KANZHUN, the operator of China’s BOSS Zhipin recruitment platform, reported a 173% increase in second-quarter net income, but investment gains rather than the core recruitment business accounted for most of the reported profit increase.
Net income reached RMB1.94 billion, or approximately $286.3 million, compared with RMB711.2 million in the prior-year period.
Interest and investment income increased to RMB1.63 billion, or approximately $240.6 million, from RMB157 million. The increase was primarily attributable to RMB1.47 billion of investment income generated by fair-value changes in an investee company that completed an initial public offering in January 2026.
That interest and investment income represented approximately 84% of KANZHUN’s reported quarterly net income, illustrating how strongly the non-operating gain affected the headline result.
The adjusted picture was much more moderate. Adjusted net income increased 9.4% to RMB1.03 billion, or $151.7 million, from RMB940.9 million.
Core operating performance was still strong. Revenue increased 14.1% to RMB2.40 billion, or $353.5 million, while income from operations increased 32.6% to RMB863.2 million, or $127.2 million. Adjusted operating income increased 19.2% to RMB1.05 billion.
Operating costs and expenses increased only 6.1%, slower than revenue, helping operating margin expand by approximately five percentage points. General and administrative expense fell 29.7%, while sales and marketing expense increased 38.3% as the company spent more on advertising, including campaigns tied to the FIFA World Cup.
Platform activity continued to expand. Average monthly active users increased 10.4% to 70.2 million, surpassing 70 million for the first time. Paid enterprise customers for the trailing 12 months increased 10.8% to 7.2 million.
KANZHUN is also expanding the use of artificial intelligence across its recruitment process, including AI-assisted chats, AI-hosted interactions and AI interviews. Management said early commercialization efforts have shown substantial market potential.
The company declared an annual cash dividend of approximately $230 million and said it had already completed more than $300 million of share repurchases year-to-date. Cash, short-term time deposits and short-term investments totaled approximately $2.77 billion at June 30.
KEY QUOTES:
“We are continuing to invest firmly in our Artificial Intelligence foundation model capabilities, while advancing the rollout of AI across both our user-facing and commercial products.”
Jonathan Peng Zhao, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of KANZHUN
“By harnessing AI across our operations to enhance operating and management efficiency, combined with strong operating leverage, our income from operations grew 32.6% year-on-year, and our operating margin expanded by 5.0 percentage points.”
Wenbei Wang, Deputy Chief Financial Officer of KANZHUN
