Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Weimob Inc.'s 2025 Interim Results Conference Call. A copy of the interim results announcement can be found and downloaded from the company's investor relations website. At this time, all lines have been placed on listen-only mode, and the floor will be open for questions following today's presentation. This call will be conducted in Mandarin and English. Simultaneous interpretation will be provided. Please note that this conference may cover non-IFRS metrics and refer to the company's results announcement. Joining us today on the call are Mr. Sun Taoyong , Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Fengchun You, Executive Director and President of Weimob Group, and Mr. Cao Yi, Chief Financial Officer. I will now turn the call over to Mr. Sun.
Investors, analysts, good evening. Now, let me do a review of our company's 2025 First Half Results and the Second Half Outlook. I believe you have already read our half-yearly report, so I would like to go through the salient points with you. In the past three years, all along, we have been striving to lower cost and improve efficiency and high-quality development. AI technology is the core drive, and we are enhancing our marketing as well as operational efficiency, and we have achieved some results. Now, let me present our financial results. First, revenue. Looking back in 2024, perhaps you are aware from our financial statements, our revenue declined quite a lot and loss expanded. There are two major reasons. The first is advertising media platforms' change of rebate policy. Actually, our policy adjustment lagged behind till the second half of last year.
Actually, in the first half, if you talk about advertising merchants' revenue, it has to be adjusted. Second reason, last year, we did cost control and efficiency improvement, and we exited from a lot of low-margin businesses and lost businesses. As a result, revenue also came down for the whole year. If we excluded the impact about media policies, then overall revenue was up 7.8% year- on- year. Revenue had achieved a turnaround. If we exclude impact from small to medium-sized businesses, our revenue should reach double-digit growth. If we look at the second half of last year, on a half-on-half basis, our revenue growth was 29%. That's about our first half revenue. Then about gross profits, this year, actually, we achieved a very good number for gross profit. Last year, it's CNY 6.64 billion, and we're up 75%. We are up 8.7 percentage points to CNY 7.5 billion.
Adjusted gross profit, that is, after excluding last year's rebate impact, we're up 36% year- on- year. This is mainly because, in the past few years, we achieved high-quality development, and we have also phased out some low-margin businesses. About profits, I think you are most concerned about this. We are happy to say that in the first half this year, we achieved the first turnaround since 2021, adjusted EBITDA at CNY 72 million, adjusted net profit CNY 17 million. Operating cash flow also improved a lot from the end of last year. There is only small outflow. In the past three years, we cut costs and improved efficiency. We achieved high-quality development. AI is our new growth direction, and so far, we have seen achievements and effectiveness. Concerning subscription revenue, for subscription revenue, on a year-on-year basis, there is a 10% decline.
Major reason is that last year, we phased out many small to medium-sized revenues. For subscription revenue, there is, as a result, some impact, some deferred impact. At the end, at the second half of 2023, there is some phased impact in relation to revenue deferment. There is further impact on subscription revenue, leading to a small decline. However, on a half-on-half basis, in fact, subscription revenue has stabilized and achieved growth. Two main reasons. For our key accounts, Smart Retail revenue is very stable. This year, for Smart Retail, there is a small decline in the revenue. Overall speaking, it is because of the overall macro-economy, and some enterprises have cut their budgets, and then demand is also deferred. As a result, there is a slight decline. For Smart Retail, overall speaking, revenue is stable, CNY 286 million. The overall retention rate is very high. Merchants' operation is very good.
Merchants' mindshare is very good. Now, some merchants have reduced store counts. Overall speaking, revenue is stable for key accounts. At the same time, for the first time, we disclosed this number, and that is AI-related revenue. In the first half this year, it reached CNY 34 million. As a result, our SaaS business had stabilized and achieved growth. This is a new growth driver for our SaaS business. In relation to merchant solution revenue, in the first half this year, gross billing was CNY 8.8 billion, up 3 percentage points. Now, this year, we still insist on high-quality development. For low gross margin and long credit cycle businesses and customers, we have phased them out. Our gross billing, comparing with the same period last year, was quite good. Last year, because platforms adjusted their rebate policy, we have adjusted the policy correspondingly. For customer rebates, they have decreased.
This year, the rebate gap has gone back to positive. CNY 338 million is the merchant solution revenue. Comparing with the second half of last year, there is more than one-time growth. Last year, in the first half, we had to adjust the media revenue rebates. If we exclude this adjustment, then merchant solution revenue growth was 45.3%. Merchant solution gross profit is high, 91%. For TFO and financial businesses, we have actually decreased these businesses. Overall speaking, if you look at revenue, gross profit, and profits, overall speaking, I think that in the past three years, by lowering costs and improving efficiency, and by insisting on high-quality development, we have achieved quite good results. Now, let's take a look at our businesses specifically. First of all, moving up market, that is Smart retail. Right now, it is very stable and sound.
For some large industries like property, commercial property, retail, fashion retail, and so on, their shares are very high. Overall revenue is stable, accounting for 65.2% of total subscription revenue. For merchants, GMV growth, it is also very good. On a year-on-year basis, it's up 13.4%. GMV results and also the number of GMV merchants grew a lot. When we face key customers and also integrated solutions, our solutions are well received by many merchants. The year-on-year growth is very satisfactory. In the first half of the year, we worked on multi-platform operation. You have read our media information. Together with some mini shops, we are doing a lot of integration. For example, inventory, merchandise, member's benefits, and so on, these are all integrated and synergized. On WeChat's e-commerce, we have achieved in-depth integration. For Weimob mini program on Douyin and Meituan, we have achieved connection.
On TikTok and Meituan, the voucher issue systems have been connected already. We are also integrated with RedNote and also Alipay recently. We have connected to these platforms. For business scenarios and vertical industries, this year, for the pet industry, we have offered a solution for the pet industry. Now, this industry is in a leading position. Also, for other, for example, shopping department stores, shopping guidance, and so on, we are doing a good job. We are doing a good job with the property sector. Here you can see our business solution matrix. In the past, for example, wholesale business, membership services, sales guidance services, enterprise WeChat business, our revenue with big customers showed stable growth. Next, let's talk about the focus of this year, and that is AI. I'm sure everyone is paying attention to it. Starting 2023, we began to prepare for our AI product WAI.
Here we have three product matrices: WAI SaaS, WAI Pro, and WIME. For Y SaaS, it is based on the existing SaaS customers. We offer the WAI product. Basically, there are store, construction store, decoration, and also image generation. Altogether, there are 15 agents that can help merchants to build their stores very quickly and achieve online operation. In the past, we sold software to merchants, but now we offer to merchants and we deliver to merchants an operation team with digital employees. 15 agents are like 15 digital agents. In the past, we need a designer and shopping guide and customer service person, and also a digital data analyst, and so on. Now, they have been turned into a digital employee being delivered to merchants. Merchants only need very small manpower. Even one person may be enough.
With the integration between AI and the digital employee, merchants can very quickly operate their stores. We can see that store building is a lot faster. Merchants, stores, building agents, utilization rate was up by five times, and the active level of merchants is also a lot higher. That's about our WAI SaaS product. For WAI Pro, we offer a customized AI service to merchants. Some merchants may have very special scenarios, for example, in terms of health, service, and also a digital person. There are some specific agents, based on our own experience, we can do customization and AI service for them. This is one breakthrough that we have achieved. Finally, for the 2C segment, consumers or professional-type consumers, they can be individuals or they can be sole proprietors, and we offer WIME products. For WIME, it is not only based on WeChat's mini program.
E-commerce customers can use our WIME designs for, for example, product image generation, product posters, and also one-click change for everything. All these can be generated with WIME. In the past, merchants incurred a lot of costs in the generation of their product images. They may have to hire models for photography. This entails a lot of costs. With WIME, we can quickly generate the necessary images. We have already 116,000 registered WIME users, and revenue growth month-on-month was 172%. That's our progress in WIME. Now, let me talk about our marketing segments. For Weimob marketing, overall gross revenue was up 3.4% year- on- year. Merchant solution revenue was up 45%. One important growth point is our video accounts advertising. Consumption is up 46% year- on- year. If you take a look at gross billing of video accounts every year, it achieved rapid growth for Weimob.
In terms of video accounts advertising market share, it is very high. Besides, we have multiple channels. We have RedNote advertising. Consumption is up 67%. Internally, through AI, we can lower costs and improve efficiency. Internally, we have four different systems, Tiangong, Tencent, and so on. They can help our overall advertising efficiency and lower costs for us. At the same time, we have integrated a lot of media, offering total solutions for our customers. That is an important breakthrough for our merchant solutions. Finally, let me talk about outlook. First of all, the most important point is that we embrace AI. I personally think that Weimob, upon our establishment, was a company with a 10-year mobile internet cycle. In the coming 10 years, it is going to be a big AI cycle. Weimob fully embraces AI. We will also promote the utilization and implementation of AI agent applications.
Now, we already have 15 agents. In the future, we will continue to work more on new scenarios, and we will offer more agent utilization for customers. No matter whether we're talking about WAI SaaS, WAI Pro, and WIME, we are continuously iterating. They will be incorporated into merchants, e-commerce, and operations. Besides, we dig deep into WeChat e-commerce ecosystem. At the end of last year, for WeChat gift-giving function, after it was launched, WeChat e-commerce achieved a very good effect. This year, when we look at WeChat e-commerce, it is continuing to strengthen, for example, recommendation, purchase recommendation, and so on. We are preparing a lot of other related businesses. In the future, in the whole WeChat e-commerce ecosystem, its robust developments will help our SaaS business, overall speaking. Third, we expand multi-channel business possibilities.
We can see that, overall speaking, in the past regarding SaaS, we already expanded on RedNote, Meituan, and also TikTok. In the future, we will focus more to enhance each ecosystem. When it comes to precise marketing, in the past, on RedNote and Kuaishou, we already achieved rapid growth. This year, in Q4, we may start our TikTok business. In 2021, regarding TikTok business, we achieved CNY 3 billion GMV scale. In the future, we will restart the TikTok business. We believe that in Q4 or next year, for our overall merchant solution revenue, it will give a big drive. Number four, we will strive to expand local life services markets. Right now, online e-commerce retail business, many customers have gradually reached saturation. For offline, no matter whether you talk about F&B or beauty services, and also on-demand home services, there are a lot.
We are working, focusing on on-demand home services scenarios, and also for retail, leisure, healthcare, clinic, pet services, and also home repair, maintenance. We are offering corresponding solutions. In terms of local life services market, it will become a main growth engine for our overall SaaS business in the future. Finally, internationalization. For our international business, in the past, all along, we have been planning and making deployments for our overseas business. We are an important service provider for Shopify. We offered a lot of applications to overseas customers. At the same time, in the future, we'll set up a Weimob Going Global business department to help Chinese brands to go global. For Weimob Going Global, we will incorporate overseas marketing. There are a lot of advanced overseas tools, including our integrated operations service.
In the future, in September, roughly, we will announce to the public our business progress in terms of Weimob Going Global. For heading in Southeast Asia, Middle East, Europe, and Africa, and North America, we have achieved quite good progress. For example, Pop Mart and also Miniso and so on, we focus on these businesses going global. The above are some highlights of financial performance and also business outlook. Next, our CFO, Mr. Cao , will go through in detail our financial results. Thank you.
Listeners, investors, good evening. Now, I'm going to present to you our first half overall financial performance. In 2025, we faced very complicated, volatile external environments. There is the AI technology revolution. We focused on cost control and improvement of efficiency. We wanted to achieve turnaround.
At the same time, in relation to e-commerce AI technology application, we wanted to use technology to drive growth and transformation. In the first half, total revenue was CNY 780 million. Looking at the financial statements, it's down 10.6%. As Mr. Sun just said, in 2024, on advertising platform, there was the decrease in rebate, and the timing was quite late. There is a big difference between the ratio in the first half and second half. Looking at the full year rebate percentage, and after making adjustments between first half and second half, in the first half, comparing with the first half of 2024, we are up 7.8% in revenue. For subscription revenue, CNY 440 million, down 10.1%. On a half-on-half basis, subscription revenue had stabilized. There is light growth. For merchant solution revenue, CNY 340 million, down 11.3% year- on- year.
However, as said earlier, if we try to readjust the rebate impact, then the adjusted revenue achieved 45.3% growth, which is quite a big growth. In the first half of 2025, revenue share was stable. Revenue breakdown was stable. For subscription revenue, apart from retail revenue, which is stable at 60+%, our company actively explored AI technology use around e-commerce. We achieved commercial monetization. AI-related revenue in the first half of 2025, CNY 34 million, accounting for 7.9% of subscription revenue. Besides, in terms of costs and expenses, we insisted on per capita efficiency coming first. Results have been very clear. As of June 30, 2025, we had 3,400 employees. Total salary expenses were CNY 617 million in the first half of 2024, and it declined to CNY 466 million, down 24.5%. We are able to further lower operating expenses.
S&T expenses, CNY 190 million, CNY 390 million was the selling expenses. General and administrative expenses, CNY 220 million, down 24.5%. As of mid-2025, our total assets were CNY 6.67 billion, cash and equivalent, CNY 1.57 billion, receivables, CNY 1.81 billion. As of middle of the year, our short-term debts, including short-term bank borrowings, CNY 1.95 billion, including CNY 50 million of collateral loans and CNY 317 million syndicated loans, and CNY 1.54 billion of other loans. These are based on healthy growth of our advertising business. As a result, there is a funding need for advertising business operating capital. There was healthy growth, and credibility of customers is healthy. This year, we did a good job about cash flow management in the first half of the year. Advertising net cash inflow, CNY 220 million. Basically, cash outflow was a small amount, more or less the same as last year.
Now, let's take a look at some important indicators. In 2025, for our two revenues, as Mr. Sun just said earlier, let me supplement. First of all, in the first half of 2025, our subscription revenue, CNY 440 million. Looking at the financial statements, it's down 10.1%. This is mainly because in early 2024, we took the initiative to adjust our business structure. We phased out low gross margin, low quality subscription businesses. However, historical orders for the whole 2024 also led to some revenue, CNY 30 million and CNY 20 million for the first and second half. For these orders, they did not cause any sharing impact for 2025. As a result, there is a gap of CNY 30 million. If we exclude such gap, then in the first half of this year, on a year-on-year basis, the gap is not that big for this revenue.
Comparing with the second half last year, there is growth. Besides, we actively explored new businesses, new technologies. In the first half, through AI, application revenue was CNY 34 million. On a half-on-half basis, we have stabilized this part. Merchant solution revenue, CNY 338 million in the first half. We talked about the rebate ratio difference between the first half and second half after reinstating it. On an adjusted basis, it's up 45.3%. This is a big growth, mainly because of two reasons. In the first half of 2025, gross billing was CNY 8.6 billion, up CNY 280 million. A big growth is from our early 2025 work for the downstream. There is a rebate gap. Last year, it's 2.1%, and it rose significantly to 3.85% this year. There is a 1.7% rebate gap or an increase in net rebate. CNY 8.6 billion gross billing caused a very important impact on our sales profit.
In the first half last year, there was CNY 66 million TSO and financial revenue. This year, there is no longer such revenue. Our growth is very big. About gross profits, in the first half of the year, gross margin achieved overall rise. Subscription gross margin, 66%, 67% in 2023. In 2024, it came down to 60% to 51% in the first half and second half. In the first half this year, it was reversed. Subscription gross margin went back to 63%. One driving factor is the historical capitalized R&D expenses. In 2024, for intangible assets, they had been provisioned already. R&D expenses in 2025 went into general administrative expenses. The impact on costs was greatly reduced. For subscription revenue, as explained earlier, there's a CNY 30 million gap. It is because of historical orders and legacy reasons. On a half-on-half basis, we have stabilized. Subscription gross margin rose back.
Merchant Solution gross margin change is for high margin advertising rebates and TSO financial business splits. In the first half of this year, merchant solution was almost all high margin businesses. There is no low margin business. It's at 91% gross margin for this segment. In the first half of this year, our results are that revenue stabilized, gross profit went back, and costs and expenses have been optimized. In the first half of this year, adjusted net profits achieved a turnaround. If we do a split by business segments, there is continuous improvement. For SaaS, in the past two and a half years, by continuous cost control, we reduced the loss. In the first half of this year, loss was CNY 130 million, down CNY 26 million. In terms of costs and expenses, we no longer have the sharing of R&D expenses, and there is optimization of staff costs.
As a result, it drove the reduction in loss. For advertising, in the first half, it lost CNY 30 million. Now, there is a profit of CNY 180 million. Our net rebate was up 1.7%. As a result, it drove big profits growth. This shows that at the beginning of the year, for advertising platforms, we have adjusted our operating strategies, and we have adjusted the discount policy as well. The effects are very significant. Adjusted net profits achieved a turnaround. Our free cash flow is balanced. In the first half for SaaS, cash outflow CNY 220 million. Comparing with the past half-year periods, it is narrowing continuously. For advertising, there is cash inflow of CNY 220 million. In the first half, free cash flow, there was only a small outflow of CNY 30 million. Basically, it achieves a break-even.
In 2024, we actually saw that in March this year, when we communicated with you, our 2024 advertising platform lowered rebates. There is structure optimization for SaaS. Adjusted loss was CNY 533 million. It was quite big. During March results announcement, we said we presented our roadmap to achieve turnaround in 2025 after half a year's efforts. I think I can give you a preliminary report if you refer to these two slides on the right. This is the turnaround forecast given at that time. On the left-hand side, after the first half, this is the revised picture. If you look at the actual completion results, what we did well in the first half is, first, in relation to reduction in rebate for the advertising platform, it can improve profit margin. Gross billing is stable. As a result, profit grew CNY 170 million for the whole year.
On this basis, profit will continue to grow by CNY 190 million. Secondly, cost control and improvement of efficiency. We optimized staff costs and related expenses. At the end of last year, during results announcement and during March results announcement, we said that the impact would be CNY 1.18 billion. Now, for the whole year, impact will be CNY 138 million. The third point is R&D expenses. Also, in 2024, there was the provisioning. There is a reduction of loss of CNY 100 million that was achieved in the first half. For the whole year, we can narrow loss by CNY 187 million. In 2024, for the whole year, we made a one-off bad debt provision, and there are other one-off impairments this year. These will not happen. With all these items together, for the whole year, we have confidence that we can achieve a turnaround.
After what we have done in the first half, our confidence is even stronger than that in March. In the second half of the year, for SaaS, organic growth, we have to work harder. We face macro-economic challenge and contraction of consumption. For medium to large-sized customers, we may see some headwinds. In terms of sales strategy and product innovation, we will do more in the market. For innovative AI businesses and commercialization opportunities, we'll continue to explore the development of AI agents. After half a year's effort, our turnaround plan has been quite smooth. We believe that in the future, we will see better prospects. So, that's my presentation about our financial performance. Now, we are happy to take questions from investors and analysts.
Thank you, management. We will now start the Q&A session. If you want to ask questions, please press star. If you want to cancel your question, please press star two. The first question is from Ye Yuan from CITIC Securities.
Thank you, management, for the opportunity. Congratulations to your company for achieving break-even and excellent results in this first half year. I have two questions to ask. First, looking at your first half, subscription solutions have stabilized. What are some new highlights for the subscription revenue? In the financial statements, you talked a lot about AI products. In which scenarios will you see new changes about AI products in the second half of the year? How should we look forward to the growth and profitability of these products? Second question. Now, for Tencent ecosystem, they have launched WeChat Mini Store. It has been one year or so. In relation to these mini stores, what have you done? What about the activity level of merchants? How are they utilizing such mechanisms?
What will be the drive to your business? In the second half of the year, for WeChat e-commerce ecosystem development, what will be the impact on your company? Thank you.
Thank you for the questions. Let me take the first question. The second question will be taken by Mr. You. Okay, first question is about our overall revenue in the first half. First of all, Smart Retail revenue from key customers, it is very stable. At the same time, our overall AI revenue achieved good progress. On a half-on-half basis, we have stabilized and achieved growth. In the second half, our subscription revenue year- on-y ear would also grow because in the first half, there was a year-on-year decline. About CNY 30 million was because of deferred revenue. At the second half of last year, there was still deferred revenue, but the base is very small already.
With this base effect, in the second half of the year for subscription, I think the impact of deferment would be very small. Besides, for large customers, we will gradually increase investment into retail business and local service markets. Subscription revenue will enhance the share of Smart Retail. On product end, sales end, we're increasing revenue share of Smart Retail. In the past, in the sales end, we have small to medium-sized team and channel team and key customers team. For these three teams, now they focus on Smart Retail and also key customer business or upmarket business. Upmarket revenue will increase in share. For this revenue, I think retention will be more stable. We'll continue to increase revenue share of Smart Retail. This can also raise our subscription revenue.
We will develop a lot of local life service fields, for example, pet industry, service at home, or on-demand home service, and so on. In relation to pets or shop guidance, there will be more industry solutions to be launched, and that can enhance our Smart Retail revenue. One important revenue is AI. In the past, after our deployment in the past two years, in terms of AI commercialization, we have seen preliminary results. This year is the beginning year of AI commercialization for us. For AI commercialization, we have enjoyed some revenue. As I mentioned earlier, WAI SaaS, WAI Pro, and WIME, these are the three major products. They cover many scenarios, and they mainly focus on e-commerce scenarios. For e-commerce, I can see a lot of product services, product posters, product pages, AI creative posters, Smart profile writing, Smart copywriting, and so on.
There are many scenarios in which our AI products will be used. Besides, we use a lot of AI capabilities to develop many agents, as I mentioned earlier. With our designer agents, the merchants, by means of some prompts, can already ask the agent to generate product images. There can be automatic response in the customer service area. These capabilities can help merchants lower their costs and improve their efficiency. Besides, the overall activity level can also increase. For our AI revenue, now the base is not high. In the second half, I believe there will still be half-on-half growth. In the second half of the year for subscription revenue, we are still optimistic. On a year-on-year basis, I think there will be positive growth. For the mini stores, perhaps I'll ask Mr. You to take the questions.
Analysts, good evening. Regarding WeChat mini stores after they're launched for one year, Weimob mini stores, what have we done in terms of our products? Actually, in the first half of the year, we've already launched a WeChat mini store and Weimob mini program integrated solution. With product pass, inventory pass, membership pass, order pass, and so on, we help our merchants to get one-stop management on our back office. Mini programs, WeChat mini stores, orders, membership, all these can be managed. After the launch of our service, our solution penetration rate is high, around 15%. When it comes to development of functions, mini stores, mini programs, the accounts are opened at the same time. Growth is quite fast, around 27%. Increase in number of DAU is also fast, 26%. With this capability, our merchants can also utilize our service in their operation, for example, receiving of gifts and so on.
I think the company's operation and services can be enhanced. Based on WeChat mini store, market is developed, and we can place our WIME market on the mini stores' service market for small to micro businesses. Because they also have needs for content, images, and also site building, we can help enhance their building efficiency. For the second half of the year, regarding WeChat mini store development and the impact on us, at present, for WeChat mini stores, they are very important for Tencent. We hope that this kind of merchants can become our incremental market as well. We'll continue to optimize this solution. That is WeChat mini stores and also mini programs, Weimob mini program solutions. In this way, we can enhance overall merchants' operating efficiency and user experience. For WeChat mini stores, they are also working a lot on products and also gift-giving.
When WeChat mini stores have more capabilities, we'll actively embrace them and integrate them into our ecosystem opportunities. That's my answer.
Next question is from Jin Rong, please. Huaan Securities.
Thank you, management, for the opportunity. Congratulations for your excellent results in the first half. I have two questions about Merchant Solutions. First, in relation to advertising operation, this year, there is much improvement. Can you let us know the rebate and profit situation in the first half? What about the second half? What will be gross billing? What is your plan and projection about profit? Do you have more opportunities to expand to more advertising channels? Second question is about the impact of AI development. AI development is fast, and it can lower operating expenses for advertising business very fast. When it comes to advertising platforms like Tencent, what are some scenarios where these services can be utilized?
Thank you. Let me take the first question, and then I will take the second question. Mr. Cao will take the first question. Second question about AI. In the future, will it replace advertising agency business? I will comment with my own opinion. At present, AI technology has achieved a lot of achievements and progress. For example, text-to-image and text-to-video. Will it actually replace professional advertising agencies? If you look at production of materials, agents still have a lot of functions. We need strategies, creativity, and also insights. Regarding production of materials and exploration, there is still the need for human creativity and for robots to produce. In the future, I think there will be a man-machine integrated model. AI may become a super entity or individual, and AI will be responsible for data, and humans will be analyzing the data and so on.
AI is like a brain in the future. AI will implement some replicable standardized work, and we still need to rely on the human brain. This is the best approach in the future. For internet service providers, I think staff costs will gradually lower. In the past two years, when it comes to creative materials production, the cost has been lowered significantly, and there is a big decrease in manpower. Overall speaking, if we look at internet media platforms and overall advertising spend, we still need a lot. The role of agencies in the future, we will continue to embrace AI, and we will integrate AI capabilities and various tools to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of our touch with customers. Each employee will become a super individual. Regarding merchant solution revenue and profits, I will defer to my colleague.
In the first half, from merchant solution business, we mentioned earlier in our presentation, in the first half, it is mainly about advertising rebates. There is no other financial revenue for advertising business, as said earlier. Starting earlier this year, actually, last year, we encountered something out of expectation. That is the decrease in rebates. Last year, we made a lot of operation adjustments, but they came quite late already. Starting January 1 this year, we made very active operating strategy adjustment, especially regarding discount for downstream. We have made a one-off adjustment. We mentioned that for advertising profits and also net rebate ratio, there is a significant increase. In the first half, gross billing was CNY 8.6 billion. There is growth year on year at the same time because of adjustment to the rebate policy.
Even though upstream advertising platforms have reduced rebates for us, for downstream, our rebate decrease extent is much bigger than the drop for upstream in rebate. The gap in rebates, the total differential on average is 3.85%. Last year, in the first half, 2.1%. It is up 1.7 percentage points in the first half this year. Gross billing CNY 8.6 billion. For overall impact or improvement to profit, it is very significant. In the first half this year, we achieved turnaround because of SaaS subscription. The loss has been narrowed. One important drive is our advertising profits rebound. It became a very good business. In the first half, we achieved a turnaround as a result. Regarding our forecast, we are still very optimistic.
We believe in the second half of the year, overall revenue based on the first half level will grow, and net rebate ratio will be at least the same as in the first half. We'll maintain profitability of the first half, and then we'll make ends meet. We will explore new channels. In the second half, we expect that merchants' revenue on a year-on-year basis, where last year the base was rather low on the financial statements, but there should be at least 90% growth. After adjustment, there should be a 10% points growth. For media channel expansion, I'll defer to Mr. You.
This year, for marketing, we adopt a multi-channel approach, which has been in place in the past few years, as Mr. Sun said. In the past, Tencent's advertising was one of our major channels on RedNote and Kuaishou.
We are operating, and we are actively promoting collaboration with TikTok in Q4 this year. We will be connected to TikTok channel to identify more commercialization opportunities and growth opportunities. The above is about channel expansion and development. For overseas, at present, we have the internationalization strategy. Now, we are integrating with Google and other companies and TikTok. We will also be looking at TikTok overseas. Overseas media channels and systems will be gradually developed and enriched. The above is our channel expansion and development plan and work in relation to advertising platforms. Because of time, we will conclude the event here. On behalf of Weimob Group Management, thank you for joining this conference call. If you have further questions, please feel free to contact the IR team of the company. Thank you.