of other income in the prior year period, driven by higher long-term investment losses.

Q: Compared to other general and specialized AI-focused media outlets, what are 36Kr's core differentiation advantages that lead advertisers to choose 36Kr? What are the company's key growth engines, and how will management balance growth investment with sustained profitability? / A: 36Kr's advantages fall into three categories: first, broad cross-sector reach that lets advertisers access AI audiences plus upstream/downstream and cross-industry users simultaneously, a capability niche AI media cannot match. Second, a content model built on exclusive access and high-quality in-depth analysis, rather than trend-chasing. Third, end-to-end industrial service capabilities that deliver business partnership and matchmaking opportunities beyond just content exposure. Near-term growth will come from AI sector new customers, while medium-term growth will come from commercializing high-growth vertical accounts, scaling AI product monetization, and replicating the industrial service regionally. Management invests only in opportunities with clear return paths, prioritizes financial health, and maintains lean costs while continuing to build core content strengths.

Q: What is 36Kr's long-term strategic positioning in the AI era, and how will the mix between content/advertising and industrial services evolve? / A: 36Kr's positioning as an infrastructure and connectivity provider for the technology industry remains unchanged: enterprise demand for industry insights and resource connections will only grow as AI adoption accelerates, with content, industrial services, and AI capabilities working together to form a sustainable closed loop. Content advertising remains the company's foundational revenue base and traffic gateway, while industrial services are the primary growth engine. The two operate as a flywheel: content influence enables industrial connectivity, and industrial services deepen content insights to attract more advertisers. Management expects industrial service's revenue share to grow steadily over time as the model shifts from one-off events to ongoing recurring operations, while content advertising will remain core to the business.