KANZHUN Q2 Earnings Call Highlights

Key Points

• Strong Q2 performance: Revenue increased 14% year over year to RMB2.4 billion, while adjusted operating income rose 19% and the adjusted operating margin reached a record 43.8%. KANZHUN forecast Q3 revenue of RMB2.41 billion to RMB2.5 billion.
• Monetization and AI expansion: Paying enterprise customers grew 11% to 7.2 million, supported by higher-value services and AI tools. The company plans to pursue price increases in major Chinese cities while continuing user growth in lower-tier markets.
• Returns and global growth: KANZHUN approved a roughly $230 million dividend and completed more than $300 million in 2026 share repurchases. Its overseas OfferToday business is targeting $100 million to $115 million in revenue within about five years, with potential expansion across Asia and Europe.

KANZHUN NASDAQ: BZ reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of RMB2.4 billion, up 14% from a year earlier, as the online recruitment platform cited user-base expansion and improved monetization from higher-value services. The company forecast third-quarter revenue of RMB2.41 billion to RMB2.5 billion, representing year-over-year growth of 11.4% to 15.6%.

Deputy CFO Wenbei Wang said recruitment demand remained “broadly stable” during the quarter. The number of paying enterprise customers rose 11% year over year to 7.2 million during the trailing 12 months ended June 30, while average revenue per paying customer increased 7%, supported by more efficient services and an expanded range of AI-powered tools.

The company said its paying ratio among active enterprise users improved for a fourth consecutive quarter. Revenue growth was balanced between key accounts and smaller customers, according to Wang.

Profitability and expenses

Adjusted income from operations, excluding share-based compensation, rose 19% year over year to RMB1.05 billion. KANZHUN’s adjusted operating margin expanded by 1.9 percentage points to a record 43.8%.

Total operating costs and expenses increased 6% to RMB1.5 billion. Share-based compensation expense declined 19% to RMB186 million, or 7.8% of revenue, down 3.1 percentage points from the prior-year quarter. Wang said the company expects share-based compensation to remain at a high single-digit percentage of revenue for the full year.

• Cost of revenue increased 2% to RMB312 million, while gross margin rose 1.6 percentage points to 87%.
• Sales and marketing expense climbed 38% to RMB581 million, primarily reflecting the company’s FIFA World Cup marketing campaign and higher sales employee-related expenses.
• Research and development expense rose 3% to RMB431 million, with adjusted R&D expense up 7% to RMB361 million due mainly to AI-related cloud-service fees and server depreciation.
• General and administrative expense declined 30% to RMB219 million, driven mainly by lower employee-related expenses.

Net income rose 173% year over year to RMB1.9 billion. The result included about RMB1.5 billion in investment income related to fair-value changes in an invested company that went public in January 2026. Excluding share-based compensation and gains from those investments, adjusted net income increased 9% to RMB1.03 billion.

Operating cash flow was RMB945 million, down 10% from a year earlier, which Wang attributed to higher advertising, marketing and tax payments, as well as lower interest and investment income received. Cash, cash equivalents, short-term deposits and short-term investments totaled RMB18.8 billion as of June 30, excluding investments in securities.

Growth strategy shifts toward pricing in major cities

Founder, Chairman and CEO Jonathan Peng Zhao said the company will pursue separate strategies in lower-tier and higher-tier Chinese cities over the next five years. In tier-three through tier-five cities, the company will continue to prioritize user growth and market penetration. In tier-one and tier-two cities, it plans to continue expanding users while adding “reasonable price increases” as a growth driver.

Zhao said BOSS Zhipin has cumulatively served about 300 million users and approximately 22 million employers, compared with China’s nearly 500 million urban workers and more than 40 million active businesses. He said the company’s mobile recommendation and direct-chat model has lowered communication costs between recruiters and job seekers and enabled many businesses to move from traditional recruiting to online recruitment.

The executive argued that recruitment services in major Chinese cities remain priced at relatively low levels compared with mature overseas markets. He said the company intends to improve user experience while gradually raising customer payments and payment rates in mature markets, particularly in first-tier cities and certain second-tier cities.

Wang said more than 10 million enterprises use the company’s services annually, with more than half using the platform for free. He described converting free users to entry-level paying customers as a further monetization opportunity, while characterizing potential pricing changes as minimal for customers.

AI products and investment plans

Management said AI is supporting both product monetization and internal operating efficiency. Zhao said revenue from the company’s AI-enabled closed-loop business grew rapidly sequentially in the second quarter. The services include AI-assisted talent sourcing, resume screening and interviews, with Wang stating that the company’s AI interview function is handling more than 10,000 interviews daily.

Wang said AI sourcing can use longer queries and multiple rounds of communication to better understand customer requirements, particularly for professional or senior candidates who may not be active monthly users. He said the company is applying the capability to its own headhunter workflow and third-party headhunter workflows.

On internal operations, Wang said AI has been deployed in areas including security, notifications, sales and marketing, verification and customer service. Since 2023, operating headcount has remained stable alongside user growth, he said, helping employee-related costs contribute about two percentage points to gross margin.

The company said it will maintain AI investment while avoiding a major capital-expenditure expansion. Wang said KANZHUN expects to keep R&D spending at approximately 20% to 25% of revenue, allocating incremental spending to AI without sacrificing cash-flow discipline. He said third-quarter margins should be similar to the second quarter, despite FIFA World Cup sponsorship costs being recognized across the second and third quarters, and that full-year adjusted operating margin could rise slightly.

Capital returns and overseas plans

The board approved an annual cash dividend of approximately $230 million. Combined with more than $300 million of share repurchases completed year to date, total 2026 shareholder returns exceeded $530 million, or more than 100% of the company’s adjusted net income for 2025, management said. The repurchases represented roughly 4.6% to 4.7% of outstanding shares, and the company said it has cumulatively repurchased more than 10% of its shares outstanding.

Regarding overseas operations, Wang said the company’s OfferToday business is targeting $100 million to $115 million of revenue in about five years. He said KANZHUN sees potential to invest in cities in Asia and Europe while avoiding areas with high geopolitical risk. Management also identified longer-term opportunities in developing countries with younger populations and orderly economic development, citing Vietnam, Argentina and Brazil as examples.

About KANZHUN (NASDAQ:BZ)

Kanzhun Ltd. NASDAQ: BZ operates a leading AI-driven online recruitment platform under the brand name Boss Zhipin. The platform leverages algorithmic job matching and instant in-app messaging to connect job seekers and employers, streamlining the hiring process and reducing time-to-fill. By combining machine-learning recommendations with direct recruiter interactions, Kanzhun aims to create a more efficient, personalized recruitment experience compared with traditional job boards.

Beyond its core peer-to-peer marketplace, Kanzhun provides a suite of premium services for corporate clients, including employer branding packages, targeted marketing campaigns and SaaS-based human capital management tools.

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