Investors, good morning. I am Ivan Wong, Investor Relations Director of AsiaInfo Technologies. On behalf of the management, I would like to welcome you all to the 2023 annual results announcement of AsiaInfo. Apart from the physical meeting, we also make use of teleconferencing and a number of online webcast platforms to conduct this results announcement session. Investors on telephone conferencing and webcast can also visit our company's website, or through the webcast platform, you can see our presentation slides. This session will be conducted in Mandarin with English simultaneous interpretation. During the session, please switch your mobile phone to vibration or silent mode. Let me introduce our management. Executive Director and CEO, Mr. Gao Nianshu. Senior Vice President and CFO, Ms. Huang Ying. Today's results announcement will be conducted first by Mr. Gao.
He will go through the company's results and operating performance, and then Ms. Huang will present our financial performance, followed by Q&A. You are most welcome to ask questions. Mr. Gao, please.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I will first go through our company's operations. In 2023, we focused on quality of development. Our overall business achieved stable growth. Operating revenue was up 2%, CNY 7.891 billion. For our three new business, revenue growth was 12.7%. Gross profit was up 1.2%, CNY 2.975 billion. Gross profit margin was stable, 37.7%, slightly down by 0.3 percentage points. Adjusted net profit was up 3.2%, CNY 851 million. Adjusted net profit margin was stable, 10.8%, a slight increase by 0.1 percentage point. Operating cash flow was up 5.9% at CNY 582 million. Dividend per share grew significantly. Last year, we made a special dividend payment of [CNY] 0.60. Final dividend will be CNY 0.412.
Altogether, the total is CNY 1.012. Our three new businesses have achieved good growth, 12.7% in revenue, accounting for 36.7% of operating revenue, up 3.4 percentage points. Among the three new business, digital intelligence-driven operation was down 4.2%. Share of revenue came down 14%. It is 14% in share, down 0.9 percentage points. Vertical industries digitization, revenue growth 27.5%. This is a fast growth with industry digitization. It accounts for 12.2% of total operating revenue, up 2.4 percentage points. OSS business revenue grew 24.9%. It grew 1.9 percentage points as share of operating revenue. The share is 10.5%. Apart from digital intelligence-driven operation business, which experienced a decline, the two other segments experienced growth. Digital intelligence-driven operation, why did it decline last year? There are two reasons, mainly. On one hand, external reason. We acquired iDigital Consulting.
Last year, the number of IPOs declined significantly and funds or proceeds rates also decreased. iDigital mainly did reporting and consulting for listed companies for IPO companies. As a result, business volume declined. This is due to external reason. Consulting traditional business experienced big decline. Besides internally, last year for iDigital, there was an organizational reform. Originally, it is based on vertical industries. Last year we did an adjustment. That is, we added regional basis to the horizontal layer. There is vertical industry like automobile consumption. At the same time, we have another horizontal regional provincial dimension. We need time to adapt to this change in organization structure. As a result, we sacrificed some of last year's growth. There was some decline. But in the second half of last year, the decline stopped already. The decline narrowed.
In the future, the situation is going to improve. There is a positive side or more favorable side. Results-based charging accounted for 27%. This share increased. There are also some new benchmarks. More and more telecom companies, provincial and professional companies accepted results-based charging method. In automobile consumption area and also in other areas, there are more and more benchmarks doing digital operation. This laid a good foundation for our future growth. These benchmark companies in different areas can also be replicated. If you look at our vertical industry operation, revenue grew 7.5%, especially in energy and transport and traffic. Energy revenue, CNY 269 million, and transport, CNY 316 million, even faster growth. All along, we focus on these big industries to develop our Standardized Product + Solution. We have digital products, data products, IT products, and also network- integrated products.
With these three main products, invested into energy, transportation, and government affairs. We are doing Standardized Product + Solution. We have cloud network products, digital intelligence products, and IT products in the energy, transportation, and government affairs areas. Last year, we also have some benchmark systems. In the energy industry, we focus on nuclear power and wind power, mainly power generation, and also photovoltaics and mining sites, coal mines in particular. For nuclear power, as we know in the past few years, we continued to develop 5G network for nuclear power. For our 5G installation, it covers 30% already. Last year, we have Jiangsu, Tianwan 5G private network, and also Zhengzhou. These were online in 2023, being commercialized. For wind power 5G private network, last year we had the CGN, Guangning Wind Farm. With 5G private network, there was wind power being realized.
For photovoltaics in Hainan, energy and also [Jinan] distributed photovoltaic operations, where integrated energy solutions are used in distributed photovoltaics sites. Last year, it is the first year that we used 5G private network in open coal mine in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia. We have established benchmark. In the future, there is huge market potential. For nuclear power, there are 78 units in China. We are covering 23 units. Wind power is a big market with more than 5,000 wind farms in China, we are only covering around 100. The coverage ratio is only single digit in percentage. For medium- to large -site PVs, there are more than 5,000 sites. We only cover 400, less than 10%. In the future, there is huge room. For coal mines, the same. In the future, energy sector coverage or layout, 5G private network will see big growth.
In the transportation area last year, there are also some benchmark projects. When we talk about transportation, it is big transport concept. There is intelligent highway in Yunnan, Hunan, Hebei. Together with 5G and BeiDou positioning system, we upgraded and iterated the intelligent charging system or billing system for highways. Then there is smart hub. This is integrated transport hub. We integrated with city traffic, highways, and so on. These are integrated hubs with railway and also highways. There is benchmark case. Last year for Chongqing East Station, it is a large project. Contract value exceeded CNY 600 million. Last year, we have already completed part of it, and full completion will be in 2025. Progress of the project is good. Then for transport industry, especially in terms of logistics, that means that it covers aviation, highway, railways.
It is going to be a very big integrated project. In coal, steel, iron and steel, we have achieved breakthrough. For example, Shougang, Baogang. These are signature steel mills. And last year we offered digital solutions. Aviation, railway, port, and so on. These data are consolidated. In the future, this area will see rapid growth. For big traffic and transport area, market potential is huge. Expressway also. Now for smart hub, in China, there are 20 international ones. Nationwide, 80 such hubs. So big volume. For ports, in China, well, there are even more. So there is huge market potential. This is about big transport concept. In the future, we will also develop 5G private network and digital and intelligence solutions. There will be rapid growth. OSS. For three new business, OSS area achieved 24.9% growth in revenue.
We continue to provide 5G private network and network digitization, upgrading, and iteration for the four main TSPs. So we are in the first tier of autonomous network. For example, we bring in L4, L5 autonomous network. In autonomous network, large language models are being integrated in order to enhance analysis for the network. For autonomous network, there is also wireless solutions and also upgrading and iteration by means of using AI in traditional network management. This is going to be big opportunity. Apart from autonomous network in OSS area, apart from traditional network management, we are also laying out ToB 5G private network. And also computing power network. Finally, in the OSS area, there is digital intelligence innovation in big data and large language models. How can these be used in network?
For 5G private network operating platform and customers sensing platform, there is the need for large language models and new technologies in the traditional area. So for OSS, in the future, we will see rapid growth. For traditional BSS area, last year, there is decline. There is a 0.9% decline in revenue. For BSS, apart from offering service to the four TSPs, well, there are both opportunities and challenges. For challenges, as you know, in these years, telecom companies are promoting their proprietary R&D capability. And of course, many of these efforts is in the application and business level. And for telecom companies' IT investment, it has not increased. There is even small decline. So this may be due to external reason. IT investment and proprietary R&D effort has increased. These are challenges. For opportunities, telecom companies are concerned about AI and also data as factor.
In traditional BSS area, these new innovations are given much attention. So there will be shifts towards these new innovations and opportunities and investments. There are a lot of opportunities in AI, large language model, and collaborative innovation. So in BSS, there are both opportunities and challenges. We will make good use of our company's product innovation, and we will work with these telecom companies to seize AI+ opportunities and big data opportunities. And we will add them into the traditional area. We will make arrangements hoping that in the future, in the BSS area, we will see stability. And then for technological R&D, we continue to invest. There are more and more standardized products. In cloud network, now we invest in three main areas. In 2023, we invested CNY 1.09 billion, accounting for 13.9% of revenue. In the future, we will continue a high R&D spend.
Now, we have three main directions of investment. Cloud network, we will continue to be internationally leading. Apart from a series of products in China that are implemented, we have received recognition from international companies. For example, 5G core network. Last year, ABI Research rated it as number seven in the world. It is a main cloud network rating company. For our 5G private network, it is rated as a mainstream supplier. For international influence, our computing power indigenous network, we received China Association of Automation Science and Technology Progress First Prize. Internally, we have some benchmark projects being implemented as well. In digital intelligence area, we maintain domestic leadership with selective international advancements.
We received CCF Science and Technology Progress First Prize for our [AI Ops], and then we are selected for four consecutive years in Gartner China ICT Technology Maturity Curve report for our [AI Ops]. Our RPA and also edge intelligence products design have received recognition from international organization for intellectual property. We did some reinforcement and enhancement. There are more and more patents and software copyrights. They are increasing in number every year. ICT. Our standardized products in these few years are in integrated software and hardware product area. There are a few types. For example, 5G, 6G network. There is the core network and wireless base station and also intelligence gateway, CPE and so on. For 6G, we will continue to make moves in integrated software and hardware products for edge intelligence and also privacy computing all-in-one machine. We also introduce such integrated software and hardware products.
They are used in energy, different energy industries, transport and traffic, and also governance. That is government affairs, social governance. For our product development and R&D, some expenses are in integrated software and hardware products. This is going to be a direction which we will increase investment. For our large language models, we do not do generic large models. Basically, we build industry-specific models. These are related to the industries that we focus in. For example, telecom, energy, and traffic industries. We build industry-specific models. For bottom layer generic models, we work closely with domestic and international companies. We do not exclude these large language model companies. Based on their generic models, we introduce industry-specific large language models. In telecom industry, we have accumulated a lot of expertise.
We have the AI cognition enhanced toolkits or platform. On top, there are different tools and applications. For large language model, we have one platform, which is generic AI cognition enhancement platform, and industry-specific models are focused on energy, traffic and transport, and telecom. In our pipeline, there are 60 such opportunities in terms of large language models integrated with applications. Some have been implemented in network optimization, and most are still in our pipeline in different areas. Looking into the future, in 2024, our overall revenue growth will be better than in 2023. Three new business growth will accelerate. Digital intelligence-driven operation will resume the original growth momentum. Last year, it experienced a decline. This year, it will go back to the original normal growth level. That is about our revenue growth. Looking into the future, on one hand, we will continue to reinforce our BSS status.
We will use innovative methods together with AI data as a factor to reinforce our BSS status. At the same time, there are a number of new directions. One is to further enhance penetration into industries like traffic, energy, government affairs. We will use our standardized products in these industries. At the same time, we will increase the promotion of standardized integrated software and hardware products. In overseas, we will also pay attention to overseas business development. In 2024, for the first time, we will set up some organizations overseas to sell our standardized products. Facing the future in 2024, it is the first year of the coming five-year plan. In the past five years, we have to first reinforce and then develop. Starting 2024 to 2028, we have four directions of focus.
One is, in the past, from the telecom area, we will move towards the non-telecom business. We have done some work, but we will enhance our efforts with equal emphasis on both telecommunications and non-telecommunications. In the past, we only offered services to operators, but in the future, service plus products. We do not only offer in-depth service, but also standardized products. We have done some in the past, that's why we had a big R&D spend. The third and the fourth changes are newer. One is, in the past, we only did software. We are moving towards integrated software and hardware. Software is my foundation, but apart from software, we also do some software and hardware integration. For example, 5G private network, core network, base stations, edge intelligence. These are integrated software and hardware.
In the past, we did not touch hardware, but now we will move from pure software to integrated software and hardware. Number four, in the past, we only did domestic business. Starting 2024, apart from Mainland China, we will also pay attention to overseas business. Domestic plus international. These four changes in the future five years will be enhanced. From pure telco, we will be shifting towards non-telco business as well. In the past, pure software or pure service. In the future, we will have product plus service. In the past, pure software. In the future, integrated hardware plus software. In the past, only domestic business. In the future, domestic plus international. These are the four main changes. Based on these strategies, we have formulated the coming five-year plan. Now, I will ask Ms. Huang, our CFO, to report on our financial performance.
Afterwards, we are happy to take your questions.
Okay. Now I will report to you our financial performance. Some details have been presented by our CEO, Mr. Gao, already, I will not repeat the points. I will leave more time for Q&A. Referring to this chart, apart from revenue, gross profit, net profit, as explained by Mr. Gao. Now, our bottom line net profit is CNY 512 million, so there is a decline by 37.9% from last year of CNY 824 million, but there are some non-operating items. First, iDigital goodwill impairment, CNY 288 million. Last year in December, we declared a [CNY] 0.60 special dividend, so we have to pay a dividend profits tax. Altogether, almost CNY 340 million non-operating exceptional items. For impairment of iDigital, it is non-cash item. If we exclude these non-operating items, then for 2023, our operating adjusted net profit is CNY 850 million.
Comparing with CNY 824 million of last year, there is a 2.4% increase. 10.8% and 10.7% more or less the same in terms of adjusted net profit margin. Our operating fundamentals are stable. For iDigital impairment and costs, I will supplement later. Here, operating cash flow, CNY 580 million. We have high-quality development, and we want speed as well as cash flow. The two have to be balanced. Last year when the economy came down, we tightened some quality control. You can see the results or outcomes that we want to get. I won't supplement on revenue, but I will talk more about cost. When there is economic downturn, I would like to share with you our cost control work and thoughts. Right now, given the macro environment and also the economic downturn cycle, it is really a test of our refined management capabilities.
When it comes to management and control, I think if we are running on a highway, then of course, I can let the horse run fast. I can develop faster. However, if I am on a small path, a muddy small path, and when there is rainfall, then I will have to tighten a bit so that the horse will run slower. Because we don't want to fall down the cliff. When the economy is good or bad, you have to make sure that you can exercise control over your horse. We are a 30-year company. Our management standard is very good. We have mature management system. We have good risk control system. From order access to project execution to cash recovery, we have very mature, systematic, structured IT-based system. We can either be tighter or more relaxed.
When the economy is not good, we will tighten control so as to maintain quality. In terms of cost control, we have online structure and also systematic system. In terms of cost control, it is a dynamic method. It is not a yearly static labor cost based on head count. Every month, we exercise dynamic control according to our business development. In this way, we can release our labor cost budget. On one hand, we want to make sure that business development will not be affected. At the same time, we don't want to get out of control. When it is good time, we don't want to see big cost increase. When it is not good, we don't want to see large-scale lay off. This is very big fluctuation, which will harm our own manpower and our business.
In terms of cost control, one big characteristic is that it is linked to staff cost, and we do centralized management. We exercise one-stop control of business expenses. The third point I would like to share with you is we want to have prudent financial policy. If you look at our goodwill impairments in relation to iDigital as such as now, because of external environment, business declined. But with the valuers appraisal, we adopted a prudent policy. All goodwill is being impaired to zero. This can reduce future risk, and intangible assets are also being impaired to zero. As a result, for iDigital, in the future, there won't be more risk in terms of financial reporting. Within the short period, there is challenge because of external environment, but this business still has value.
In the future, we believe that there will be bigger value to be discovered. You can take a look at our outcome. Another point is, for resource allocation, we have to do a good job. For example, we invest in sales, market development. I would like to showcase the result to you. In terms of business cost of sales up 2.4%. It is more or less the same as revenue growth. Gross profit is still stable as a result. R&D expenses, we have to maintain our R&D strength because we are an IT company. R&D expenses account for 14%, is slightly down. Selling and marketing expenses up 4.6%. Share of operating revenue is 7.9%. It is reasonable. Market development is the first thing. R&D is our strength, and selling is related to the market.
G&A is very low, and its share of operating revenue is also low. It has still come down 5.3% for administrative expenses. For G&A, usually it is at 5%. This is already a good level. For our company, just now I mentioned a number of financial management directions. The result is in line. Just now, I talked about iDigital's impairment. The risk is reduced to zero already. It all depends on future development. These are the points about cost that I would like to talk about. Finally, profitability. Our gross profit is stable. Adjusted net profit and net profit margin are also stable. Dividend can reflect that the Board attaches much importance to return to shareholders, especially cash return. At the end of last year, we distributed CNY 0.60 of special dividend.
This year, dividend will also be paid, and it is based on adjusted net profit in declaring yearly dividend, CNY 0.412. Together, our dividend exceeded CNY 1 already. This shows that we attach importance to a return and cash return to shareholders. That's all I would like to supplement. I would like to leave more time for discussion with you. Thank you.