AI, e-commerce propel Kuaishou

Staff reporter

Kuaishou Technology's (1024) first-half net profit surged 12 times to 8.1 billion yuan (HK$8.8 billion) over the same period last year, thanks to rising advertising income helped by artificial intelligence tools, as well as growth in e-commerce business.

The short video platform's adjusted net profit jumped 74 percent to 4.68 billion yuan in the second quarter from a year ago, beating expectations.

Revenue rose by 11.6 percent to 31 billion yuan in the three months ended June from a year earlier, of which income from online marketing services rose by 22 percent to 17.5 billion yuan.

Kuaishou said its marketing clients' daily spending with AI-generated marketing materials peaked at 20 million yuan in the second quarter.

In the first half of 2024, nearly 20,000 merchants utilized its AI matrix to optimize their operations on the Kuaishou platform, it added.

The firm launched full beta testing for its large video generation model Kling AI and rolled out a membership program to global users in the second quarter.

Meanwhile, revenue from live-streaming segments fell 6.7 percent to 9.3 billion yuan in the second quarter.

Income from other services jumped by 21.3 percent to 4.2 billion yuan during the period, driven by growth in its e-commerce business, which saw the gross merchandise value climb by 15 percent 305.3 billion yuan.

Overall, Kuaishou said the average daily active users advanced 5.2 percent to 395 million on its platform in the second quarter and the total user time spent increased 9.5 percent year-over-year during the period.