Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to Quhuo's first half of 2022 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen only mode. After management's prepared remarks, there will be a Q&A session. Today's conference call is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. I would now like to turn the call over to Ms. Qishu Wang. Thank you, and over to you.
Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone. Welcome to Quhuo's first half of 2022 earnings conference call. The company's results were released earlier today and are available on our IR website. On the call today are Chairman and CEO Leslie Yu, CFO Barry Ba. Leslie will review business operations and company highlights, followed by Barry, who will discuss financials and guidance. They will be available to answer your questions in the Q&A session that follows. Before we begin, I would like to remind you that this call may contain forward-looking statements made under safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
Such statements are based on management's current expectations and current market and operating conditions, and relate to the events that involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond the company's control, which may cause the company's actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Further information regarding this and other risks, uncertainties and factors is included in the company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under law. With that, I will now turn the call over to our Chairman and CEO, Mr. Leslie Yu. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Qishu, and thank you all for joining our first half of 2022 earnings conference call. We are very pleased that in the first half of 2022, Quhuo has continued its strategy of revenue growth first and profit growth later in 2021. While total revenue grew at a steady rate in the first half of the year, gross profit increased by 89.6% year-on-year. Increase in revenue came from the increased demand for community service products and the expansion of the coverage of service cities and business districts. In terms of gross profit, thanks to the improvement of the company's operating efficiency and the strengthening of the cost control, we further reduced the cost of revenue and achieved an increase in gross profit margin.
Gross margin in the first half of 2022 was 5% compared to 2.7% in the same period last year. At the same time, general and administrative expenses decreased by 22.8% year-on-year. Our adjusted EBIT was RMB 10.8 million, compared with a loss of RMB 49.4 million in the same period last year, which shows that our profitability has improved significantly. At the same time, we have been endeavoring to reduce dependency on individual business line and major consumers. On the basis of the solid foundation of on-demand delivery solutions, our community service business has paced into a higher growth stage. In terms of segmented revenue, mobility service solution increased by 32.2% year-on-year, and housekeeping and accommodation solution increased by 24.7% year-on-year.
Now, I would like to share with you specifically how we have provided continuously high quality services around the four essential living needs of food, clothing, housing and transportation for the community in the first half of 2022, even under the complex international situation and domestic epidemic control. In the first half of 2022, the dynamic zero-COVID policy prevents people from traveling freely, which led to an increase in the demand for home services. Our business service covers the majority of areas with strong economic demand in first- and second-tier cities in China, providing services that meet the basic needs of the community. In addition to the continuous development of our existing business sectors such as on-demand delivery solutions, mobility service solutions, housekeeping and accommodation solutions, it also includes our pioneering exploration in laundry services.
In terms of order fulfillment service for platforms such as Meituan, Didi, Ele.me, et cetera, including on-demand delivery solutions and mobility service solutions below, we have built Quhuo's core competitiveness and model through lean management operations and a nationwide infrastructure network. In terms of the operation of our own service platform, including housekeeping and accommodation solutions and laundry in China, we plan to empower more community service providers to expand revenue and improve efficiency through the SaaS system and services. Let's take a look at how Quhuo enables more community service providers to expand their income and improve efficiency through the SaaS system and services. In the process of providing community services for a long time, it is found that the mass participants of community services are very fragmented, and the service capacities are limited.
Thus, the demand and the capacity of community services are poorly matched, and it is difficult to achieve cross-regional deployment and fully meet the needs of consumers. In order to solve the above problems, we have begun testing and implementing a community ecosystem based on 10 years of community service experience, using SaaS tools to link community service provider and the production capacities since the second half of 2021. Nowadays, we are taking the laundry solution as the business entry into community service. Laundry sector, factories, logistics, distribution, and the community store owners are connected by our laundry order SaaS management system. The community residents are involved in our community service platform through community store owners.
For instance, community shop owners who are operators of grocery stores, courier delivery points or gym, could have the ability to meet residents' laundry needs through the laundry factories involved in our SaaS system. They can deliver the clothes to the laundry factories through the instant delivery system on the service platform after receiving the laundry needs from consumers. We are cooperating with more than 70 laundry factories covering 31 cities in the network, and achieving trial operation results in Beijing and Xi'an. In the future, we are jointly promote our community service ecosystem with our own teams and the franchise partners relying on over 130 cities and 1,200 business districts across the country, which are covered by the existing service network of Quhuo.
Empower existing community service providers by SaaS PaaS service to link and match the needs of millions of families in the community more precisely through the way of stacking multiple services in one site to expand income and capacity sharing to improve efficiencies. We will concentrate in rich service scenarios, increase the service output of the community, enlarge the community service network, strengthen the competitive moat of regional services, and upgrade the ability to fulfill the essential social demand, focusing on the essential living needs of the community residents. At the same time, I would like to emphasize the social value created by Quhuo in its business development. Seeing the severe employment situation in which many companies experience a wave of layoffs due to the economic downturn triggered by pandemic.
Based on this situation, stabilizing employment has become one of the priorities of the government, and new forms of employment represented by the gig economy has caught widespread attention. As a leading gig economy platform in the community service field, our business and the platform provide a large number of blue-collar workers with employment and entrepreneurial opportunities. For employment, the Quhuo platform links enterprise and individual workers precisely, connects suitable jobs and needs, and promote efficient production capacity matching. At the same time, Quhuo provides diversified services to assist the capacity providers to adapt to new scenarios more quickly and plan clear career development reasonably, including safety and security and vocational training. Furthermore, Quhuo provides an entrepreneurial platform for some workers who have a higher pursuit of career prospects, where they can obtain support.
Quhuo has helped nearly 500,000 workers find jobs, of which 22.6% have a college degree or above up to now. We will sustainably produce the social value of promoting employment, stabilizing income, and helping entrepreneurship in future development. Finally, I would like to conclude that the essential living service demand for the community is a long-term constant demand. For this reason, the catering, clothing, travel, and accommodation industries are enduring. The epidemic in the past three years has limited more and more consumers to rely on ordering online and delivery of the offline services, further increasing the penetration rate and the reuse rate of the Internet. As an internet technology company, Quhuo continuously improves satisfaction rate of community services through technology and offline empowerment. The 10 years experience of the operational platform service has accumulated our dominant position in the community service market.
The community ecological service ecosystem of SaaS PaaS service will further enhance the bargaining power and profitability of Quhuo. Therefore, we are confident that the future development of Quhuo will have long-term and sustainable social and commercial value. This concludes my prepared statement. I will now turn the call over to our CFO, Barry Ba, who will discuss our financial results for the first half of 2022.
Thanks, Leslie. Hello, everyone. Thanks for joining us in Quhuo's first quarter of 2022 conference call. Please be reminded that all amounts quoted here will be in RMB, unless stated otherwise. Total revenue of Quhuo RMB 1,863 million in the first quarter of 2022, which remained relatively stable compared with RMB 1,838 million in the first quarter of 2021. A further breakdown. Revenue from on-demand delivery solutions RMB 1,753.8 million, representing a slight increase from RMB 1,757 million in the first quarter of 2021.
Revenue from mobility service solutions consisting of share bike maintenance, ride-hailing, and freight service solutions for RMB 56.5 million, representing an increase of 32.2% from RMB 42.7 million in the first quarter of 2021. Primarily due to, first, our enlarged customer base and the service scope for share bike maintenance solutions and also the commencement of freight solution in July of 2021. Revenue from housekeeping and accommodation solutions for RMB 43.4 million, representing an increase of 24.7% from RMB 34.8 million in the first quarter of 2021.
Primarily due to our enlarged customer base for housekeeping and accommodation solutions, which include hotels, B&Bs, as part of the network synergy we have achieved, following the business expansion of our housekeeping and accommodation solutions. On the whole, what we have achieved is basically consistent with our strategic direction. The cost of revenue RMB 1,769 million, representing a decrease of RMB 18.9 million year-over-year, primarily attributed to the increase of our operational efficiency. As a result, gross profits improved significantly, reaching RMB 93.9 million in the first half year of 2022, which has increased by 89.6% year-over-year, corresponding to a gross margin of 5% compared with 2.7% in the same period last year.
General and administrative expenses were RMB 99.5 million, representing a decrease of 22.8% from RMB 122.9 million in the first quarter of 2021. The decrease was primarily due to the great decrease in the share-based compensation expense from RMB 50.3 million in the first quarter of 2021, down to RMB 12.5 million in the first quarter of 2022. R&D expense was RMB 7.2 million, representing a decrease of 22% from RMB 9.2 million in the first quarter of 2021. Primarily due to the decrease in average compensation for research and development personnel after restructuring our R&D team.
Net loss attributed to Quhuo Limited was RMB 25 million, as compared to RMB 111 million in the first quarter of 2021, which is a big decrease in the loss. Shows our consistent improvement in our profitability. Adjusted net loss was RMB 14.1 million, as compared to adjusted net loss of RMB 69.3 million in the first quarter of 2021. Adjusted EBITDA was RMB 10.8 million, as compared to adjusted EBITDA loss of RMB 49.4 million in the first quarter of 2021.
In terms of the balance sheet, as of June 30, 2022, the company has cash and short-term investment of RMB 148 million and the short-term debt of RMB 107 million. This concludes my prepared remarks. Thank you for your attention. We are now ready to take your questions. Operator, please go ahead.
Thank you very much. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. If you're using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. If at any time your question has been addressed and you would like to withdraw your question, please press star then two. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. The first question comes from Darren Aftahi. Please go ahead.
Hi, guys. Good evening. Just a quick question. I'm wondering if you can maybe give a status right now of just the Chinese economy and since you know, there's chatter about loosening restrictions on the COVID policy, how your business has maybe been impacted in the September quarter and then maybe even to you know, October and November and maybe if trends have improved at all in the growth of your business and specifically on the on-demand delivery side and any other segments you kinda would indulge in. Thanks.
Thanks, Darren. Yeah. Actually, COVID-19 has lasted several years in China. Lately, we are focusing on the community services, so we are providing the service for the four essential people needs. We call this food, clothing, housing and accommodation. Actually, if we look at the first half of 2022, the total revenue of on-demand delivery solution still is steady, slow growth. For our mobility service solution and housekeeping and accommodation also achieved a very satisfying growth. Actually, this situation will still last for our quarter four. We believe that in quarter four we will achieve better results, not only in the revenue but also in the gross profit. Yeah.
In addition that because the dynamic zero-COVID policy will still prevent people to going out and currently that most people have to rely on the order online and delivery offline services. Which also increase the re-use rate of internet and which also help us to further grow our business regions and increase our income. Yeah. Thank you.
Great. Thank you, Leslie. Just maybe one follow-up. Is it challenging to find workers to fulfill your fulfillment network just given the zero-COVID policy? Are you able to procure the proper assets? Thanks.
Excuse me. I beg your pardon, Darren.
Yes. Hello?
Hi.
Hey, Darren, for your last few words, we didn't catch up quite clearly. Can you say that again, please?
Sure. Not a problem. My question was just around if it's, given the lockdown policy and people ordering online and whatnot, challenging to fulfill the riders and drivers for your fulfillment network, kind of given the macro backdrop?
Oh, yeah. Yeah, I got it. Yeah, sorry about that for misunderstanding. That actually because people being locked down and which also including that workforce being locked down. Actually the people are not travel freely and which is actually stabilized that our workforce. Of course, at the same time, we provide all kinds of support to help this workforce and to settle down and help them to focus on the work to provide the services. Maybe it's not properly to speaking, but actually that the we call it is the flow rate of the workforce is lowering down. Currently is that we are facing less challenging in the recruiting and deployment. Thank you.
Thanks.
Thank you. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. The next question comes from Karina Wang from Tiger Brokers. Please go ahead.
Thank you for taking my question. My question is, how will the company strategy direction improve or change in the future? Thanks.
Thanks for the question. Actually, we can see a little bit some change and even in the script, and I just share with the audience. Yes, there will be some changes in our strategic directions. We will maintain the continuous development of order fulfillment services for platforms such as Meituan and Didi, and to further optimize efficiency and improve the profits. At the same time, we will jointly promote our community service ecosystem. Together with our own teams and franchised partners and in over 130 cities and 1,200 business districts, which is already covered by our existing service network. We will empower existing community service providers by our SaaS product service to link and match the needs of millions of families in the community.
The way we will do is that we will stack multiple services in one site so that they can expand their income. Also we will let the capacity sharing on the platform so they can improve efficiencies. If we call that the difference between the strategic direction, I would say that previously in the last 10 years we may running the business mainly on our own team, but no longer that we will organize the social resources and all the service providers together to do the business and to grow up together. Yeah. Thank you.
Thanks. Thanks for answering.