JS Global Lifestyle, investigations and corporate communication, welcome to the JS Global Life 2024 annual performance conference. Before we officially begin, please allow me to introduce the management team who are here today. They are Madame Han Run, Executive Director and CFO; Mr. Lian Leo, COO and SVP Finance; Mr. Kenny Kan, CEO of Joyoung; Mr. Max Miao, Board Secretary of Joyoung. Without further ado, please allow me to introduce Executive Director and CFO Madame Han to make an opening speech. Good morning. Thank you for attending the 2024 annual performance conference of JS Global Life. Despite your busy schedule, here on behalf of JS Global Life, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to your long-term support and concern. 2024 is the first complete year of JS entering a new development stage and a new starting point.
We have optimized the allocation of resources, attracted global talents, and increased the investment in R&D, user research, marketing, and the sales channel expansion. In our core business, we have made some progress and achievements. At the same time, we also have recognized some shortcomings in certain areas. Today, my team and I will also share with you some business achievements in 2024. Among them, Joyoung is still the sector with relatively large revenue of the overall group. Facing the increasingly fierce competition pattern and consumption environment in the operating area of Joyoung, we will still uphold the healthy and innovative DNA of Joyoung in 2024 and further promote the research and development of innovative products. In order to solve the small but important issues of life, Joyoung has launched the third generation of non-stick zero-coat rice cooker to help consumers to make healthier rice that suits their own taste.
We have also introduced an instant water purifier that does not need to replace the filter for six years. We also have this Light Sound Fully Automatic Wall-Breaking Soy Milk Machine with adjustable grinding degree and a series of new products with cordless ultra-thin body and flat floor washer that can prevent hair from winding. As for Asia Pacific, we have also continuously made efforts to build the team with more perfect functions and more great progress in IT, finance, internal control, legal affairs, talent attraction, and corporate culture compared to the beginning of the split of 2023. At the same time, our team has also achieved outstanding achievements. The Japanese team continued to maintain a steady growth in market share and sales revenue by upgrading the dominant position of cordless vacuum cleaner.
At the beginning of the year, we have first ever launched the Ninja series products in Japan. The success achieved by the full processing products in one swoop by relying on the portable stirring cup blender and laying a channel foundation and accumulated experience for launching more kitchen appliances. The markets of Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea have also performed brilliantly and achieved considerable growth in more categories , which accumulated experiences for the subsequent categories and products. In terms of regional expression, we're cooperative with well-known local distributors and formally entered Indonesia, Philippines, and Thailand through exclusive distribution agreements. We expect that these regions will also formally enter all kinds of channels in 2025 and start the layout of Shark and Ninja brand products in Southeast Asia.
With the gradual growth of SN APAC, we believe the SN APAC will also maintain steady growth in the next few years and make continuous contributions to the group's performance. Next, I would like to invite two colleagues to introduce the 2024 financial performance and the business upgrade. Thank you.
[Foreign language]
Okay, so good morning.
[Foreign language]
We also can see that for 2024, the overall financial performance was gradually in line with the expectations of the company's management. Of course, there are also some bright spots and areas that needed improvements. In 2024, the company's income for continuous operation was $1.59 billion, up by 11.5% YOY. Excluding procurement services, the adjustment business revenue was $1.36 billion, YOY increase of 13.1%. Company's gross margin in 2024 was $510 million, up 4.7% YOY. Excluding procurement services, the adjusted gross profit in 2024 was about $460 million, while the adjusted gross margin rate was 34%, up by 1.5%. The company's net profit declined significantly in 2024, mainly due to the decline in the performance of Joyoung and the continuous investment of the SN A PAC in exploring the market. In terms of different departments, our business income consists of SN and Joyoung, SN APAC and Joyoung.
The revenue of SN A PAC has increased from 12.6% in the same period of last year to 25.1% in 2024, which improved the original structure of JS Global revenue. From the kinetic energy point of view, the proportion is expanded to continuous rise. SN A PAC increased from $152 million in the same period of last year to $342 million, which needs to remind that in the same period of 2023, SN A PAC sales were mainly in the Japanese market, and the other markets were consolidated one after another after the dealer acquisition in April and the split off in July, and its YOY phase was not complete until then. The revenue of Joyoung decreased slightly by about 3% YOY, mainly due to the fierce competition in the domestic markets and the continuous weak performance of the overall small household appliances.
Our water purifier, cooker, and other cooking products in Joyoung declined, which offset our growth in core categories such as soy milk machines and the cleaning products. In terms of gross margin, excluding procurement services, we have already mentioned that the overall adjusted gross margin was 34%, up by 1.5%. This change is mainly due to the introduction of high-end products with a higher gross margin and the implementation of strong product cost optimization in APAC, which offsets the small decline of Joyoung. The growth of adjusted gross margin mainly increases with the growth of total revenue of SN APAC, and the growth of overall gross margin has also driven the growth of the gross profit as a whole.
In terms of operating cycle, the inventory turnover days of continuous business declined from 51 days to 46 days, which was mainly because SN APAC revenue increased significantly this year, and the increase rate exceeded the increase of inventory balance, which led to the decrease of the overall inventory turnover days. Accounts receivable and bill turnover decreased from 93 days to 90 days. The decrease was mainly due to the increase in the proportion of bill receivables transferred to suppliers by endorsement received this year, which has led to the decrease of the balance of the receivable, thus reducing the overall turnover days. The turnover days of accounts payable and bills decreased from 202 days to 168 days, mainly because the portion of business of Joyoung in JS with relatively high accounting period also declined.
In terms of capital expenditure and debt structure, capital expenditure of continuous operation this year is about $27 million, which is mainly due to the lease right assets and the decoration expenses brought by the relocation of new offices due to the increase in the number of teams in Asia Pacific countries and the increasing investment in marketing-related assets such as exhibition stands. By December 31st, 2024, the company had withdrawn an operating revolving loan of $15 million at the end of last year to supplement the liquidity of SN APAC business. By the end of 2024, the debt-to-equity ratio was also very small, only 0.05x . That is the end for me. Now I would like to invite Marli to briefly introduce the business development of the company. Thank you, Lian. Hello. I will briefly introduce the upgrade of different businesses this year.
Joyoung in mid and late April has already held the supported launch conference of Science and Technology Series 3.0. It has led to the small home appliance of 3.0 to be launched. In 2024, we have also launched a new series of cleaning products. In 2024 as a whole, Joyoung mainly focused on the performance of core categories in the retail market. However, due to the over-optimistic judgment of the consumption environment at the beginning of the year, Joyoung invested heavily, but we failed to achieve the expected results. From 2025, Joyoung will also focus on this entry-level products and adopt the K-type product matrix, focusing on mid and high-end and entry-level products. Improve the scale and profit margin of core kitchen appliances, improve quality and efficiency, and implement the cost assessments of the whole link so that the overall idea of Joyoung.
From the product perspective, in 2024, Joyoung grew against the trend of difficulty, like a soy milk blender and blender outperforming the broader market. We also have got this non-stick zero-coating rice cooker and different categories like boiling extraction kettle and washing machine, as well as small capacity frequency conversion and light noise. We also have these water appliances like the ordinary RO, and we also plan to provide more exclusive products for the e-commerce channels. That is the analysis from the product perspective. For 2024, we pay attention to three different aspects. The first one is to promote our direct sales team and the steady development of online development. This will facilitate our gross margin. The second is to strengthen the sales of terminals and pay attention to improve the customer's experiences.
The third is to adhere to the principle of live broadcasting by our own channel and support the vigorous development and e-commerce in live streaming and content e-commerce channels. This year, we also will strengthen the management of offline consoles in the offline stores and optimize the layout of online channels and improve the content e-commerce as our focus. Next, we will also update the SN APAC in 2024. Our group has helped this APAC to establish a more complete functional system and optimize the infrastructure, empower the APAC branch to accelerate the launch of the new production categories in the business side and gain more market share by expanding market activities. We also can see from this chart in 2023, SN APAC total revenue from sales to third parties was $152 million, and by 2024, it has increased significantly to $342 million, up 125%.
If you calculate a fixed rate, it is $349 million. It reflects a strong growth momentum. From the perspective of original composition, the biggest contribution to revenue was Australia and New Zealand, accounting for 43% and increased by over 200% YOY, followed by Japan, accounting for 32.7%, achieving a steady growth of about 30% under the fixed exchange rate. The proportion of South Korea business increased significantly as well, from 8.4% of last year to this year's 20.6%. For other regions, accounted for 3.7%. In these regions are mainly Malaysia and Singapore. In the past year, SN has successfully diversified the original revenue, especially in Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea, which has shown our ability of operating in different markets. Next, I will briefly share the business updates of different ones.
We also can see we not only have increased our overall market share, we also have expanded our market, and especially about wireless vacuum cleaner. We have already got this NEO+ and Evo Power. It has already got this cordless vacuum cleaner. It combines the lighter weight, stronger suction, and smarter technology to improve the consumer experience. After this launch, it has quickly been recognized by the market, which has helped us to the second place in 2024 of the market share in Japanese markets as a second, further narrowing the gap with our top competitors. With this momentum, we have also further broken this boundary of the category and have brought Ninja brand into the Japanese market for the first time, which is a very important milestone in our development.
We have introduced the portable blender of Ninja Blast, and we can provide services to consumers that pursue higher efficiency and more modernized development. After the launch of this product, the performance is very good. In the first year after its launch, it has taken the number one market share in this blender category in Japan. Japan's sustainable and steady growth not only demonstrates our strength in product innovation, but also reflects our in-depth research and understanding of the consumer needs and have strong execution capabilities. Next, let's take a look at the Australia market. 2024 is a milestone for us. We have drived the great growth with a series of product launches. In food preparation and air fryer, Ninja brand continues to make great performance. We have taken the third place in food processing and number two in air fryer category.
In the past two years, our businesses in both categories have achieved great performance due to the launch of several key innovative products such as Ninja Blast, portable blender, and Ninja FlexDrawer air fryer. In floor cleaning and hair care categories, Shark brand also performed well with the vacuum cleaner market share increasing from 3% last year to 11% this year. In beauty or hair care category, we increased from only 4% to 13% this year. Both categories have taken number two in market share in Australia. Despite all these achievements, we can clearly see from this slide that there is still a big gap between us and the first place in the market, which requires our continuous efforts. For South Korea, it was the first year after the SN APAC restructure.
As one of the most dynamic and competitive markets in APAC, we have quickly established brand influence through localized products and integrated marketing. The launch of Ninja Blast Portable Blender was very successful with nationwide media placement and digital marketing. We have quickly taken the lead in this category. Despite the impact of the low-priced competition products in the second half of the year, we continue to maintain our leading position among mainstream brands with innovation and higher value. In floor care, we introduced the Shark Evo Power System, Neo Cordless Vacuum Cleaner that was successful in the Japanese market, and our market share increased from 1% to 5% in South Korea. Our goal for the future is to catch up with the market share of the industry's leading brands.
Overall, the initial results in the South Korea market have demonstrated our adaptability and execution in accessing the new markets. We will continuously expand our brand exposure, diversify our product lines, and drive long-term growth with innovation. Let's take a look at the new products that are going to be launched in APAC. These are part of them. First, the Ninja SLUSHi, which allows consumers to enjoy professional-grade smoothie and sorbet at home. We have prepared some videos.
The easy, convenient way to make frozen drinks at home. No ice means no watered-down drinks. No blending means smooth, perfect texture every time. Just pour, slush, and enjoy. Buy one-touch programs for any drink you want. Turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. Enjoy perfect results from morning to evening, from summer days to cozy nights. The Ninja SLUSHi is here.
[Foreign language]
We have the Ninja Blast Max, a new upgraded portable blender that delivers more power for on-the-go use. There is a brief instruction through the video as well.
Ninja's most powerful cordless blender. Power Blast technology delivers eye-catching power so you can blend your favorites on the go. With the Twist & Go Cup, you can blend, twist, and go for maximum portability. Plus, its motor base holds enough charge for up to 25 blends so you can enjoy powerful blending anywhere with the Ninja Blast Max.
[Foreign language]
We also have a Shark Evo Power System, a new product. It was launched in Japan already. It has a stronger suction and long-lasting batteries, quieter operation. Finally, the Shark Flex Breeze Fan. It will be officially kicking off our expansion into the electric fan category.
This is a powerful detachable fan that combines cord and cordless usage, combining performance and flexibility, and is suitable for both indoor and outdoor use. I believe that the launch of all these products will continue to diversify our brand portfolio and to assist the higher growth in APAC. Next, let's take a look at the new market we're going to expand in 2025. As consumers in Taiwan pursue a higher quality of life, the demand for high-quality small appliances continues to rise. We will access the Taiwan market, and the rapid growth of local e-commerce has also provided us with excellent online sales opportunities, helping us to reach a wider consumer group and further expand the potential of digital channels.
In Southeast Asia, most of those countries are still at a low penetration stage in the field of small home appliances, which provides us with huge growth space for innovative products. With the rapid growth of the middle class, the accelerated urbanization, and the increase in disposable income, the demand for small home appliances is expected to continue to grow, helping us to achieve long-term sustainable growth. According to the current product categories already launched in SN APAC, the market size in China-Taiwan is close to $1 billion, and the market size in Southeast Asia is over $2 billion. This is based on the categories that we already have launched. Finally, I would like to share with you our efforts in ESG. We are committed to the long-term sustainable development of business and community. In 2024, the complaint resolution rate of products and services reached 100%.
We attach great importance to quality management and compliance of suppliers. SN APAC requires all suppliers to pass the third-party audits and receive regular training. Joyoung requires all core suppliers to obtain ISO 9001 certification. In terms of environmental protection, we have established a special refurbishment factory to handle returned products and promote resource recycling. Our self-built photovoltaic power generation capacity is close to 3.6 million kWh, and the self-sufficiency rate is 86%. In social welfare, our Joyoung Charity Kitchen project has built 1,617 kitchens, of which 133 were newly built this year, protecting the healthy growth of more than 600,000 Chinese children. The Food Education Workshop project has built 306 workshops with 52 new ones this year. The Towards the Sun project has supported a total of 187 people. In terms of employee support, we have an equally good job.
We cover training at different levels in multiple fields, providing 32 full-time positions for people with disabilities and have no work-related fatality for six consecutive years. Our efforts in ESG have been widely recognized by the grading organizations in Hong Kong and the world. This is the end for the prepared re marks. Now we will have the Q&A session. Please change the title of your Zoom into your organization and your name. You can raise up your hands to ask the questions, or you can type in the questions directly in the chatting box. We will read your questions, and the management will answer your questions, or you can raise your hands directly. Once you have raised your hands, please also inform us your organization and your name.
While we are waiting for the questions, I have seen some of the questions already being raised on Zoom. I will read the questions first. The first question. I do not see the name. I know that the direct marketing and the distributor marketing in different countries are executed in different ways. What are the sequence of the market? For the distributor market, do they access the market first? In the longer run, for SN APAC, do we pursue the direct sales in those markets or not? I would like to refer this question to Lian, our COO. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Mark.
As for this question, direct sales and the distributor, the difference is that our business model is that in a country or a region, we will establish our own operation team, including sales, marketing, operation, IT, and finance for the direct sales. All of these major functions will be established. This is a full-function entity in the local market. We will face directly towards our terminal users and the retailers. However, in the distributor model, we will sell the products to the local distributors. Through them, we access the users. They are mainly responsible for the sales. In some of the regions, such as South Korea, we will establish our own sales team to assist the distributors to have better branding, grow the brand awareness. This is something that we are able to control.
These are two very different management models or operation models. Just now, you asked about whether the strategy is first to access the market through the distributors and in the end, contact the direct sales. In different countries and regions, we can see the different conditions. No matter which method we select, it's based on several considerations, verifications, and references from the peers, based on historical record, and based on the characteristics of different countries and regions, we will make the decision. Also based on the capabilities of the local distributors and the resources and channels we have, and the legal and policy environment, etc. We will consider all these different factors to decide which way we will adopt to access the market. Thank you, Lian, for the answer. Next, let's continue to raise the questions.
[Foreign language]
Can you hear me, Wenchong?
Hello. Yes, I can hear you. Thank you, management, for giving us the opportunity for us to ask the questions. I am from the city. I am Wenchong. I have seen that SN APAC in the past year had achieved great results, and it grew very quickly. I have several questions to ask the management. The first is that in Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea in 2024, they had been growing very quickly. Can you break it down to different reasons for such growth? I would also like to ask the management in South Korea, Australia, South Korea, and New Zealand if this kind of success model can be rolled out to the other regions. This is my first question. I would like to ask Lian to answer your first question. Thank you very much for your question, Wenchong.
In Australia and New Zealand, I believe that you already know that this is very different from other Western. This is very close to Europe and America. Their lifestyle is very similar. They also use similar social media like TikTok. When we have launched the new products in Europe and America, the Australia and New Zealand market will also be influenced. I should not say that it's easy to access Australia and New Zealand market, but I would say that the consumer base is very good. We already have a foundation there. If the product can be successful in Europe and America, we have the confidence that they will also be successful in Australia and New Zealand. This is about the growth in Australia and New Zealand. As for South Korea, we had changed a distributor.
In small home appliances, this distributor has long-time experience. In channel expansion and in the communication with retailers, it has been doing very well. Therefore, in 2023, we have switched to this dealer. Afterwards, we have more development in the end-to-end channel distributions, including the online and offline distributions. What are the terms? Wenchong or other investors have already seen this entertainment. It's more like a social media promotion, like a black and white cook, black and white chef, the literal translation. From the two markets, we still think that it is actually having the possibility to copy-paste the success. I have already mentioned the biggest advantage of Australia and New Zealand is for their cultural recognition and consumer consumption habits are actually quite close to the Western world. Essentially, looking at APAC, these are the only two countries that I like.
For South Korea, for these East Asian countries, they still have some similarities, for example, like Japan. Maybe for our Ninja products, it is also like having certain references for Southeast Asian countries and for cultural recognition and the culture. For this pop culture in Japan and South Korea, including the products, they also have certain recognitions. We also hope that in the future, for the market expansion, we could refer to the experiences of South Korea to promote that in Southeast Asia as well. Okay, got it. Thank you, Lian. Thank you, Lian. Very clear. I would like to ask the second question. In entire JS Global for 2025, what is the major driving force of development in 2025? Can you share with us? Thank you.
For 2025, we think the core to have constantly mentioned the three different supports, for example, from SN APAC perspective. On the one hand, for mature markets, for the star products, for existing products, for the current upgrade, we will have the new products to enter the market. For the QRO product basis, we also continuously increase our market share and sales. For new markets, we also could expand, including what we mentioned for Southeast Asian countries and regions, to accelerate our validated and certified products in the new market promotion, including the brand. We also can see that for Max's demonstration for 2025. We also have some new exciting products for 2025. We also could constantly promote new products. We also could pay attention to Europe and America as new products. Okay, thank you.
[Foreign language]
Thank you, Lian. Very clear.
No more questions from me. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Now let's come to the next investor.
[Foreign language]
I would like to invite Marli to unmute herself. It's actually from Zhes hang Securities.
[Foreign language]
Thank you, Mark. I don't know whether you can hear me or not. Yes, we can hear you. Very clear. Thank you. Just now, for the management team, we have already targeting the Southeast Asia and other different markets. Development have already got certain introductions. I just would like to invite the management team because Southeast Asia markets are the markets that we have newly entered there. Can you elaborate more on the partners? We can see that for South Korea last year, because we have introduced a very good partner, and we have entered a different development stage.
Although the products are pretty good, I believe partners for cooperation are also very important. Can you talk about the specific countries? To elaborate on that, this is my first question. The second thing is for Mark, it has already introduced like a blushy or Blast Max for this QRO product. And just now, we have also here for Japanese market for the development last year. It's also highly related to the promotion of our blender. You can see for European and American markets, we have a lot of QRO products, blockbuster products. Hello. Madam Marli, we cannot hear you anymore. Hello, I cannot hear you. What about we ask Lian to answer the first question? These are all about these partners. Thank you, Marli. We also can see that because there are some news.
For SharkNinja, when we enter there, including when we search it, we can see the latest one is in January. We have cooperated with a distributor in Thailand. The name is called Power Buy. It actually belongs to Central Group. Central Group has already got the most department stores in Thailand and with so many different malls. They all belong to this and Power Buy. As the subsidiary, it is a home appliance operator. It is more like Yodobashi in Japan or Bic Camera in Japan, Bic Camera. You also can see that for the entire home appliance market, it is actually very leading. They have already distributed so many different brands. They have also seen SharkNinja's success in other areas, other markets. Here, we also have some different cooperation systems, including, for example, Japan for the experiences.
We could also give this to them. However, we are faced with different markets. As the Southeast Asia front line markets for consumer products, it is still like a director for our future directions. In early days, we are actually making a lot of marketing and promotion. We also have utilized the offline Central Group department stores and offline stores of Power Buy to promote our Shark and Ninja products. Online, we also will make more efforts, including their own website of Power Buy and for Amazon. We are cooperating with the local online e-commerce platforms. We are promoting it in an omnichannel manner. That is Thailand. For Indonesia, for this MAP Group, it is a very big home appliance for consumer electronic distributor and for their distribution because they actually are the distributor for Apple products.
For me, that high-end products for their promotion, for their sales, this is actually definitely without any doubt. For channel, they also could promote the omnichannel competence. Of course, for Shark and Ninja, for our European and American markets, these are all very confident. We are confident to say that for the targeting markets and the targeting consumers, we have this quite big confidence there. For Philippines, we also have a similar situation. Previously, I have already answered the question about our distributor market and the direct sales market. How do we view that? A very important indicator is when we want to enter the market or when we want to enter the region, we could see whether there are some strong distributors with strong competence.
The three countries mentioned by me for durable consumables or consumer electronics, they are actually with very strong competence and experience. We are very confident for our development in Southeast Asia. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Lian. Now, let's.
[Foreign language]
I would like to ask Marli. Do you have some more questions? Let me probe. We can see a lot of QRO products in Europe and America, except for Australia and New Zealand. For other countries and regions, I think that they are still not promoting enough. I don't know what is the reason and how could we better check some other Southeast Asia countries' consumer needs to make our QRO products and to be promoted in this market. That's my second question. Thank you. Okay, thank you, Marli, for the question.
[Foreign language]
Analyze like this.
The reason why we are QRO products in European markets is actually because the early days of the promotion, or even before the promotion, we have done a lot of work of R&D for every product to be launched. We already had the consumer confidence. Before promoting that in market, we know that whether it could solve the pain points or not, whether it could have the value brought to them. We also have, for example, some long-time path. After that, we also do some different adjustments. At the same time, for the same kind of thing, we gradually establish there. It also takes a certain time. We also give them enough time. We do not want to say that, okay, for APAC, for example, for the ice cream maker in Australia and New Zealand, we are top sellers.
We need to be based on the previous experience to promote to Southeast Asian countries. You know that actually the noise and the size are all quite big if you have tried it. For the same kind of products for different consumers, they have different preferences. We cannot blindly introduce to Southeast Asia or East Asia. For the testing, because of this home environment, it cannot be very popular, even if it is a top product in Western countries. We will tailor-make the products according to the different market conditions to make sure that in APAC regions, in certain markets, because we all know that for APAC, they are all quite scattered markets. For Australia and New Zealand, they are all quite Western. Japan also has this specific situation here in East Asia countries.
We have to comprehensively analyze the conditions of different countries, and then we will promote the product that could win the market or could be the top seller. For the whole process, you may think the time is quite long. Indeed, we do not want to say that we promote different products. It is actually like a European America number one, and then when it comes to Asia, it is actually no longer popular. That is something that we do not want to see. I would like to make the clarification here. We are not commenting on anything about this SN Europe and America. We only discuss about SN APAC because of the limited time. I would like to see that there are some questions about Joyoung, and they have already asked a lot of questions for this question board. I concluded them.
These are still asking what are the measures taken by Joyoung to say that in 2025, we could reverse the adverse trend or help Joyoung to get out of this situation that has failed to meet the expectation. For this, I would like to invite a leader online, Kenny or Director Miao, to answer the questions. Okay, thank you, Mark. I'm Kenny. For this question, I would like to answer this. I think that from.
[Foreign language]
You also can see that for our revenue, it has declined. If we further check the reason for the decline, we also can see that on the one hand, it is because this ODM business has declined a lot. You can see that in domestic markets and domestic business, we also have declined in line with the market trends on average.
We also have made a lot of work, such as the model exploration and in promoting the differentiated products. All of these had added to the marketing fees and the expenditure. The entire result did not contribute to the growth of the performance as we have expected. Therefore, there has been a pressure on the profitability. Based on such results, starting from Q4, we have adjusted our strategies. First of all, in Q4, we already have new policies. We have been trading policy and national subsidy, and we have been tapping these opportunities to promote the differentiated products of Joyoung. Many of our products are within a small subsidy. This had optimized the margin with the adjustment of portfolio structure and also boosted the retail and the inside of the company. We focused more on the profit.
We wanted to restore the profitability and to increase the profit level into a healthy and robust status. Since Q4, after this adjustment, we have seen a good result meeting our expectations. Therefore, we will continue to execute those plans. In the online channels, you can see that we have enhanced the differentiated categories with the benefits and advantages, such as the soy milk makers and the blenders. These are very popular categories. Even with very high pricing range, we can increase the market share. Horizontally, in comparison of the peers, our average price of these two representative products is about 3-11 folds higher than the average price in the category. This had demonstrated our capability of boosting the sales for the differentiated products.
In categories with fierce competition, such as the health kettle, we also had promoted the boil extract product, which is a very popular one as well. With the success of these differentiated products, we have boosted confidence and accumulated capabilities. The second thing is that for the online direct sales categories, maybe through Alibaba platforms and JD platforms, we have the content-based marketing growing very quickly. At the same time, the proportion of direct sales and direct supply in China has reached almost five times more. With this model shift, we can do better. Although it takes us a long time for investment in 2024, based on the recent retail performance and improvement of the operation capability, we can see that it will contribute to the margin. We will continue to do that in 2025 and further drive the performance.
Based on these two above-mentioned adjustments, we will also consider the consumer trend and industry trend to focus more on the development of the K-shaped products. On one hand, we will further extend the product in the mid and high range to increase their share in the market. Also, for the entry-level products, we will have better cost optimization to improve their competitiveness in the market. Internally, we will continue to improve our online operation capabilities to reduce the costs and improve the efficiency. For example, in advertisement placement, we will focus more on the cost efficiency. In promoting and marketing, we will focus more on the conversion. For offline operations, we will also, while strengthening retail, further advance. The retail operation and in distributor channel and emerging markets, we will seize the market opportunities.
With all that, we hope that we can achieve higher performance in 2025, and we are confident that we can do so. This is a brief answer to our questions.
[Foreign language]
Okay, thank you, Kenny, for your answers. Also thank you, Lian. Due to the interest of the time, I'd like to ask Madam Han to briefly sum up today's earnings call. All right, thank you very much for the questions, and thank you for the answers of my colleagues. Indeed, in the operation process, you have touched upon those key issues. For both Joyoung and SN APAC, we have been facing fierce market competition and constant challenges.
We are confident that our team will face up to those challenges and continuously improve the product and to launch more innovative products that meet the needs of consumers in various regions to achieve the sustainable development and the growth of the globe in various markets and continuously create value for the consumers. We also attach great importance to your insights. Welcome for the exchanges with our IR team after the meeting. Thank you, Madam Han. This is the end of the presentation today. Thank you for your attendance. See you.