Dear friends, good morning. Thank you for joining us for NetDragon Websoft Holdings Limited's 2022 interim results presentation. Our presentation PPT will be broadcast on the live streaming platform, and the PPT is also available for download on our company website at www.nd.com.cn under the Investor Relations tab in IR Webcast section. Before the start of our presentation, please allow me to introduce the management who are joining us today. We have Dr. Simon Leung, Group Vice Chairman and Executive Director. We have Mr. Ben Yam, Group Chief Executive Officer. We have Mr. Lin Chen, Group Senior VP. We have Mr. Vin Riera, Chief Executive Officer of Promethean. Now, let's pass our time to Dr. Simon Leung to host the presentation today.
Okay. Good morning, good afternoon, to some of you. Dada, we have the same cast of character. You know, about six months ago, we're gonna be here talking to you about our business, again. Let me first very quickly give you a highlight of what happened in the last six months, and then we'll go into some financials. Vin and Lin Chen will talk about their own businesses. I'm gonna come back and talk about two area. One is on the Metaverse. I was on CNBC earlier this morning, a lot of conversation around the Metaverse.
I'm happy to take some questions, and I certainly will talk a little bit about it and especially our, you know, acting Chief Executive Officer, Tang Yu, is actually getting quite a bit of attention. I'll talk briefly about our business for the second half of this year. Very quickly, actually if you look at our result is actually a good result. I mean, it's actually revenue growth, profit growth, but, you know, we need to kinda look underneath the blanket a little bit, if you will. It's still very encouraging, but we do have some challenges we need to manage. Nothing very specific to our company, it's more around the macroeconomic situation.
You know, let me kind of touch on each of the different businesses, and then I'll have the rest of the team going into the details. I could not ask for more on the education business, and that's why Vin has this big smile on his face. 71% growth year-over-year, which is something very impressive. That said, I mean, this business, we have been growing in double digits for the last six years, so but 71% is actually very impressive. Gaming, we declined a little bit just like we are in line with the challenges that everybody is facing, not only companies in China, but around the world. Actually, it's the macroeconomic headwind, which again, we'll talk a little bit about it.
For the last six months, we did do a lot around the Metaverse, including building the platform, investing, launch a game. We will talk in more detail later on. Last but not least is our actually our continual commitment to return equity back into our our shareholders. Ben will talk very specifically about what we're doing is actually we're gonna do another special interim dividend on top of our interim dividend. With that, I'm gonna turn it over to our Chief Executive Officer, Ben, and he's gonna take you through the details of the numbers.
Thank you, Simon. I'm gonna first go over our financial performance for the first half, and then I'll give you all an update on the implementation of our capital return measures. Right, let's dive into the financial statement. You know, again, you know, top line growth overall was 26%, which was actually one of the highest top line growth we've seen in recent years. As Simon mentioned, our education business delivered record, you know, growth in the first half, and that growth is actually at 71% year-over-year on the back of a fast-growing market and also the strong execution that led to expansion of our market share.
On the gaming side, our revenue decreased by 3.9%, which is largely a result of the macro impact in China, and Lin Chen is gonna talk about that and break it all down for you. On the expense side, you can see that all of the SG&A items all went down as a percentage of revenue as we continue to manage our costs effectively. In terms of the bottom line, our net profit increased by over 30% year-over-year. On a Non-GAAP basis, which we feel is a much better reflection of our true operating performance.
You can see that all of the line items are increased in double digits, including EBITDA, operating profit, as well as our net profit. Okay, let's talk about the segmental financial statements. Okay. First on the education business, to go along with our strong top-line growth, we also saw over 40% increase in gross profit. You can see that there's a little bit of decrease in the gross margin, and Vin is actually gonna talk about that, later on.
In terms of the core segmental loss, you know, our loss actually reduced to HKD 36 million in the first half as a result of, you know, operating leverage, as we continue to implement very effective, you know, cost control measures. On the gaming side, just real quick, we continue to invest in R&D to grow our pipeline, also enhance our existing games, as R&D expense increased by 9.5%. In terms of the other line items in OPEX, you can see that we continue to look for opportunities to streamline our operations.
As a result, you can see that we can see a reduction in selling and marketing as well as the administrative expenses. Then overall, in terms of the bottom line, our core segmental profit for gaming maintained at over 1 billion in the first half. The next section is gonna be on capital return measures. First of all, as we have noted in previous earnings calls, we are committed to providing capital returns to our shareholders through a combination of share buyback and also dividends. Up to now, we have completed $38 million of share buyback since we announced the $300 million of share buyback program about one year ago.
This year, starting January, we actually paused our share buyback in order to comply with the listing rules because we cannot do any buyback if we possess, you know, material inside information. To fulfill our commitment in lieu of the buyback, which we were not able to perform, you know, for the most part, the first half, we have declared a special dividend of HKD 0.50 per share on top of kind of our regular interim dividend of HKD 0.40. We also want to highlight that, you know, we continue to maintain a very strong net cash balance of HKD 4 billion, which will enable us to continue to invest and also capitalize on future strategic opportunities. Okay.
The final part of this session is a chart where we just wanna highlight our track record of kind of giving back to our shareholders through a combination of share buyback, recurring dividends and also special dividends. As you can see, you know, throughout the past few years, we continue to consistently increase our cash return to shareholders, you know, through all three measures. Especially in the past couple of years, we have really stepped up our effort as we already declared, you know, special dividends, you know, twice within this year. Going forward, we're gonna continue to deliver on our capital return commitment. With that, I will pass the stage to Vin to talk about our education business. Vin?
Great. Thanks, Ben. My name is Vin Riera. I am the CEO of Promethean, and I'm gonna talk to you about our education business today. Can we go to the next slide, please? First half of the year was very strong for our business. We looked at three main metrics. We looked at our overall revenue growth, our volume growth, and where we are from a market share perspective. From a revenue growth perspective, it was great first half. On a half-over-half basis, we are up by 42.1%. On a year-over-year basis, we're up by 74.3%. Volume growth was very strong as well. We grew faster than the market.
If you look at the market growth in the first half of the year was at 23.9%. We grew 47.3%. On a year-over-year basis, we increased from 71.5% - 82.3%. It's important to note in the first half of the year, we did not have any large tenders, in-country tenders, so that's growth that we're seeing on a global basis throughout all the geographies we sell to. From a market share perspective, in the second half of 2021, we finished at 21.9% market share. In the first half of 2022, we finished at 26% market share. Next slide, please. I talk a lot about the importance of being number one globally. It's important for our brand.
It's important for our products focus to make sure that we're delivering products that our customers want, and our partners wanna sell. What I'm very pleased is that we remain number 1 in our top five markets. We're number 1 in the U.S., we're number 1 in the U.K., in Germany, France and Italy. What's important to point out on this slide is in each one of these regions, they have different mix of products. They have different funding streams. They have different resellers and distributors that we work. This really speaks to our global presence and our excellence in understanding what's needed in the classrooms around the world. Next slide. We're continually looking at execution. We did see our ASPs drop 4.5% from the first half on a half-over-half basis.
That ASP reduction comes from two areas. The first was we reduced some costs. We reduced the price on AP7 to do a sell down before our launch of AP9. I'm gonna talk about our launch of our new product shortly. We also had some depreciation of the euro versus the dollar. The material cost on a per panel basis continued to decrease. Component pricing continued to decline. We were able to take advantage of that. We saw a 1.6% decrease on a half-over-half basis. Freight really peaked out in Q3 of 2021. We've seen a consistent decrease there, and we also managed that extremely closely. It's a metric that we look at weekly and monthly, and we're down 16.7% on a half-over-half basis.
I'm pleased to report that our gross margin, excluding tariff, is up 1.3 points. It goes from 20.6% in the second half of 2021 - 29.9% in the first half of 2022. Next slide. All right, I am thrilled to announce the release of our V9 ActivPanel. This is our first new product that we've launched in the market in the last three years. I'm even more pleased to talk about how successful V7 was and how we maintained and took market share with a product that was in the market for three years. It speaks to how we build our products and how we look at the future state and what we need today, but also what we need in the future.
There are five elements that were critically important in this, in this release, and it's connectivity, longevity, adaptability, simplicity, and security. I'm gonna talk a little bit about each of these to give you a sense of where the focus was. The first major improvement is in connectivity. Our customers expect all their devices to operate well together and intuitively when directly connected or networked together. Our ActivSync innovation addresses this need by allowing a more seamless integration between ActivPanel nine and a connected device like a teacher laptop or OPS. This allows content to be more easily shared between devices. With ActivPanel nine, we've also upgraded the network, Bluetooth, and charging capabilities to be best in class. Our customers need longevity.
As technologies in the hardware and software space continue to advance, schools need the confidence that their investments are gonna continue to support their evolving instructional methods to accommodate future paradigm shifts. The ActivPanel nine has upgraded hardware. It has expandable storage and ActivSync that allows to solve for future needs. Of course, they expect adaptability. One of the lessons from the pandemic is schools are preparing for a wide range of scenarios where students and teachers may or may not be in the classroom. Teaching technologies must be adaptable to delivering engaging lessons wherever they may occur, and ActivPanel nine now includes a screen recording tool, making recording and sharing of lessons easier for teachers. We always focus on simplicity. Technology in the classroom should be inviting to use. It should be simple to get started and easy to manage.
Straightforward operation of the teacher and IT manager are important to instilling confidence, satisfaction, and successful outcomes. The ActivPanel nine enhances our Element Series unified menu by allowing more customization of menus, roaming cloud profiles bring the teacher's customized experience to any ActivPanel nine, and multiple ways to quickly log in to a panel and take advantage of the custom startup. Finally, and potentially most important, is security. Security is absolutely paramount. This is the protection of personal and sensitive information through the implementation of industry best practices for hardware and software design. First of all, the ActivPanel nine is a trusted platform module, which brings industry-standard hardware-based security to the ActivPanel.
We've also improved security in the ActivPanel nine by having multiple ways for a teacher to log into the panel with a profile by giving teachers and admins more control over the locking and unlocking of an ActivPanel nine, and by cleaning up any data left in the system after the session is complete. I'm thrilled that this product is in market. It's in all of our regions today, and we're shipping it and selling it as we speak. Next slide, please. When we take a look at growth, of course, we're gonna continue to focus on, taking market share, on a global basis, but there's also other things that we're looking at, and I wanna make sure that I'm sharing those with you.
The first is we're always looking for partnerships that we feel are gonna strongly differentiate us in the market and give our users a better experience. We announced a partnership last year with Radix. They're a leading device management software that helps IT administrators keep track of how those panels are installed and used. I'm very pleased to report that in June, we started exclusively distributing Merlyn Mind, which is a classroom-based AI tool to simplify a teacher's user experience. From a building standpoint, we're always looking at new products that we can build, not only in hardware but in software. We see multiple applications that we're investing in that are gonna enhance the user experience and bring recurring revenue streams into the business.
From an acquisition standpoint, there is a short list of businesses that we're working very closely with as we speak. They're all SaaS-based, and they're all in closely adjacent markets to front of classroom displays that will again enhance the user experience, and create a seamless teaching experience for students and teachers. Next slide, please. The final update that I wanna give everybody is we've put a tremendous amount of focus on Edmodo in the first half of the year. We've made the decision that we're gonna close down the B2C platform this September. The closure of the B2C platform is gonna result in savings of approximately $20 million. What we are gonna do is continue to focus and monetize the global country rollout opportunities.
We've talked in the past about lots of opportunities at the country level, and we feel very confident that we're gonna be able to bring the Edmodo platform and Edmodo World platform into those opportunities. This is consistent with what we've been talking about from a long-term lens learning strategy, and we continue to focus on building pipeline with countries where we do countrywide rollouts that include all of our products and services. With that, I will hand it over to Lin Chen.
Okay.
我们尤其是发力在MMO跟MOBA这两个品类上。大家也知道这两个是相对比较长线的品类，那在上半年我们的游戏收入受到经济跟疫情的一些影响是略有下跌。那从其他几个KPI来讲，我们其实看到了还是有很好的迹象。那首先我们在海外的收入上得到了8.5%的增长。那其实对于MMO品类和MOBA品类来讲，一些在线用户的稳定和收入的付费用户的稳定是很重要的。我们也很高兴看到这些KPI在今年上半年是保持一个稳定跟健康的状态。 那分别从收入结构来看，首先从端游的部分的话，我们受到影响更大一些，尤其是端游的高端用户受到经济影响更大一些，略有下降。但是我们其实有信心随着经济的发展重新恢复，那这部分的收入会重新地回来。那接下去，我们在手游收入上其实获得了一个逆势的增长。那其实从我们的手游收入的比例上来讲，也是在不断地增长，那现有16%这个百分比，我们认为在未来还有很大的发展空间。 那接下去首先为大家介绍我们最重要的魔域IP整体的情况。那我们其实把魔域IP所有产品看作一个整体，我们是希望长期去经营这个IP，那也会发力于这个IP的长线的发展。那不光是产品，我们还会在IP等各个方面持续去投入跟打造。那从这些数字来看的话，端游的收入受到的影响会更大一些，但是随着我们的一些内容的推出，我们看到在手游的收入的增长，包括在线用户，包括一些我们的APA，我们的用户的基数上，相对都是比较健康的。那尤其是这个也跟我们MMO品类的一个特点是非常相关的。在MMO的品类上，我们最重视的是在线用户的活跃跟一个良性的生态的维护。那我们的付费其实也是与之相关的，那对我们的一些用户粘性是我们考量的一个重心。所以说在今年上半年，我们会持续推出跟用户活跃、用户粘性、社区健康相关的很多的一些措施。那在这些措施上，上半年也看到了很多很好的回报。 那这里的话，其实MMO是一个很消耗内容的品类。那从三个方面我们今年是进行了发力。那第一个，就是我们的资料片的内容的高质量的推出，那上半年主要是家族的资料片。那家族资料片，主要是用来维系整个社群的活跃跟用户粘性，包括建立一个良性的生态。那这个在今年上半年也拉动了我们的用户的活跃跟用户的回流，取得了比较好的成绩。那第二个方面，是在付费的方面，那我们其实坚持了国风国潮这个内容包装跟内容的推出，那尤其是这部分的内容受到了一些中小R的欢迎，那这个对我们的APA，就我们的付费用户的基数也获得了一个很好的帮助。那接下去，我们在和一些公益的华南虎的联动，在我们跟一些国潮的联动上也取得了比较好的成绩，那这个会帮助我们持续去曝光我们的IP。包括在今年的八月份，我们首度推出了我们魔域IP的音乐剧，那也扩展了我们的整个IP的用户群体。那在今年下半年，我们除了持续性推出内容跟联动之外，那还有一个很重要的就是我们的职业觉醒的资料片，那这一部分的资料片，会同时对我们的收入跟我们的活跃同时会有拉动作用。所以说，在魔域在下半年也会有很多很强的内容产出，在我们的预期之内。 那接下去的话，魔域作为一个重量级的IP，我们会持续去布局它的产品线。那首先第一个是介绍我们的魔域手游2。那魔域手游2经过跟西山居我们的合作方的持续的打磨，那在今年的Q4已经开始了一些开放性的测试，那包括付费的测试。那这部分从测试数据来看，在我们的原汁原味的魔域的特点跟内容上已经获得了IP用户的欢迎跟认可。那还有一些细节我们还需要持续打磨，那我们会预期在2022年，就是今年的Q4去推向市场。 那在MMO品类上，整个的内容品质的质量，尤其是美术的品质还是非常重要的。所以说在PC这条产品线上，我们会进行开发魔域的重制版。那这个魔域的重制版，重要的亮点应该是我们在引擎包括美术上的升级，那在经典的模式上我们会进行一些保留。那这个也是预期在明年推向市场。 那前面说到我们其实在海外的游戏市场上也在逐渐地发力，那其实从两个维度我们去发力这件事情，一个是我们的产品线，第二个是我们的运营推广跟国家级的一些策略。那首先看到从产品线的角度来讲，我们是在不同的品类布局跟尝试。那终焉誓约，是我们在二次元品类、二次元卡牌方面的一个很重要的尝试。那目前，已经跟知名的一个3A的发行商进行了签约。那之所以选择这家发行商的很重要的原因是说，我们会跟发行方在长期的产品的迭代跟生命周期上去做更加深入的合作，也能保持我们这款游戏获得长线的生命力。那接下去，在英魂之刃的部分，其实英魂之刃的IP在今年也获得了一个很大的增长，尤其在海外的收入上已经占到了167%的比例。那这里的话，我们会持续把在埃及测试成功的一些经验推广到其他国家。我们预期在除了埃及之外的国家，在今年也会获得一个很大的增长。那同时，除了这个PC端之外，手机端跟这个互通版也会作为我们今年在海外发力的一个重点。那接下去，在英魂之刃这个IP上，我们认为在Mobile类在海外还是有很多的机会，尤其是我们会针对海外的用户的特点，跟海外的机型跟市场的情况，重新去推出我们的Lite版本。那有了这个新版本的话，同时我们在越南已经获得了一些验证，那接下去我们会在更多的国家去推广我们这个新版本。那最后一个的话，是我们基于我们自有的Neopets IP的三消的游戏，那目前从上半年的测试数据上来看，已经获得了比较好的成绩。同时，它整个对IP用户跟非IP用户的认可度也都比较高，那我们预期在下半年会推向市场。那在整体上来讲，我们预期在海外的产品线上，我们会加大我们的研发投入跟推广力度，预期能够推动海外收入的持续增长。 那接下去的话，其实Ben有提到我们在加大了我们在研发上的投入，那我们是从这两个维度去看这件事情。第一个，我们已有的比较强的MMO品类上，尤其我们的魔域IP，我们会持续性推出我们的续作跟新品。那大家会看到在2022年，在Q4，我们有我们的魔域手游2的上线，那在明年，在2023年，我们会有我们的重制版的发布计划。在2024年，在上半年我们会有魔域口袋版2.0的推出。那在下半年，其实我们还有一款新的魔域PC版本，也预计在2024年的H2上线。那这时候来讲的话，这个是我们的重点的MMO品类，那同时，我们也在探索MMO加跟其他的赛道。那在这里的话，目前每一家公司都比较擅长自己的品类，通过在自己的品类上去逐渐积累跟发挥优势。所以说在这一点上，我们比较重视的是MMO加这个赛道。那在三消这个品类上，我们其实也在三消的核心玩法上加入了一些MMO的元素，所以说在Neopets这个的话，在下半年的上线也会在这方面是我们MMO加的第一个尝试。那同时，在代号仙侠跟代号DPS这项目上，是我们最擅长的MMO品类跟放置卡牌这个品类的一些融合创新，那能够也会发挥我们在MMO品类上的积累。那同时的话，我们也会有终焉誓约在日本的上线，那这些都是已经明确的上线时间点的新产品。那同时的话，还有一些在研的，但还没有确定上线时间的产品，包括了我们在区块链游戏上的尝试，包括我们在元宇宙跟一些VR、AR技术上的应用，也会在研发上会带给我们更多的可能性。我们也预期在新游戏上也是我们一个发力的很重要的重点。这样子的话，就是从整体上来讲，网龙游戏我们会聚焦于我们擅长的MMO跟MOBA两个品类的持续发力。那在新赛道上，我们也会利用我们的优势，逐步去扩展海外的机会，同时新的品类的机会跟融合创新的机会。那预期来讲，我们相信在2022年的下半年跟明年，我们都会有新品的推出，来保证我们游戏业务的稳定增长。以上，谢谢大家。下面交给Simon。
Xie xie, Vin Riera. What I'm gonna do is actually I'm gonna talk about our effort in the Metaverse, and then I'll move on to talk about the outlook. Before I go into a little bit of the details, we as a company are embracing Metaverse in more ways than one, being, you know, we even having virtual CEOs as one of our experiment into the Metaverse, because we do believe if we don't embrace it as an entire company, we won't be successful. What we are doing is that we believe in the trend, we believe in blockchain, decentralization, and crypto. You know, a lot of people will ask that what happened, you know, with the recent, you know, kind of the fluctuation of the market.
We see that as a long-term play that is actually quite healthy. The market adjustment is actually good for our long-term growth. With that, I'm gonna go into a little bit of the detail. What we are doing right now is actually we're developing a platform that allows us to get into the Metaverse.
Building an ecosystem is something that we believe we can do and we will do. In terms of application, we're gonna be focusing on education and also gaming/entertainment. Those are the areas that we will be focusing on. Let me kind of talk about each one of them so that you know the reason behind it. We have our new virtual Chief Executive Officer AI-based. This is a radical approach, but we do believe it speaks very loudly of our commitment to this area. I was on CNBC earlier, I talked about how we approach it, and they say, "Oh, it's not a gimmick." I said, "Certainly is not." Hopefully in the near future, she will be here talking to you instead of me, so which is actually benefit to all of you.
She's gonna take an active role in how we manage the company, how we kinda streamline and make the process more efficient, and allow us to take some of the current resources and focus in other areas. It is something I personally and the company very excited about. Next one I wanna talk about Neopets. Before I go into talk about the Web three game, I wanna kinda go back to the top level. We are very excited about the different development in the Neopets franchise. You know, you know, Lin Chen talk about the Match-three game, which is a casual game. When we look at all the stats it's very exciting. We have a very active user base in our classic games.
We also experimenting a world builder and now last Friday we did a alpha launch on our Web three game. The response is actually very good. Of course, it's a very controlled release of our alpha launch. But nonetheless, the feedback is actually very positive. We are excited, and we'll continue to commit to the current roadmap that you're seeing. We are looking forward to the success of this game in the first play and earn game, not play to earn, which is very important. We are working on a lot of partnerships that will make the game even richer than ever before. I do look forward to those announcement at the right time. The next one is actually we are working on our platform.
We do believe things like AR and MR and XR is actually gonna be an integral part of Metaverse going forward. We decided to invest in this company called Vuzix. We're gonna invest $40 million into this company. They're focusing on producing AR-enabled glasses that can work either with our game, our entertainment or education. Along the same lines of investment, we also have a strategic partnership with them. We're gonna be co-developing our application in the education Metaverse first. We believe it's gonna be an integral part and will contribute to the success of our education Metaverse going forward. Okay, let me move on to the outlook. Before I talk about the outlook, I wanna mention a couple things. Actually maybe one thing.
Ben did talk about our focus on capital return to our shareholders. He did talk about buyback of close to HKD 40 million and then our special dividend HKD 0.50, but I wanna remind you, we also did a special dividend, you know, before of more than HKD 1. I think it's around HKD 100 million. If you guys do the math, we have returned close to HKD 200 million back to our shareholders, which is actually part of our commitment that we announced earlier. In terms of the outlook, we look at the rest of the year, our education is gonna be enjoying a record year again, I have to reiterate, in 2022.
More excitingly is actually what Ben alluded to, is some of our partnership not only just with Radix, but with Merlyn Mind, which is actually incorporating AI and voice technology into our classroom technology. We're gonna be continuing looking at M&A opportunities in that area allow us to to expand our market share in the classrooms, but more importantly build up our SaaS monetization opportunity. We'll continue to be very careful and you know with our costs actually not only in China but everywhere else, but we're gonna focus on streamlining our costs in anticipation of some of the headwind coming our way. Last but not least, our gaming franchise.
You know, even though there's some headwind, we believe we can get over it just like any other times before. Like Lin Chen said, we're gonna be focusing on delivering our new games, including, you know, the games overseas, which is actually quite exciting. That will kinda reduce our risk and then kinda expand our opportunities. With that, I'm gonna stop and hand it, you know, the call back to the moderator. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Simon Leung, and thank you management for that presentation today. Now it's time for our Q&A section. You're welcome to raise question in two ways. First, if you would like to raise questions through the teleconferencing system, you may press star one, star one on your phone keypad, and our operator will bridge you through. Second, if you would like to raise questions via our webcast platform, please click the question mark on the screen and type your question in the Q&A box. We would like to welcome our first question. It's a question for Vin Riera. It's a very impressive result. We have two questions for Vin Riera. First, I noticed a very strong overall market demand in the first half. Can you talk about the drivers behind the strong demand given overall soft macro environment, and do you expect the strong demand to last?
The second question is, when do you expect B2G business to contribute significant revenue, and what will be the impact on the margin profile? Thank you.
Sure. Let's talk about the first question, which is what were the drivers for demand. One of the things that we saw as a result of COVID was that schools put a tremendous amount of technology in the hands of teachers and students. As they took time off from school and then went back to the classroom, they realized that the classroom technology was not at the same level as the technology that the teachers were now using and the students were now using. They saw significant funding streams globally to improve that front-of-class-based technology. Part of the demand that was driven was the sheer amount of ed tech products that were bought during 2020 and 2021, and then retrofitting classrooms to be able to work with that new technology.
Having strong funding sources associated with that. The second part of that question is, you know, is this something that's gonna last? I think one of the biggest trends that we've seen in the last 12-18 months is that the need for an interactive flat panel that has the computing power and speed and capacity to interact with teacher devices and student devices is pretty important. I think what we're gonna see is, we're gonna see customers that might have been late to transition to interactive flat panels from interactive whiteboards making that transition.
I also think with the launch of V9, we're gonna see demand and interest in people with, you know, version one or version two interactive flat panels upgrading to a significantly improved user experience that's much more secure and just will work much more effectively with teacher and student devices in the classroom. I think that's gonna continue. As far as you know, other forms of revenue, I think I wasn't sure if you said B2G or B2C. The primary focus right now is classroom education-based technology with Promethean. We did talk about some of the partnerships that we had in place, and I also talked very briefly about some acquisitions that we're looking at. In both those instances, there's the ability to work with and monetize products outside of the classroom.
It's worth noting that, you know, relative to Edmodo World is something that we're bringing in to countries, and we're selling into MOEs. There's an opportunity there to expand out.
If I may, I'll jump in and make a couple of comments too. I think we do see strong demand going forward because, as Vin Riera alluded to, exactly there's a lot of old technology that is time for replacement. There's still a lot of greenfield. The good news is actually we're a global player, so we can look to other countries, you know, for growth in revenue. Now, whether we can grow another 71% is actually, we certainly will take on that challenge. At the end of the day, we will see strong growth with us going forward.
I think the other question is the impact on the margin, right, from the country and global. I think we can ask this question in two fronts, right? Because for the country projects, we have the hardware and then we have the software. On the hardware side, I think the margin could be a little bit lower compared to our runway business. As you can all know, the hardware revenue, the scaled hardware revenue for the country project is actually a lot higher. In terms of the software, we also actually working on kind of generating software revenue from our country projects, and the software revenue come with a lot higher margins.
I think net-net, I think we're talking about, we're aiming for significant, you know, benefit to our bottom line, you know, from our, you know, B2G projects.
Thank you very much. Our next question.
在国内的，我们的R&D会降下来一点，这个我们在这边也讲过，我也讲过，那个cost cutting。但是你去看那个普罗米休斯啊，其他地方呢，其实我们的R&D是增加的，因为这个我们在这边那个增长也非常好。
好，谢谢。我们下一条问题呢，是来自于中信证券这边的问题，就是呢我们上半年教育业务呢有毛利率有一点下降，主要的原因是什么？谢谢。
Ben Yam, you want to take that one?
可以啊。我们的那个毛利的话，刚才Vin自己也做了一些解释，我这边可以再给多一些detail。我觉得这个里面有几个层面，第一个的话呢，就是我们，就是那个foreign currency的那个问题，就是那个currency rate-
汇率。
汇率，对，汇率那个问题。首先呢，就是我们有，其实我们有很多的收入，我们是从欧洲那边，所以你们可以看到那个欧罗跟那个GBP，就是那个英镑啊，这个其实它两个汇率在那个上半年的时候，那个不管是year over year或者是half over half，其实都下跌了蛮多，那个half over half，half over half的话，应该是下跌将差不多10%。所以那个的话呢，然后我们的那个cost of goods sold，我们的那个purchase，其实我们这基本上绝大部分我们都是美元，对，所以在这种情况下的话呢，我们的那个ASP，这个就是in RMB term或者是in U.S. dollar term的话呢，我们会有一个比较大的一个影响，这个影响的话可能是you know，couple points of you know gross margin。另外一个的话呢，就是刚才那个Vin也提到，就是我们六月底的时候，我们那个launch了我们的新的产品啊，就是那个ActivPanel 9，那这个产品的话，这个因为是新嘛，所以我们旧的产品的话，我们就是在first half我们就是要那个sell down我们的inventory。那其实我们也没有做很大的一些，那个搁架了，但是我们就当我们在ASP里面的话，我们就没有，first half我们就没有这么aggressive，对，所以这个是另外一个原因。对，所以总体来讲的话呢，其实另外一个还有一点点，这个另外一个，那个因素里面就是，我们在去年的年底，我们build出一个比较大的inventory，对，因为这个inventory是我们去年就是我们已经anticipate今年的first half会，会是一个很好的first half，所以我们就是make sure我们有货，那个去卖。所以那个inventory的话是on the back of去年的那个一些material price，所以这个也是会有一些影响。所以overall来讲的话，我觉得是这么几个原因吧，对。
其实这个库存，我们是略略退一的，是我们这个strategy，因为我们有货的话呢，我们可以马上送货，是其中一个利用我们就是在financial上面的长处啦，就可以帮我们这个gain market share。所以我们那个普罗米修斯，我是叫他一个machine啦，是从各方面来看，不光是在产品，其实也销售啊，也利用我们的所有的financial strength来争取那个market share，that's going to continue。
好，谢谢两位。接下来呢，我们接入一道语音提问，是来自广发证券的。Operator，麻烦接入。
让我们欢迎广发证券的杨玲玲来提问。谢谢。好的，管理层上午好。我有两个问题想请教一下，一个是关于教育业务这...
三个问题啊，一个是关于教育这一块，教育这一块，因为上半年我们看到这个收入增长特别快，这个是非常强劲，然后亏损也有大幅收窄。那就想请教一下教育业务这一块是不是在今年能够看到一个这个break even，然后或者说下半年还是什么时候？那还有就是教育这一块业务的，就包括收入跟利润端的一个展望吧。然后第二个问题是关于因为我们看到这个这两年分红其实是有比较明显的提升的，那这个是我们的这个是应对现在说，去保持股价或者市值的这样一个措施，还是说是一个比较长期的这样一个规划？然后第三个问题是关于游戏，因为游戏今年上半年因为也受到这个整体外部环境的一个影响，包括版号的一些因素吧，那怎么去展望下半年的一些新游戏的一个表现？
其实那个我们几个问题都其实刚才讲过了，可能没有那么深入，所以我先请林晨谈谈那个游戏下半年跟明年那个情况，然后我回来就说一下那个教育的问题哈。林晨。
游戏这边的话，下半年我们预期的情况是会比上半年有所改善。因为第一个，其实上半年我们没有推出新游戏，那在下半年的话，我们会有魔域手游2的上线，那这部分会为我们带来一些收入上的增量。那第二个部分的话，从目前的一些数据来看，我们的生态跟消费的数据还是保持一个稳定的情况，那从数据上来看，也会比上半年会略好。那这个部分的话，也可以请Ben做一些补充，因为从财务的数据的预期上来讲，我们还是预期下半年会比上半年有所增长。
OK，谢谢，那个我就回答其他的问题了哦。第一个是我先回答那个分红的问题，其实那个我在，我跟其实Ben，Ben跟我都谈到这个事情，其实你记得我们在大概一年前吧，Ben，是不是？我们就是宣布了，我们会花在三年，三年内，就花大概三个亿来做那个buyback，这个是我们一个capital return的一个方式啦哦。但是Ben也讲了，我们其实已经开始在做buyback，就做了大概四千万，但是有一些香港交易所条例的问题，我们需要把这个行动停掉。所以呢，我们就用另外一个方法来return那个capital给我们的股东，所以我们就采取了一个就是special dividend的方法，这个不是那个对股价的那个问题。当然我们觉得要是这样做就对股价有帮助了，但是最重要是我们的commitment给我们所有股东的承诺，我们要实现，要是不会buyback的话，我们就分红。回到那个教育来讲，我们现在这个forecast应该是明年我们会break even，那个上半年当然这个增长非常好，71%，但是这个没有可能是下半年也是维持在同一个增长的方面，所以那个我们还是有好的增长，但是不会那么高。所以那个我们现在的forecast是在明年我们会break even。
好的，谢谢。有请operator接入平安证券的问题。谢谢。你好，您的声音已打开，请提问。
谢谢领导。我是平安证券的易永坚。我这边有几个问题，小问题。第一个问题就是关于还是教育的问题，因为我们刚刚的那种强劲的增长，包括我们前几个季度的强劲增长，我个人观察，因为其实有很多领域我也看了，就是说，很大一部分原因是来自于这个北美那边的这个教育信息化基金的这个推出嘛。那么对于这个，因为如果没有这个教育基金和信息化基金的这个提出的话，其实，本质上这个增长应该是不会有这么快的。那么对于这一段北美的这个教育信心的这个持续的推出，我们这边是因为我知道就是普罗米修斯在北美这边其实是有一个比较大的市场影响力的。你对这一块的市场，比方说在今年和明年，这种是怎么样的一个预判呢？因为这个部分的基金是从去年，我印象中从去年年中开始的，那么是否能够持续到明年，或者再往后，这是第一个问题。第二个问题就是说，我也观察到，就是关于你们这一部分的产品，其实在六七月份的时候好像是有，在那个供应这边其实是有更换那个代工厂的，这么对于产品的这个质量啊各方面会有产生一定影响吗？这第二个问题。第三个问题的话，就关于就是利润这一块教育。在我的这个认知里面，就是普罗米修斯在全球范围之内应该是属于最头部的这么一个教户的一个设备。理论上来讲，它的品牌的议价能力是相对比较强的，就是盈利能力，我感觉有一点点是有点出乎我的意外。我认为的这种有品牌的这个电子产品，它是有相对比较强的盈利能力的，就是这一点可能我想知道一下，就是在盈利能力这一块，此前的包括几个季度有一些亏损什么之类的主要原因是什么？是来自于说这个渠道的再投入变了之后还是——
不好意思，你第二个跟第三个问题都听不到。
有点不太清楚，那个声音可不可以稍微慢一点点再问一次？不好意思。
第二个问题——
都听不到。对。
现在听得清吗？不好意思，可能太快。
现在好一点，啊，好。
好，那很好。第二个问题是关于你们的教育产品的供应链，就是供应商好像发生了一些变化，代工厂那边的变化是否会影响到你们整个的产品这一块，这是第二个问题。第三个问题就是关于你们的教育业务的盈利能力的问题，就是普罗米修斯在全球范围之内应该算是最头部的品牌了，那么它的盈利能力在我认为来看，应该是一个有比较议价能力的品牌，那么它的盈利能力之前为什么没有体现出来？主要的资源投入主要在哪一块？大概这三个问题，谢谢。
可能我先回答那个第三个问题，我们教育里边其实有好几块的，我们是因为普罗米休斯是一个比较大块的，在收入来讲，所以我们就讲比较多在普罗米休斯。其实我们在教育里边也有中国那块，中国那块是跟普罗米休斯是分开的，所以那块是有亏损的。然后我们又还有其他小的业务，所以那个可能你就光是看普罗米休斯就没有理由来亏损。其实我们在整个，就是有其他的，特别是在国内，一些我们有些费用的，所以那个有需要的话，Ben可以就补充一下。 第二个问题呢，就是其实换厂商对我们来讲就不是一个新的问题，就是你从好几年前，我们从买了普罗米休斯之后，其实我们也换了好几个厂商。一个呢是我们整个supply chain供应链的那个团队是非常强，然后我们研发队伍也非常强，所以换一个厂商我们是考虑了很多，也跟他们谈很多，也做了很多所谓的testing那些。所以目前来讲，我们完全没有发现这个有很大的问题，一定有一些小问题的，但是那个每一个新产品的问题，不是换厂商的问题，所以那个我们绝对不担心，我们也不排除我们有新的业务也跟其他的厂商合作。 其实你第一个问题呢，可能你看得比较细，就是看这个美国。其实那个Vin刚才也讲了，我们在整个世界来讲呢，其实除了那个美国以外，英国、德国、法国，还有义大利都是我们是第一名的。先讲这个美国的那个funding，这其实会继续还有两年应该。然后呢，其实另外一个也是replacement，那个cycle也开始了，所以我们那个增长呢不光是靠那个funding来，其实也很多所谓的organic growth。然后我们也是一个worldwide global的全球的company，所以我们也可以在其他的那个领域，或者是其他的地方，好像是Germany那些，我们也可以争取比较好的market share，也可以帮助我们的增长。只要在产品线里边呢，现在我们目前来讲是比较注重是在那个高档的，其实我们现在也考虑，我们有没有需要去一个比较就是也不是低档吧，就是一些cost effective的那个产品，我们也可以考虑，因为我们也把AI带进那些不同的那个板块吧。所以然后我们也可以利用这个来，第一可以帮助我们revenue增长，也可以帮助我们做那个SaaS。我是想讲一下这个整个我们整个往前看，其实我们在看的是增长的机会是非常多，无论是在我们所谓的geography也好，在那个replacement也好，那个叫greenfield，就是新的那些用户，还有最后就是我们边境，都是我们增长的地方。
對，可能針對第三個問題呢，我覺得我也補充一下，就是因為如果我們光從一個硬件的角度去看的話呢，我們其實是可以非常盈利的，就是我們的盈利非常大。但是呢，因為我們的教育業務，我們的目標不是要只是做一個硬件的廠家嘛，我們的目的，我們希望是做到一個 blended learning 的 market leader。對，所以從這個角度來說的話，我們就是有很多的一些投入啊，就是在那個 software 也好啊，或者是說從 SaaS 那個層面也好，對一些不同的工具，或者是一些不同的內容。所以從這個角度來說的話，如果你只去看我們的那個 bottom line 的話，你就會看到這是一個虧損的狀態。但是從運營層面來說，就是從硬件運營層面來說，我們應該是做到行業的領先的。
好的，謝謝。我們的下一道問題呢，是來自於Bank of China International這邊分析師的問題，想請問一下，他的第一個問題關於教育業務已經之前回答過了，所以第二個問題呢是想請問一下遊戲業務下半年啊，我們林晨總是怎麼看的呢？我們新遊戲的一些上線，還有魔域IP的一個表現預期，謝謝。
不是，林晨剛剛也講了那個 second half 嗎？
對
你要他再講一遍。
可能稍微再補充一點。
OK，林晨。
那我再多講一點吧，就是啊——
我希望你講的是同一樣的東西啊，不要，不要，不要講另外一個。我開玩笑的。
那第一個，其實是在市場方面。其實隨著，剛才也有談到說，在監管方面，我認為監管方面也是越來越清晰，無論是版號或者內容的話，我覺得在監管越來越清晰的情況下，對廠商來講，也能夠清晰地去佈局應該去發力什麼品類的遊戲。那我覺得從市場方面，今年下半年相比上半年來講，我們預期是更加樂觀一些。在遊戲方面的話，剛剛有談到分成兩個方面，一個是新遊戲，一個是老遊戲。那老遊戲的話，在目前來講，我們認為從剛才講的魔域的整個產品線，可能不僅是今年下半年，今年下半年是有魔域手遊二，同時明年的下半年其實也有我們的重置版，包括後年可能我們會有兩款魔域的新產品，那這個是魔域的IP續作。當然還有一些是融合創新，包括一些泛娛樂的部分。其實我剛剛沒有講太多，就在於我們的舞台劇、我們的動態漫畫，包括我們的IP衍生產品，那這部分也是我們的一個發力的方向。因為對整個魔域來講，它不光是遊戲，它是一個完整的IP，還包含了很多的文化產品。所以預期來講，就是跟我前面說到的，我們預期在下半年，我們的收入情況跟市場情況都會比上半年好一些。
謝謝林晨。
謝謝林總。那接下來下一道問題呢，是來自於Bank of China International的分析師。Bank of China International的分析師呢，希望能夠了解一下我們在元宇宙上面，具體來說我們整體的一個發展戰略和想法是怎麼樣理解，希望能夠分享多一些。
可能我可以講的我都講了。所以這個，怎樣說啦，我們是，對，我講幾個，一個是我們相信那個元宇宙是一個方向啊，所以我們會各方面的，比較全面性的。剛才我講了，我們去建這個，那個狀態系統，然後我們也做一些在遊戲方面啊，娛樂方面，還有那個教育方面的一些服務吧，在裡面。其實我們另外呢，我們也做了一些投資，無論是投在一些VC裡邊啊，或是投在一些基金裡邊啊，這個作用也是幫助我們對整個思想來認識得比較深一點，因為那個是蠻新的，大家都是在學習。所以那個太具體，其實可以講得具體，我們都講了，那個可能另外一個就是在我們那個Neopets，整個方向，因為我們對那個Neopets 3.0那個Web3的方向是非常的excited，然後那個可能找另外一個機會可以跟你詳細的聊一下都可以啊。
好的，谢谢。Our next question comes from Integrated Asset Management. The question is as we disclose on our announcement that Promethean enter into U.S.-based exclusive distribution agreement with the leading education AI technology company Merlyn Mind as our first step to leverage our sales network to expand beyond hardware sales into SaaS solutions. Can you please explain more about the SaaS business model that we are planning at the moment? Thank you.
Okay，first of all，it's Merlyn，not Marilyn。
Merlyn。
Just to make sure.
Okay。
Go ahead.
Sure. One of the unique parts of the Merlyn offering is it's an enhanced user experience based upon AI software, and it's used with classroom technology. It creates a seamless environment for a teacher, and what it allows us to do is create a much more exciting classroom experience for a teacher. It's the same purchaser through the IT administrator, it's the same funding source, and specific to software, there is a piece of hardware that you buy, but there's a recurring revenue stream associated with it, that gives the users this enhanced experience. This is our first partnership in classroom use case, SaaS business, and we're super excited about it. We've launched it here in the U.S., at the end of June, and we've already started to get traction building pipeline.
Yeah, I want to make a comment. It's actually this one is not the only opportunity that Ben Yam and his team are looking at. At the right time hopefully in the near future we will share with you more news in that area, which is actually something that the team has been doing is really strengthening and ramping up our capability within the classroom, and at the same time we maintain our market share leading position, and also expand our SaaS offering.
Thank you very much. Due to time constraint, we would like to welcome our last question. 我们现在邀请我们的最后一道问题，这一道问题呢是来自Everbright Securities的这个分析师。首先呢他希望恭喜公司获得了很好的成绩在今年上半年。他的问题呢是这样的，三消游戏呢在欧美十分的受欢迎，我们有没有这方面的一个计划跟布局呢？还有在欧美推广的一个想法。谢谢。
可能这个林晨也介绍得不是那么清楚了。这个林晨你可以讲讲我们Neopets这个三消的那个游戏。
首先我来介绍一下，其实三消分为很多的细分的领域，那首先我们做的三消其实是，我刚才其实有提到，是三消加一些MMO的元素，那这个其实在市场上的典型的成功产品，就像梦幻花园这样的品类，那其实在欧美是非常受欢迎的。那其实三消在国内呢，MMO是一个大品类，那在海外呢，确实三消跟休闲品类是一个大品类，那这个其实也是代表了我们在休闲品类上的一个布局，因为我们首先认为呢，三消是一个相对长线的品类，那我们整个公司的战略也是比较希望去做长线的一个经营。那三消包括内容的产出是比较适合我们的。那刚刚其实也提到Neopets是我们做的第一款的三消产品，那从它的这个核心的手感，游戏的消除的体验上，包括三消的玩法和Neopets IP的内容包装上，其实都获得了用户的认可。所以说我们也其实有提到说我们在上半年的测试的数据给我们比较大的信心，也非常有信心说下半年它的上线跟测试能获得比较好的成绩。那其实我们是比较重视这块领域的，那刚刚因为时间的关系，我们介绍得比较简略。
其实我在讲那个 Neopets 整个 IP，也提到了那个，或者我讲讲一下，可能大家对 Neopets 不是那么认识，没有那么深，中文应该叫利奥宠物吧。那个其实这个游戏其实也蛮长的历史，啊有一亿五千万的人已经玩过这个游戏，好，现在我们还有一个 million，一百万的 MAU。所以刚才林晨提到的那些所谓的 metric 呢，其实我们都是在上半年测试，其实是非常令我们兴奋。所以我们现在准备在第四季度是在美国来上线，这个希望这个我们做下半年的那个公布业绩的时候，有好消息跟大家分享。
好的，十分感谢 Simon Leung，十分感谢林晨总。Thank you very much. This successfully concludes our presentation today. Once again, I would like to thank you all of joining us. If you would like to communicate with the management further, please contact us for one on one meeting. Thank you, and we would like to wish you all have a great day. 十分感谢各位，希望各位有美好的一天。谢谢。
Okay，thank you。 谢 谢 。Okay，thank you。
Thank you.