Dear investors and analysts, good morning. Welcome you to JS Global 2023 interim presentation. Before we start, please allow me to introduce the management of JS Global. They are: Madam Han Run, Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer of JS Global; Mr. Liu Ningxin, Financial Director of JS Global; Mr. Pan Jianguo, Chief Financial Officer of Joyoung; and Mr. Miao Mingxin, Secretary of the Board; Chen Bing of Investor Relations Department. So without further ado, let's invite Madam Han Run to make an opening speech.
Distinguished analysts and investors, good morning. Welcome you all to participate in this the 2023 interim results presentation. First, I would like to represent JS Global, thank you so much for the long-term support and attention. So for H1 of this year, we still have, like, a different complicated situation domestically and internationally.
We have, like, a big fluctuation of the currency. It has also influenced the overall operation and business of our business. We can also see that we still having all these being complicated, so we also have seen that the JY still focusing on our internal business competence, and then trying to support all the different customer needs. We have already got several different products dealing with the pain point of the consumers, for example, like this entry-level solution and also top technology ones.
At the same time, we also constantly improve our digital supply chain management. We hope to have this flexible, agile, and lean management. So for channel perspective, JY is constantly having all those different departments, and then we also are expanding our new stuff, and we also constantly promote this content e-commerce, and then trying to focus on that.
So from this essence, APAC, you can also see that the SharkNinja, this is also very good. For this, the business results, I will not expand too much. So because of this, spinning off of this, American and the European business of SN has already been finished at the end of July. So for each one, we still include the performance of that.
However, in order for you to have this, a better understanding of the spin-off, so today we will focus more on the sustainability and, at the APAC vision and development. Except for that, we also will talk about this, structure and the related transaction after the spin-off. First of all, so welcome, Leon , Financial Director of JS Global, to introduce this, the H1's financial performance.
Okay. Thank you, Madam Han. Good morning, I'm Leon .
Welcome you all to the JS Global 2023 interim results presentation. In H1, on the whole, our balance sheet and the reports still perform strongly, so we have this, the net income of the company, including SN, is $2.294 billion, up by 2.8% YOY. If we calculate it on this constant currency, we have about 5.6% YOY, and then the revenue was $2.358 billion. So for gross margin, we reached $975 million in H1, up by 13.1% YOY. This should be attributed to this optimization of our product mix and the decline of cost.
So for this, the total adjusted EBITDA and the EBITDA rates was $335 million, and 14.6% respectively, up by 5.3% and 0.3% respectively. While the adjusted net profit was $210 million, up by 1.4% respectively, so the adjusted net profit margin rate was 9.1%. So in terms of EPS, the earnings per share in H1 was $3.7, so down from the same period of last year. This is actually, as we mentioned, the fluctuation of the currency, and then we also have this, the one-time spin-off fee. And we also have this, marketing investment of this SN side. So now let's look at the overall performance of JS, so the continued business in H1.
So revenue side, we have reached $574 million, so down by 18.5% YOY. And H1, the gross profit was $179 million, with increase of 1.1%. The adjusted EBITDA was $79 million, down by 18.8% YOY. The EBITDA rate was 13.8%, which was flat YOY. So adjusted net profit was $52 million. The adjusted net profit margin was 9.1%. And then the earnings per share in H1 was $0.01. Next, for this continued business for the performance, let's do the analysis. Among that, SharkNinja APAC revenue in H1 increased by 73% YOY. According to constant currency, it increased by 84.6%, almost 85%.
So our APAC business, we have this great vitality. So the main growth points are the Japanese vacuum cleaners, the constant growth of that, and then some other strategic merger and acquisitions of other countries of APAC. In Joyoung, Revenue of H1 dropped by 23.2%, so down by 17.3% at the fixed exchange rate, the constant currency. We can also see that there's a weak consumer demanding market and a fierce competition of the domestic market. So for this, the macro economy of the whole industry is not very ideal. These have led to our revenue decline to a certain extent. For faster growth of SharkNinja APAC, it has made the proportion of the revenue for this, JS continuous business compare with same period of last year, it has been increased to 9% for this year.
So now let's see the revenue of different regions. According to constant currency, the revenue of China dropped by 16.5%, but increase of Japan is, as high as 40.5%. This is also because, as I said, the effective business strategy and our constant improvement of the cordless vacuum, and then the technology has also been optimized constantly, and this has also been favored by Japanese consumers. While the different regions, this has reached about 28.6%. This mainly comes from Australia and New Zealand growth from the new markets. Now let's keep going. This is about the gross profit and the gross profit margin rate of this continued business. In 2023 H1, the gross profit margin procurement service was 33.2%, so it is up by 1.1%.
It is also mainly, as I said, it's actually due to this product mix of high gross margin. Operational perspective, and in H1 this year, we have done certain optimization for this inventory turnover, so it has been decreased by 7 days to 22 days from 29 days in the same period of last year. So the turnover days has also been decreased from this 95 days to 88 days for this accounts receivable. So the turnover days of this account payable, so to be decreased from 117 days to 114 days by 3 days. So our CapEx, it is the $64 million H1 for $2 million for the continued operation. Until June thirtieth, the company's book interest-bearing loan was at $770 million.
It continues declining from $857 million at the end of last year. Then, at the end of July, we have already paid it in full. So the debt to equity ratio has dropped from 0.46 times at the end of 2022 to 0.4 times in the semiannual period, and we will continue to reduce that at the end of this year. So return on investment is 11.4%, which is lower than the end of last year. It's actually due to the decline of net profit. It's including this loss of exchange rate and then the one-time spin-off expense. Then let's carry on. We will also see... the dividend update. We plan to issue about HKD 136 million of our Hong Kong dollar.
It is actually like this, 50% of the share benefit of H1. So JS Global's dividend policy will adhere to the principle of maximize the shareholders' interest and adhere to our high dividend basis, as we always did in the past, and also consider this expansion and capital usage experience and efficiency to continuously bring return to the shareholders. We can see the dividend distribution of JS Global. 2019 is the special dividend after listing, and then the 2020 to 2021, the dividend payment is definitely at the top of this, loan restriction terms. In March 2022, our annual performance report, due to that, we are carrying out this, the big spin-off, so we need to keep this, capital structure stable, so we fail to pay the annual dividend.
As the biggest composition of JS continued business, Joyoung has already paid dividends for 18 times in the 15 years since listing in 2008. So we also have as high as 96.3% of this dividend rate in the past five years. So you can see the historical data and our promise to the investors. The dividend will definitely give this a very good return to the shareholders. Now, let's have with us, Secretary of Board. Next, Mr. Miao, to share this update of JS Global's business.
Hello, I'm Miao Mingxin. Now, let me talk about H1's, Joyoung's business. Since this year, we still stick to this one plus three strategy, focusing on small kitchen appliances, while focusing on this development of water appliances, the clean appliances and cooking ones.
So in H1 of this year, Joyoung launched some new series of high technologies focusing on this mid and the high-end products. We have this B1 Quiet Blender. We also have got this brushless variable frequency high-speed motor, which fundamentally solved this pain point of this loud noise. And then we have already got a double-layer soundproof cup to noise reduction as low as 37 decibels. So Joyoung has actively laid out this N1S, the first ever zero-coating non-stick rice cooker. So we also had this Joyoung's original unique air-cooled water moisturizing membrane technology, combined with the 200,000 micro-sized lattice pits on the inner wall, so to make the structure of this water moisturizing membrane to more stable and then further improve the non-stick effect. So this has increased the Joyoung's growth of revenue and the market share increase.
In order to better adapt to these changes of the market, Joyoung has also increased the investment in this innovative technologies and launched this entry-level products. So such as we have this, Roam Life, and then this, domestic fashion series to have this differentiated competition. We also know that the competition advantage has already been upgraded from this single advantage to this competition of this comprehensive advantage and the supply chain advantage. On the basis of adhering to this independent research and innovation, Joyoung has also improved our operation efficiency and the quality of this, efficiency and the supply chain. So for the long time, Joyoung has achieved this large scale cost reduction and efficiency improvement through resource focusing, management optimization, and collaborative empowerment. We also have got this continuous improvement of this, brand image.
So we have this company's repair rate and turnover rate have also been gradually reduced. So our NPS value among the Joyoung consumer has also been significantly improved. Of course, relying on this global development background of the group, Joyoung actively exerted its advantage in R&D and supply chain management under this domestic A- share. So Joyoung's export business income increased by 49.2% YOY, and this has also shown Joyoung's synergy with the SharkNinja, which has been maximized constantly. At present, Joyoung has provided OEM business covering air fryer, blender, sparkling beverage machine, et cetera, and gradually become one of the main suppliers of SN. In the future, Joyoung will not only export high quality products to SN, we also will export more low-differentiated products with a high value, especially in APAC market.
We will have more localized and differentiated products. So because cooking and dietary habits of consumers in APAC, they are closer to domestic consumers, so the synergy between Joyoung and SN APAC will be better developed. For channel perspective, you can also see that we have this constantly developing channels being developed in China, and now we try to control the channel better to have a more synergized channel operating system, to have this synergize the development of this shelf e-commerce and content e-commerce. In each one, we constantly focus on this mainstream channels to rapidly develop our direct sales channel to improve the proportion of that. Until the end of this year, we hope to have over 20% of our direct control sales.
At the same time, we also focus on this content e-commerce to develop, Xiaohongshu and Douyin, TikTok, to have this content e-commerce, to have, like, content creation, food, live streaming, and then this photographing team and the editing team to have this quite complete matrix of live streaming. We also have this closed loop for planting the seed and then purchasing and finishing the transaction. We can also see that this early start advantage, considering the constant changes of this content platform, is actually quite weak. So this is opportunity for Joyoung as well. We believe content e-commerce will become one of the major sources of our revenue for offline channel. Currently, we have still, like, a 30% of this offline business, so we also can see that we also have achieved this positive growth.
So we also have this better performance compared with our competitors in the market. And recently, this offline channel has also been changed significantly, so their traditional sources, the traditional channels of KA, to go to some new retail channels, for example, it has also brought about some new opportunities. For example, like a cooker and a water purifier, they still have over 50% of the percentage in the offline channel, and they're faced with this complicated and ever-developing and changing channel. We have already got the strategic layout and then the risk prevention, and we have already got this quite safe and highly competitive revenue channel. So we always emphasize this demonstration of the products and communicating with our consumers. We have already got improvement of this revenue of retail, and then to increase this offline business.
In order to cater to this current sales market, we not only have this counselors training, we also got this direct sales construction and then the similar direct sales channels. So I hope to have this better sales of that. And now let's have Max to share with us about this, the SharkNinja.
. APAC. Hello, we are very happy to share with you this SharkNinja APAC. We have taken over 40% of this global population. It's about 870 million families, which will be very amazing, and their purchasing power is also rising steadily. Our strategy is focused on just the top 25 major cities in the region. It will include the 75 million families. It is worth noticing that these 75 million families account for about 50% of the GDP of APAC. Now, we have entered Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand in these existing markets, so the annual retail terminal sales are about $7 billion according to our existing product mix.
With our proven strategy in the next 3-5 years, we are confident that we will have about $4.7 billion of this as the APAC sales target. Speaking of our vision, we are having this unshakable belief that is actively improve the quality of every life, in every family, every day. So now I will talk about the specific strategy. First of all, we always stick to this customer-centered. We not only sell products, we also provide solutions in order to better meet the needs of different consumers in APAC. We will deeply understand their living habits and preferences. As a new player in this region, we also think it's very important to improve the brand awareness and image. We will introduce our excellent products to consumers through our strong marketing. So the growth pillar will still stick to this, three different strategies.
The first one is to have this continuous excellence of this existing core categories. And then the second one is the expansion of the new categories, where not only we'll be satisfied with existing ones, we will also have some new views. The third is actually to have this market expansion, to enter new areas and release the potential of these areas. So now I'm going to share with you, like, how do we implement in APAC. The first one is the pillar, is to maintain leadership in the existing ones. For example, for the cordless vacuum is a very good example. In June, this one, we have this appliance, the IQ Plus, and this is a brand new, like, lightweight, cordless vacuum cleaner. As we all can see, that this one helps Shark to further improve this market share of Shark in Japan.
We also have, like, a bigger position, better, demonstration. That means that our partners, especially the major retail partners, are full of confidence of our products. This is not only their recognition of our products, but also, like, a high trust of our brand. Now, I would like to share with you, how do we realize the second growth pillar? For this new categories, we hope to achieve that. So we also can see that for Ninja CREAMi, we are able to provide, very different experiences of the creamy ice cream making, but only with an excellent product, it's not enough. We need to allow more people to understand it and experience it. It's equally important, and we have the very distinguished social media strategies, which help us to very successfully promote the Ninja CREAMi.
It become a household product, and in Australia, it has become the best-performing products. Next, let me share with you our star profit, star product, Shark FlexStyle. For SharkNinja APAC, hair care is a brand new category, and we have high expectations that this product will bring better product experience for the APAC consumers. Whether you have the straight or curly hair, FlexStyle can help you to dry your hair quickly and to style it perfectly. With the business development of SharkNinja APAC, this month in September, Shark FlexStyle launch event in Singapore have been well received. Actually, it just happened in August, and in September, very soon in Japan, we will also launch the products in the market officially.
In the previous test use and surveys, we have received a great feedback, so we are fully confident in FlexStyle performance in the Japanese market. In the first half of the year, FlexStyle was very successful in its launch in Australia, and we believe that it is suitable for all the hairstyles. It is not a tagline. It represents our confidence of the market and the great commitment towards the consumers. From the online media to the conventional press media and to the TV news, we have been collaborating with the best in the field and to make sure that in every corner in Australia, Shark FlexStyle will raise attention and discussions. Next, let me share with you our third growth pillar, that is the expansion of the new market.
In April this year, in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Malaysia, we had a strategic M&A, and it is not only an M&A, but more importantly, it had opened a new gate for us. Take Singapore as an example. It is a very dynamic and a potential region. There are over 800,000 target families, and each of those families may make their life better because of our Shark and Ninja products, and for these emerging markets. When we look into the second half of the year, there are several key operation goals. The first is to improve our brand awareness, and the second is to collaborate closely with the influential retailer partners. And thirdly, to make sure that we have a very strong visibilities in online stores and e-commerce platforms. Next, let's review the first half performance of SharkNinja APAC.
As in, in terms of the revenue, there is a 73% of year-over-year growth, and Japan had hit 33%... 32% of the growth. And if we exclude the foreign exchange fluctuation influence, then the actual increase in Japan had hit 40.5%, and we didn't stop there. And in Q2, through M&A, we created more opportunities for us in APAC, and in Australia, Singapore, Singapore, and Malaysia, we had a set up of our operation team, and we had achieved some progress. So we are fully confident that in the second half, we will maintain high-speed growth, and the revenue of Japan will be many-... rely on the cordless vacuums and the hairstyle products, with an expected growth of 30%.
In South Korea, with the more sales channels development and the greater potential release in these new markets, we expect it to have a growth of over 50%. All of these accomplishments and plans represent our new journey in SharkNinja APAC, and we'd like to write this new chapter together with all of you. Next, after the breakout, we had went through these connected transactions. So I hope that you can understand more about the related party transactions after the spin-off. Let's take a look. First, JS Global Lifestyle, Hong Kong, provides the supply chain added value services, and during the transition period, this company would assist the SN group to make strategical plannings at the supply chain level and to provide analysis and guidances.
For example, the relationship, maintenance, and development of OEM channels, and the negotiation of the pricing terms, development and attraction plans, inventory management, and IP protections, et cetera. The transitional period will last for about 22 months, and we will charge the service fees by 4% of the procurement amount in the first 12 months, since July 31. So then the follow-up 6 months charged by 2%, and the last 6 months charged by 1%. The second item is related with the three supports of SN group for JS Global. The first is the brand authorization, and the second, product development, and the third is the transition of the operation. So the first, brand authorization. We had received the franchise of Shark and the Ninja brand in APAC regions and Greater China, with the period of 20 years.
For this authorization, JS Global is to pay 3% of the authorization fees equivalent to the net sales of the Shark and Ninja brand product sales. We will also enjoy the product development service provided by SN. Considering the great experiences of SN in APAC and Greater China, we're going to leverage its consumer insights, and based on the needs, we're going to develop a new product. This service will last for 3 months, and each year, the development fee will not exceed $1 million. In order to guarantee the smooth transition after the spin-off in the following 24 months, SN Group is going to provide comprehensive operation support, including IT, finance, HR, et cetera, so that we can better operate as an APAC business. For the transition service, we're expected to pay annually $3 million to SN.
The third item is the Joyoung segment to provide a procurement service to the SN group, which is the ODM business of Joyoung. So this will continue the previous model and continue to grow. The establishment of these related transactions not only has guaranteed the smooth transition after the spin-off for both SN group and therefore JS Global Lifestyle, we have avoided the possibilities of dissemination in the supply chain and operation. These related transactions will also have the bigger synergies of both sides and promote the co-development of the party. Next, I'd like to invite the Executive Director and the CFO of JS Global Lifestyle, Madam Han, to introduce the update of the ESG in the first half and to recap our performance in the first half. Thank you, Mars.
Dear investors, to fulfill our social responsibility is the foundation to promote the healthy and sustainable development of JS Global Lifestyle. And as a listed company, it also mirrors our in-depth values in the long run. And we are very happy to share with you that JS Global Lifestyle, long ago, have been included in the S&P Global Sustainable Development Yearbook, and we are the only company listed as the family durable industry player. And so we have been titled as the Best Progress Company in the industry. And this month, in the … They’ve issued a Hang Seng ESG50, indicating the constituent stock shares is also included, and we are one of the top 50 Hong Kong-listed companies in terms of the ESG performance.
So all in all, in the first half, with the efforts of the whole team, we had finished the successful and strategic Americas and Europe business spin-off, and we have hit a great performance in the first half of the year. And this belongs to the great efforts of all the teams, and it also is due to your support and confidence. And next, we are very confident in recovering the operation performance of Joyoung and to grow our SharkNinja APAC business. And the management will also fully dedicate ourselves to the works and operations, and continuously provide innovative small home appliance products, which will increase the lifestyles of the consumers. And thank you very much. So now let's come to this Q&A session. So for all those investors online, you could just type in the question in Zoom.
When we are waiting for that, we would also first ask the secretary to tell the investors on the telephone line to see whether they have some questions or not. If you want to raise your question, please press star and then one. When you hear the tone, please start raising the questions. Hello, everybody. If you want to raise your question, please press star and one to wait, and then after listening to the tone, you could start your question. Thank you. Now we will have Sakura from CICC to raise a question.
... Hello, Sakura. I would like to thank you so much for this, very complete, introduction, and, this is also like a quite impressive, improvement. I think that SharkNinja APAC is definitely like a very good surprise to the market, because for SharkNinja APAC, you have already mentioned that you have this presence in many different countries, in Japan, New Zealand and Australia. You know, we entered Singapore and Malaysia, we have already achieved certain results. I would like to know that how do you coordinate the different countries' staffs and then the following, strategy, as well as the resource allocation? This is the first question. The second one is, as you mentioned, that you will, continue in the dependence on the three growth pillars. I would like to know that, how do you plan for the new products in H2 this year?
Thank you. Okay, thank you so much for the question. So for H2, for our new product plan, we will continuously promote some new products, not only about this Japanese market we want, like, have this as the, APAC will come to the hair care products. We also will promote more products to be expanded to the entire APAC region. So for current new product, marketing and promotion plan has not been disclosed. I'm sorry, I cannot disclose too much. Thank you so much for the question. Okay, and, we have another question. That is, for different regions among different countries, how do we allocate the staff? And how do we manage and, coordinate the layout and presence of different countries? Thank you. Okay, thank you. So for this question, I will like, our Financial Director, Liting, to answer the question.
I'm sorry, maybe the connection was a little bit crackly. Can you tell your question again? Okay, thank you, Liting . I would like to ask for SharkNinja APAC, because previously, SharkNinja, it was mainly about Europe and America, so the markets were quite similar. But now for SharkNinja APAC, you may have, like, Japan in Asia, and Southeast Asia, and New Zealand and Australia, the markets might be quite different. So I wanna know that for these more segmented markets, how do you manage and coordinate different countries' relationships? And then for different markets, for the different demands, how do you plan to do the adjustments accordingly? Thank you. Okay, thank you so much for the question. And because in APAC, as you said... So we also can see that this is actually more, like, connected.
Then the next thing is that we are faced with some different cultural backgrounds of different Asian countries, and for this, the consumer habits are quite different. Maybe Australia and New Zealand are more closer to the European-American countries, and then for the China, Japan and Korea, we are with the similar backgrounds. And, based on different countries and, for local channels, so we have already mentioned, like, for the different consumer habits. So also based on their different, shopping habits and, shopping pattern for focused markets, we will have some strategic strategies to be formed, including the sequence of products entering different markets. Yeah, for example, you have already seen that for SM products, when they are promoted in market, they will definitely be very well received. In APAC, we will definitely stick to this strategy.
As I said, for the three different APAC, Shark Ninja growth pillar, we will definitely stick to that. We will, like, cautiously analyze all the situations mentioned by me before, and, we will control the product launch pace to enter the markets cautiously. So, for example, in Japan, we have talked about this cordless vacuum cleaner. The market share is actually on the rise constantly. So for cordless vacuum cleaner, we are the brand with the top market share. So for essential products, for Shark's, cordless and handheld products, and we all have already got this localization improvement, including the control of noise and the weight, as well as the overall look. So we also have got this, collab with Disney.
In Japan, we have this Star Wars series, and then we also have got this Japanese style of Japanese painting, so these are all very well received. We believe with our existing SharkNinja APAC team and the team that we are constructing, we definitely have the confidence to have better consumer insight of the local consumers. So this is also one of the secrets for Essen's success, and for different countries to promote different products, and then manage Joyoung's advantage in China. We could have the synergy to facilitate this APAC's localized development, and we could better serve the overall market. I hope I have already answered your question. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Leon. And I have two more questions I would like to ask the leaders. The first one is about channel, and the other one is about products.
Because previously, when we enter a new market, I understand it's actually online and offline. We all have a lot of marketing campaign to go with that. However, now for SN APAC, so for Southeast Asia, I wanna know that for different channel, do we have some different focuses? Because I know that you have already procured a retailer in Southeast Asia. This is about the channel change. And then another question is: How can we, like, focus on this water tank and for robot and for mop? How do you think about the market potential in Southeast Asia? Okay, let me first answer the question about channel. So for channels perspective, in Southeast Asia, so for the entire APAC market, we mainly focus on this offline retailer, online e-commerce platform, TV shopping, as the major channels. So now let's focus on different markets.
So for Japan and Australia and New Zealand, 80% of the revenue coming from offline retailer, so 10%-20% coming from online and the DTC. So for Korea, it's mainly about e-commerce and TV shopping channels. These are mainly the channels we have for this SharkNinja Asia. And so we also can see that we have a certain potential for SharkNinja APAC, especially for those countries that we have just entered. We have already seen this GfK data. We still have certain potential that we could harness then. Thank you. Okay, thank you so much. So no more questions? Thank you. So let's broadcast the way of raising questions again. So now let's have Lu Xingyi from Shanghai Zhenxing. So hello, management team. I have three different questions. The first one is about dividend.
We have already seen that our interim dividend ratio is 50%. I wanna know that with this, supply chain of, APAC, so for this dividend ratio, will it be, like, increased one year after another, 50%? Is this, like, our sustainable business, this, standard for that? Is this like a standard? Thank you so much for the question. For this long-term strategy, we think for JS Global, dividend is not just coming from this, short period of, time, of this financial revenue. For this overall APAC SharkNinja, we also have this ability to do this, dividend issuing. As I introduced it to you before, this is actually on the basis of this high dividend, and then we also have to consider about this cash flow and the operation demand.
So we are also confident that we will give you the long-term return to the shareholders. Okay, thank you. So I have something else to add, because previously we have, like, disclosed this HKD 400 million dividend plan. We still have about HKD 240 million of this buyback plan so that is not used. So do you still have this buyback opportunity? So when it is actually suitable in timing and suitable in the price positioning, we will consider to do the buyback. So for later half of the year, we hope to introduce more measures to invest in our business instead of, like, focusing on buyback. So the next question is, I know that for Joyoung, for H1 this year, for Joyoung's own business, we still have, like, a quite big negative growth.
I would like to know that what is, like, the trend of recovering? So when will we come to this, quite ordinary level, and from the long term, compare with our competitors, like Midea and Supor, so our competitive edge and the strategy, what is that? Okay, so I would, have our CFO from Joyoung, Kenny, to answer that. Thank you very much for the question. Indeed, for H1 this year, because the entire domestic consumption market, and we also have quite core category like, air fryer, we have seen this, a significant decline of the business. So you can already see our business as disclosed by us. So focused on this, company is also actively from internal part of our company to do this upgrade and revolution. So the first part is about our products.
We have conducted, as we mentioned, that we need to do better development of the products as our foundation. So from customer-oriented technological improvement, to comprehensively set up the direction of our category and the product mix on the basis of this. We also will improve our supply chain competence as one of the core competencies of Joyoung, and it's mainly through, like, a better and faster synergy with our supplier, and then jointly do the innovation with our suppliers to try to grasp the opportunities of some emerging categories. The second aspect is also focusing on this, what we have already seen in the supply chain and the channel. We have already seen this with the decline of this shelf e-commerce, this status quo of the industry. And for the brand operation aspect, we will also promote the continuous revolutions of this brand operation.
And then the next thing is, we will use our Space Technology 2.0, which is very well received. In each one, we will strengthen and promote that, to strengthen and promote Joyoung as the health and innovation as our brand image.
On the other hand, the brand and product operation will be more integrated, so that we can have a better brand operation. And, thirdly, in the first half of the year, we are already trying to do that, and in the second half of the year, we're going to roll it out. That is the channel change and the transformation. So to be more specific, in the conventional e-commerce platforms, in order to deal with the drop of the traffic and the higher cost of gaining the traffic, we're going to continuously use the lean operations to magnify our direct-to-consumer capabilities. And on the other hand, on Douyin, the content-oriented e-commerce and some other similar platforms are developing very quickly, and Joyoung is also leveraging these growth opportunities.
In content-oriented e-commerce platforms, we have identified some successful business models, and over the past few months, we had gained great result with a three-digit growth. Going forward, this will still become our priority, and we will do it in a larger scale. As for offline business, we have seen that right now the traffic on the channels are changing, and the conventional terminals have relatively limited traffic, but the stores in the shopping malls and the other markets are still providing us with sufficient traffic. We're going to highlight the new categories such as water purifier and the clean appliances, such as the washing machines and new robotics. With that, we are able to improve our business offline.
With these three things combined, in the second half, we are going to make active efforts and improve our business so that the performance can be better quarter by quarter. Thank you.
Thank you.
SharkNinja is already included in the balance sheet of Joyoung, and I want to know that in China, what is the development plan for SharkNinja in China? Thank you for the question. Let me continue to answer that. Shark, in the first half, there are a lot of changes. Just as you know, it is within the balance sheet of Joyoung, and before we have the steamed and electric mop as its main products. And over the past few years, these categories, market share and scale, have been dropped greatly. And this year, in the first half, we have launched some new Shark floor care products, the hydro cleaners. And with this model, combined with our online operations in Q2, we have a higher two-digit growth that is very good.
Also, the positioning of the brand, Shark, we will continuously make it an expert of the floor care in China, and so we're going to stay focused on the premium market with a premium price range. Going forward, in the cleaning appliances categories, we're going to have more new products, such as the robotics and the floor care appliances. And we're also going to explore the personal care categories, which is quite new. And to summarize, with the optimization of operation method and the channel layout, as well as the improvement of the product portfolios, we have gained a great progress. So going forward, we will have more performances that are better. All right. Thank you. I have the last question about SharkNinja APAC.
I have observed that, the U.S. and Europe and Americas business, the proportion between Shark and Ninja are quite similar. But in APAC regions, it seems that the proportion of Ninja is a bit small. What is the reason for that? Is it because the situation in different markets are different? So can you talk about the developments of Ninja in APAC regions? Okay. Thank you for the question. I'd like to answer this question, and I have checked about the market scale and trend shows. As for the categories, as in half in APAC regions, take Japan as an example, the air fryer is not a big market. It does not have a big demand in Japan, and that had resulted in us not developing this category in Japan.
And in a newly entered Australia and New Zealand, there is a big amount of funding these products. For example, the ice cream makers, as we had mentioned, in a short term of three months, it has become the largest selling categories in Australia. And for air fryers and food preparation appliances in Southeast Asia and Australia and New Zealand, are all very popular. And now we started to explore the development of the APAC region of SharkNinja, and so what we pursue is not the speed, instead, it's the success rate of the new products that we launch. And that is in line with the style of SharkNinja group over the past periods. And so for every new product we launch, we hope that it can be a sensation in the market and can be popular among the consumers.
So this is my answer about SharkNinja's development in APAC. Okay, that's all for my question. Thank you, management. Next, let's welcome Merchant Securities to list a question. Thank you, management. My question is mainly about as an APAC. Two questions. The first is as for the organizational management. For developed regions like Japan and South Korea, and also in Australia and New Zealand, and some emerging Asian markets, what are the differences of the consumers in these two different regions? And in terms of the go-to-market strategies, what are the differences, and what are the challenges as well? And the second question is in terms of the sales models.
I have noticed that, there is a transformation of the APAC region sales models, and some of you have, entered into the D2C, through M&A, such as Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and mainland. And for some of the other regions, you still mainly rely on the distributors. So what are the differences of D2C and distributor in terms of the, gross margin or the profitability? So this is the second question. Thank you. All right. Later, I'll ask Leon, our financial director, to answer the second question, and I'm going to address the first question about the differences of consumers in, Japan, South Korea, and the other Southeast Asian countries.
For consumers in Japan and South Korea, they really focus on the high quality, advanced technologies and unique designs, and they focus on the details of the products and the experience of the after-sales, and their loyalty to the brands will be higher. The challenges in South Korea and Japan is that there are also already some existing brands, and so for the newly entered brands, they may don't be very welcoming. What we need to do is to offer them very unique products that has high values. As for the consumer in Southeast Asian countries, actually, we cannot summarize the features in one word, because they're still different from each other, and some of the regions, they still rely on the conventional sales models, but the digital sales is growing very quickly.
The proportion of the young people in Southeast Asia is actually higher compared with Japan and South Korea. So for these young generation, they pursue the new trends and technologies. The challenges for this market is we have to get an insight of cultures, languages, of regions, and understand the consumer needs in different places, and to learn about the complicated business rules, and to have the plans for warehousing and logistics. So these are the differences and challenges in those markets. And Leon, please answer the second question. Thank you. All right. I'd like to make some extra comments about the first question as for the differences in different countries and regions.
Actually, in our presentation, when we were introducing the APAC businesses, we mentioned that, we will focus on this region, and that we have a city-by-city strategy, and to target on different, consumer groups. We have 25 top cities, but of course, that is excluding Chinese cities, and so that 25 key cities had accounted for 50% of the market share. So apart from, the national differences and the regional divisions in APAC regions, we will be more targeted on different cities. So in those 25 cities, what are the unique features and demands and the, the changes of consumer behaviors? And now, let me answer your second question about the D2C and distribution models first.
When we enter into a new market, we would take a more precautious way of distribution, and in terms of channels, they have more ready channels there, and compared with us, it's more mature. So in comparison, the gross margin would definitely be lower, and equally, our OPEX would also be lower with the distribution mode. So in terms of the business model, in a newly accessed market, we may start with the distribution mode, but as you can see, still we have the variations of different mode in newly entered markets. So suppose there is already a very mature and the capable distributor in this region, then we would definitely opt for that. But if there is no such distributor, then we do have our sales and marketing capabilities, and we do have the capability of accessing the new channels.
So if that is the case, we will opt for D2C. So that is our consideration. But of course, the GD, GP, NPG would be different. So the gross profit margin would be different, that is, the distribution side will be lower. All right, thank you for the answers. There's no more question from my side.
Thank you. Now let's check the questions from Zoom. Most of the questions have been covered just now, and a frequently asked question is about the cash of the company. So the question is that, in the interim report, we had to pay back all of the loans, their interest, and are we using the special cash dividend of the $375 million from SharkNinja? And is it recorded already? And do the company already have the one-time dividend payout already? Now, Liam, please answer this question.
Thank you for the question, and I believe that all of you care about this issue a lot, because this is a large amount. Indeed, we told you that we had to pay back all of the loans, bearing interest. So $375 million of the special dividend is used for the payback of loans. And in the end of July, to be more exact, on July the twenty-first, we had to pay back the loans in advance. And then, as you can see, in Joyoung, there was an announcement about ending the pledge. We have done that already. We have paid the loans. So we have finished that part of the work.
Okay, due to the interest of the time, we're going to take the last question, and the last question is about the investment in Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Joyoung, and to invest in A stock, what are the changes? What are the differences? And let me answer this question. In terms of the fundamentals, we do have the S and APAC regions, which is more centered in its growth, and it's very promising. And in the first half of the year, just now, Leon had mentioned that the APAC revenue and its share in our total revenue have been doubled. So I believe that with the further access into the new markets and the launch of the new products with a higher penetration, as APAC will be a big amount of our business.
In terms of the transaction evaluation right now, have not been dug out by the market, and there is also a big discount of the share price. So we believe that it's quite safe to invest in this. And for different types of investors, both JS and Joyoung have their long-term values. Therefore, for different types of investors, we have provided different types of preferences for their options, and this is my answer to this question. And in the interest of time, this is the end of this interim results announcement. And thank you very much, all the investors and analysts, for your participation, and I hope that you can continue to pay attention to our growth and support us, and looking forward to more communications with you in the future. Thank you.