KANZHUN LIMITED repurchased RMB74 million ordinary shares under its repurchase plan

BEIJING, May 28, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- KANZHUN LIMITED (“BOSS Zhipin” or the “Company”), a leading online recruitment platform in China, recently announced that the Company has implemented a repurchase plan and repurchased nearly 1 million ordinary shares with a total value of more than RMB74 million.

Earlier last week, the Company announced its unaudited financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2024.

The Company's main operating indicators, such as revenues, total paid enterprise customers and average monthly active users, all reached record highs in the first quarter.

Revenues for the first quarter of 2024 were RMB1,703.8 million (US$236.0 million), an increase of 33.4% from RMB1,277.5 million for the same quarter of 2023. This exceeded the Company’s previous expectations.

Adjusted net income remained healthy. For the first quarter of 2024, adjusted net income totaled RMB530.7 million (US$73.5 million), an increase of 116.6% from RMB 245.0 million for the same quarter of 2023.

The Company has gradually penetrated China's blue-collar and lower-tier urban markets through product model innovation over the past few years. Entering the peak job recruitment season in 2024, BOSS Zhipin continues to enthusiastically explore blue-collar and lower-tier urban markets, attracting companies and job seekers who have never used online recruitment services to the platform.

In March, the number of verified MAU on the BOSS Zhipin app exceeded 50 million for the first time, reaching 55 million, up 24% year on year. Meanwhile, the ratio of DAU to MAU remained stable.

As of the end of April, the cumulative number of verified users served by the BOSS Zhipin platform exceeded 190 million, with the cumulative number of verified enterprises surpassing 14 million. From January through April 2024, the Company attracted more than 17 million newly added verified users.

The number of blue-collar users and the revenue from this segment continued to grow rapidly. Among new users in the first quarter, both the absolute number and the growth rate of blue-collar users surpassed that of white-collar users, with blue-collar users’ revenue contribution climbing to over 35%.

User growth and revenue contribution from second-tier and lower-tier cities continue to increase. Meanwhile, recruitment demand from first-tier cities has also recovered to some degree this year compared to the same period last year.

As of March 31, 2024, approximately 5.7 million enterprise customers across more than 3.5 million enterprises had conducted paid recruitment activities on BOSS Zhipin over the previous 12 months.

Mr. Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Company, remarked, “3.5 million enterprises seems like a large number in terms of the global enterprise service market. It even exceeds the total population of some countries. However, it represents less than 10% of China's over 40 million enterprises. This means there is enormous potential for growth in the number of paying companies for China's online recruitment service going forward.”

As the Company's management emphasized in the conference call, “We have calculated that the average annual payment per enterprise is currently less than RMB2,000. As the vast pool of Chinese enterprises gradually becomes more willing to pay for valuable, must-have to-B services, the situation will continue to improve, which means ARPU will continue to rise."

Unlike traditional online recruitment platforms, BOSS Zhipin is committed to improving efficiency and experience for both parties in the job search and recruitment process through investment in technology and products. Job seekers and recruiters can communicate directly on the platform and select their favorite positions/candidates with the support of matching algorithms.

As such, BOSS Zhipin remains dedicated to investing in technology. BOSS Zhipin‘s R&D expenses increased by 40% year on year to RMB468 million in the first quarter of 2024, primarily due to the Company’s increased investment in generative AI development.

Source: Kanzhun Limited