Kanzhun Q4 FY25 earnings call BZ

Kanzhun reported Q4 FY25 revenue of RMB 2.08 billion, up 14% YoY, and FY25 revenue of RMB 8.27 billion, up 12.4% YoY. Adjusted operating profit for Q4 reached RMB 900 million, up 37% YoY, with a full-year adjusted operating profit of RMB 3.38 billion, up 45.7%, and an adjusted operating profit margin of 40.8%. Net income for FY25 was RMB 2.7 billion, with Q4 net income at RMB 682 million. Total operating costs and expenses decreased by 7% YoY to RMB 1.4 billion in Q4 and RMB 5.8 billion for FY25. Gross margin improved by 2 percentage points to 85.1% in FY25.

The company acquired nearly 46 million newly verified users in FY25, bringing the total to over 250 million job seekers and 36 million enterprise users, with over 20 million enterprises served cumulatively. Average MAU of the BOSS Zhipin app reached over 60.7 million, a 14.5% YoY increase. Kanzhun continued to penetrate the blue-collar sector, lower-tier cities (contributing nearly 25% of Q4 revenue, doubling in 4 years), and SMEs (contributing over 50% of FY25 revenue for the first time). The platform facilitated over 2.27 billion instances of mutual consent exchanges in FY25, up 22.4% YoY, with average mutual consent per job seeker rising 7% YoY.

Following the Spring Festival, the company observed robust momentum with average daily newly verified users exceeding last year's levels and active users reaching a record high. Average daily job postings in the 15 days after the festival grew by a double-digit percentage YoY, with strong growth in manufacturing, electronics, communications, semiconductors, automotive, advertising, media, and urban services. White-collar jobs, particularly in Internet, AI, and technology, also showed accelerated YoY growth.

Kanzhun is leveraging AI to deliver closed-loop services, with revenue from this segment already reaching hundreds of millions RMB in 2025 and expected to double or triple in 2026. AI is used for high-end user quick hiring tools, AI-assisted interview features, and AI agents for screening, significantly improving efficiency and making results-based business models viable. The company's Nanbeige 4.1/3B model, with only 3 billion parameters, surpassed models ranging from 4 billion to 52 billion parameters on multiple evaluation tasks and ranked first on HuggingFace's trending list for text generation models in late February.

Management addressed concerns about AI replacing white-collar jobs, noting that China's labor force (ages 16-59) is projected to decrease by 9% by 2036 and 20% by 2046 (to 690 million), making AI a crucial supplement. They highlighted differences between US (150-160 million labor force, 2:1 white-collar to blue-collar ratio) and China (more blue-collar, 40 million enterprises hiring 420 million urban employees, 98% being SMBs). AI-related newly posted jobs grew 172% YoY after Spring Festival, and active online jobs increased 80%. Kanzhun believes its strong bilateral network effect and unique data are solidified by AI, enabling a shift towards results-based placement services.

The Board approved a new policy to allocate no less than 50% of the prior year's adjusted net income for dividends and share repurchases over the next three years, starting from 2026. The share repurchase program upper limit was increased from $250 million to $400 million through August 28, 2027. In 2025, the company declared a dividend of $80 million and repurchased $50 million worth of shares year-to-date in 2026.

OfferToday, Kanzhun's app in Hong Kong, has achieved the #1 ranking in daily active users among mobile apps in the region. Management noted that 1 in 50 Hong Kong workers (out of a 3 million workforce) uses OfferToday daily. The company is focusing on product and team localization in Hong Kong and is actively exploring other international opportunities, though no specific reports are ready yet. Hong Kong is considered part of China, not an overseas market in their internal classification.