Okay. What I'm going to do is actually just going to go through very quickly on some of the highlights and some of the activities that we have done in mind, because it is a separate public company, so I can't go into the detail, but I'll give you some directional comment. So this one is actually to show you that we have done a lot of work in terms of managing our cost structure, managing our cash, reduce our debt. Good news is actually on our flagship product, AP10, which is a very different architecture than the one before, which is our future architecture allow us to not only grow in the education business, but to expand into enterprise.
So this indication is actually very exciting. And also during that time, still increased our gross margin. That means the team has done a lot of work in terms of managing the business going forward. Next page. We've talked a lot about moving into a SaaS kind of business.
So this is actually we're making good progress. So we're very encouraged about it and we're going to continue the effort going forward. Next page. This one is actually very related to the previous page, but also related to the direction of MIND and also the direction of NetDragon, which is fully embraced AI. So we are very happy we announced we have signed a definitive agreement to acquire what we named AI voice assistant technology, which we expect to complete in Q3.
We're to integrate it's called Merlin nine. We're going to integrate that into our panel. It's actually to allow us the panel to help teachers in the classroom and also help students to learn in the classroom. So this will become the platform for us to deploy even more AI services going forward. So this is part and parcel of our SaaS growing kind of strategy.
Next page. This is just to show you that our product continues to be giving accolades from all these different industries and everything. So we continue to focus on the excellency of our product. Okay. The follow-up is actually what I'm going to do is to tell you exactly as a company some of the activities we do to show you how we embrace AI as a whole.
I think you have seen this announcement before, I'm going to reiterate. One of the prominent AI company in China is actually is going to be investing into CherryPix and they will be joining one of their founder will be joining the Board, which is to take all their technology in exclusively to not only do it in Hong Kong but overseas. So this is a very tight collaboration, if you will, is that we become one force outside of China to take the technology, take advantage of CherryPeg's go to market resources and also go to market experience and also our execution excellence to really work together to not only do some good work in Hong Kong on AI, but also overseas. So this is actually very, very exciting for us. Next one is actually also AI driven.
I think we talked about it, we made some press announcement, is our work with the higher education in Thailand. Now by the way, this effort is not only limited in Thailand, it's actually we have a lot of activities going on around the world, but this is the one that we announced. Very exciting because Thailand has a national agenda. They want to move into different industries, especially in EV and semiconductor and all that. But how to train their people is actually one big challenge.
So we leverage AI. We're going to use AI to work with them to scale the training and then we can help them to advance the national agenda. So this one is actually we is actually resonating with a lot of developing countries. So we're very excited about this. As a matter of fact, I'll be going to Paris next week.
It's actually in a UNESCO conference to share our experiences with a lot of the emerging countries, not only in Asia, but also in Middle East and also in Africa. So personally, we and the company are very excited about it. Next, last but not least, this is going to be the foundation for us on how to scale the PBS business model. So this is actually, we call it AI content factory. It's not a new concept in terms of content factory, but it's a new implementation with AI.
So we can use AI to help all our partners and ourselves to create a lot of volumes and volumes of content that we can use AI to help scale. So very excited about this. Two weeks ago in Beijing, we also talked a lot about in one of the conferences. We're going to talk a lot in many different conferences upcoming. So again, I see this as part and parcel of our strategy on the previous page.
Okay, let's spend some time on the outlook. The first one I want to talk about is we're going to announce a how do we return capital to our shareholders. So, very proud to say we're going to be providing or returning no less than HKD600 million to the shareholders. They see in two different currencies. One is through dividend.
Actually, that's why we announced a $0.50 dividend, which is actually slightly higher than the previous year, which is 2024. I think we did RMB0.40 in 2024. And then we will be doing some share buyback. The reason we do that is that we are very confident with all the work that we're doing. Even though we have some market challenges in education, but with the cost optimization, with the new technology we bring in, with the expanding of our technology and also our product line.
In gaming, have new games we're expanding into overseas. So we are very confident not only in our 2025, but also the year of 2026 and beyond. So that's why we want to show that we are confident in our business, so we will be doing our share buyback also. I hope you are as excited as I am of this one. Last but not least, I want to comment the outlook, which is actually second half of this year.
Again, I mean, said it before, we are very confident. I think the intern has done spent a lot of time in explaining how we have positioned ourselves to back to growth in the gaming business, not only in New Demon, but also in other games and also overseas. In mind, actually, with this indication in for some reason, Europe, the market will be coming back. Whether it's late twenty twenty five or 2026 is really depending on how fast they move. For example, Germany, they have approved their Digital Pad two point zero.
So, that is a very big project, which we were a big part of. So we will take advantage of that. I think with hopefully, the tariff situation will stabilize. Once we have that and also the budget situation cleared up in The U. S, the market will come back.
So again, with the optimization of costs that we have done, we will be well positioned to reap the benefit. So that's why we are excited about it. AI, I mean, Merlin line integration into our panel is exciting. So we will be well positioned to take advantage of AI and grow our SaaS business. So overall, while we're having some challenges in the 2025, But I think we have done a lot of good work to take advantage of the challenging situation and we do cost optimization and also product positioning and embracing AI.
I think that will set us up for good success in 2025 and beyond. So with that, I'm going to stop talking, and I'm going to open it up for Q and A.
Thank you, Doctor. Lang and management. Now it's the time for the Q and A. You're welcome to raise questions in two ways. First, if you would like to raise questions through the teleconferencing system, you may press you.
Let's welcome our first question. Okay. So the first question is coming from our webcast platform. It's from Prime Asset Management Prime Asia Asset Management. Can NetDrugged at some point have some color on the traction in terms of revenue from AI education and education software, SaaS, ARR, etcetera? Thank you.
Well, thank you for the question. I thought I did do that. Maybe I'll reiterate. First of all, in mind, we announced the integration of the Verified technology into our panel. So that is the start of our AI SaaS revenue going forward.
Well, since it is a separate company, I can't comment on more specific. On the NetDragon side, there's actually two ways to look at it. One is actually, if you look at the work we have done in Thailand, again, I mean, it's actually very complicated business model, more than happy to go through it offline. That's gaining a lot of attraction sorry, a lot of traction in terms of using AI to drive education. The other one is actually what I talk about the AI content factory is something that we have been gearing up to do.
It's a company wide effort that we're going to help our partners to convert all their content, whether it's a text, video or whatever into AI cost. Again, I mean, exactly from a technology standpoint, it's very complicated, but it's very exciting. We're more than happy to go through it offline. Thank you.
Thank you, Doctor. Our next question also comes from Prime Asia Asset Management. It's about our gaming business. Can you later explain the short term factors that result in slowdown in gaming in the 2024 and the 2025? And is gaming likely to return to growth into the 2025? Our next question comes from
Okay.
Actually,
don't think we will. To be honest, we're not in that business. But that said, I think we're going to be looking at different business model leveraging blockchain, Web3, which is something that we know, and AI, right? So if you kind of look at what we will do going forward besides AI, we're going to be low because we believe blockchain will play a big role in education and eventually Web3. Can't go into more detail.
But the bottom line is we're not going to be a micro strategy.
Thank you. Thank you, Doctor. Leung. Thank you, Wood and thank you, Ling Zheng Zheng. This successfully concludes our presentation today.
Once again, I would like to thank you all for joining us. If you would like to communicate with the management further, please contact us for one on one meeting arrangements. Thank you and we wish you all have a great