This is the first quarter for the fiscal year ending February 2025 and I would like to start with the briefings. AI Agent. This is the first new business that we're launching and t his is the largest innovation that we're bringing. Mainly around the AI Agent, various services will be introduced. This will be the core of our business going forward, I believe that is how we look at this new business, t he generative AI is being used and t he conventional search type recording service will move into a more interactive type of service using generative AI.
By doing this, there will be many different effects. For example, by having the interaction, we are able to lock in the users. Until now, we would, like, referring the businesses, and that was it. By having this continuous interaction, the satisfaction of the clients or other pain points can be understood, and beyond that, the part-times can move into new graduates and move into different careers. Depending on the various events, we will be providing many different services, w e can expect many different developments.
In that context, this is a very important service. This is still in a trial phase, but still we are feeling very strong potential, and this is very well-received. If you have not tried it out, I hope you would touch this and try this out. That way, I think you can feel our potential of our company. Well, this is under trial now and we're making adjustments on AI Agent. In October, we are planning to conduct a large promotion so that we can raise the awareness and have you use this service, and that is the schedule.
Towards that schedule, we are continuously evolving the service. As the second new business that we have, Baitoru Free and this is a service for spot work, but t his is a very hot market. Our clients are showing very strong needs. I mean, they're asking Baitoru to do the same. If it's Baitoru, they're saying that they could be more reassured, w e're very thankful to get such feedback. Actually, since more than five years ago, we have decided to deliver this service, and we had undergone development internally.
Finally, starting from this year, in the fall, we are planning to start the service. Starting from this quarter, we have started the hearings with our clients in full scale, I hope the investors would keep an eye on this. Our strength or the point that is very well-received for the promotion is at the end of last year, everyone in Japan were surprised. Ever since the WBC was held, who would sign the contract with Shohei Ohtani was a big attention, and we were the first to be chosen to sign a contract. We gained a lot of attention.
The data was announced in the previous financial results announcement. The publicity effect was much higher than the contract amount that we paid to sign up with Shohei Ohtani. Using Shohei Ohtani's movie, for example, at the Shibuya Scramble Square vision, which is called the DIP vision, was used to show his promotion and t he billboards will increase, for example, in places like Aoyama or Tamachi. These are already decided, but we will increase the number of billboards.
Indeed, as outside of Mr. Ohtani, we're seeing very strong demand in some industries and the ads focus on those industries for Baitoru NEXT, mainly like in industries like logistics or restaurants or construction and civil work. We are showing commercials focused on those areas, and we're seeing very good results. In sports events, well, we have been involved since before, but we are actively showing commercials. We have a promotion targeting the high school kids.
Bocchi the Rock! is an anime that is very popular, and the story is about students who are doing a part-time job for the first time and we're using this character that has very strong affinity. Through various social media, we're showing the commercial, and we're seeing more than 100 million cumulative views. The application by the high school students have grown by 1.3 times, w e're seeing very strong result.
In terms of activities to drive the productivity, by using AI, we're trying to improve the productivity. This activity has been explained over time, w hile using AI the latest technology will also be utilized. Our strength is being very down to earth, too. The other theme for the company internally for this fiscal year is to listen and see and talk, w e want to focus on the real physical world. Basically, the employees are asked to come into the office physically. Basically, we're not allowing them to work remotely.
We're asking them to come into the office. If they want to work remotely, they need to apply beforehand. If the senior allows them to work remotely, they will be allowed to work remotely based on the approval, and that was the direction. The employees, because they're coming into the office, they want them to feel that it was better working in the office. In order to develop that environment, Yotsuya Tower in Yotsuya, this is the largest building in Yotsuya, but we have secured one floor in that tower, and this is for the engineers and for DX.
There is the table where the height changes, so they can work sitting down or standing up. When they turn around, they can talk to their boss directly, and they can consult with their boss. After work, they can go out for drinks. By developing the teamwork, we want to improve the productivity and efficiency. Well, the biggest thing that we value is the philosophy. In order to develop the philosophy, we are improving the office, t his is very well received.
We are expanding the headquarters floor, too, so that they have more room, as well as be able to work more efficiently. When we announced this direction, remote would be more efficient, and some people said that they wanna continue working remotely. Some people objected, but a lot of our employees are now coming into the office and they're saying that they have better efficiency and they have better teamwork and, s ome people are even saying that it was a waste that they were not working in the office.
This fiscal year, in delivering the innovation, our management also need to evolve. We're expanding the HR resources, we have invited a new executive on board. Mr. Keiichiro Nagashima is now appointed as CTO, as well as the head of development division DX Business Group. He is demonstrating his capability already, b y inviting him on board, a lot of the schedules are expedited. He is already demonstrating wonderful capabilities.
Apart from that, as Head of Personnel & General Affairs Group, we have invited Mr. Toshiki Kanadani, also as general manager of marketing division, we have invited Mr. Daisuke Nakamura. These three people are already demonstrating their capabilities. Well, internally and externally, including overseas market, we are enhancing our communications, including IR communication. Last month, I went on overseas IR trip.
For overseas, we were introduced to very famous publications like Entrepreneur. Well, we have many service publicities, but they have covered other content as well. That is all for me, t hank you very much.
I'm Shirachi. From my side, I'm going to talk about the consolidated financial results of Q1 of FY 2025. In Q1, sales grew by 9% year-on-year. Growth accelerated Q1 from 7%- 9%. Growth rate has risen. Operating income grew by 20% to JPY 4 billion, achieving the record high quarterly operating income. By segment, DX Business continues high growth with 21% growth in sales and 19% in segment profit. Person Recruitment Service Business grew 7.6% in sales.
Growth is getting stronger Q-on-Q from 4.5% in Q3 last fiscal year and 5% in Q4 of last fiscal year. Segment profit increased by JPY 1.27 billion or 29%, backed by increase of efficiency in advertising sales promotion expenses and by the fact that promotion with Shohei Ohtani has been recorded as entire company adjustment cost because it's a corporate commercial. As a part-time job advertising market index, from this time, we use actual figures of new active job opening to applicants ratio, not seasonally adjusted figures.
In season adjusted figures, the difference of monthly business days of this year and the previous year is adjusted. The sales of each medias, including us, would fluctuate with more business days or less business days. We decided it is appropriate to use unadjusted actual figure of job opening to applicants ratio, not seasonally adjusted figure to observe the market situation.
In Q1, market growth rate based on new active job opening to applicants ratio without seasoning or seasonal adjustment was -5.3% year-on-year. April market slowed down, it was weaker than what we expected at the beginning of the fiscal year. We are paying close attention to identify whether the market has really bottomed out. The background factor of this April worsening is supposed to be the increase in job seekers or labor supply in logistics and office work domain, which pushed down the new job opening to applicants ratio.
Having said that, on the ground feeling of an business operator of this market, we didn't feel that job offering in logistics was bad, we were able to increase our sales. As a matter of fact, our media service business, including logistics sales, grew by 7.2%, which outperformed the market growth by more than 12 percentage points, accelerating our market share gain. Next, SG&A. Personnel cost increased, resulting from hiring 315 new graduates in April. The cost itself was up, but the personnel cost ratio declined 0.3%.
This is because we hired less new graduates than last year when we hired 600+, and also because we restrained mid-career hiring. As for advertising and sales promotion expenses, we have a continued efficient operation, and ratio to sales went down by 2.3%. The other costs increased due to the increase in the rent as a result of the opening of new offices, such as Yotsuya office and increase of headquarters floor space as Tomita explained earlier. Full year forecast.
There is no change from the forecast we announced in April. The idea behind that is the same, I will skip the explanation. Next, I'm going to talk about the business overview and the progress in DX business. Let's see the sales trajectory. The trends in net sales continues a high growth of 21% year-on-year. Sales of customer attraction KOBOT is strong. A full year forecast for sales growth is 20.4%, we have made a progress as expected.
The number of companies subject to monthly billing grew significantly year-on-year, like with 16% growth. KPI of DX Business, t he number of companies subject to billing increased by 500 quarter-over-quarter and ARPU was up from JPY 39,000- 40,000. We have made progress as expected. Next, strategy and progress of DX Business. You can see the full year strategy, progress, and topics for Q2.
In the area of recruitment and human resources, we made steady progress in reducing churn rate through renewal of corporate recruiting page, KOBOT. Development of functions for major companies is in good progress. In Q2, the new feature of interview scheduling KOBOT was released in June with Google Calendar integration. In the sales promotion support area, customer attraction KOBOT MEO is growing. Number of companies using MEO KOBOT steadily expands, surpassing 1,000.
In April, we announced capital and business alliance with iRidge, an app planning and development company. We will improve quality of existing products and accelerate development of new products in Q2. I hope you will look forward to this. Full year plan. As I said earlier, we are in line with other plan, no change. Progress in the personnel recruiting service business. First, media services, t he sales grew by 7.2% year-on-year. As I said earlier, growth of Q4 in the last fiscal year was 4.9%.
We can say that growth speed is up, and we outperformed the market growth, which is assumed to be - 5.3%. Number of contracted companies is growing nicely. Unit price, c ontract price unit per company decreased year-on-year. In Q4 of the last fiscal year, we recorded 3.3% decrease, w e are on recovery trend. This was due to the gradual recovery of unit price of temp staff agencies and BPOs. Next is the referral slide, w e are number one in terms of the average hourly wages. User-related KPI.
As for MAU, we are soon to catch up with it and surpass it. We would like to realize that. Next, media service application. It's going up, increasing nicely. Next, strategy and progress of media service. First, improving productivity of sales staff. We have started training to improve sales productivity for some employees who joined in 2023. We expected results is coming out from Q2 and onward.
Utilizing AI tools made progress in improving the productivity of existing employees. The second point is to strengthen sales in logistics, manufacturing, and medical and nursing care areas. In Q1, we are able to expand sales in this area. In Q2, we will increase the sales in the logistics sector, advertising investment to expand sales. Third point is to increase market share in suburban and rural areas. We have allocated new graduates of this year in suburban area more than usual. In Q2, we will focus on expanding distribution network.
Next, we move on to permanent placement service. The sales was up by 12.3% Y-o-Y. Kaigo de Hatarako, the strong launch, it propelled the strong growth. Now, the strategy and progress of permanent placement service business. The first point, to improve productivity of career advisor. We established training organization for new graduates. As a result, existing employees don't lose productivity while new graduates are well-trained. In Q2, we will improve job search tools for career advisor, which will improve their productivity.
We will release this tool in the second half. Secondly, we will enhance the customer flow from existing media. In Q2, we will develop app to be released in the second half. The third point is in order to offer better job opportunities, we have been striving to enhance relationship with large customers in urban areas. In Q2, we will expand this initiative beyond urban areas into suburban areas to increase the number of job offerings.
Excuse me, t he next is the sales trend. Q1 sales of personnel recruitment service in total grew by 7.6%. The progress made is in line with the plan, so there's no change in the full year plan.
In terms of the shareholder return and the dividend. For both interim and year end. There's no change to the guidance. We are conducting share buybacks. Along with that, when you combine both, the total return ratio is expected to be 110%. It's JPY 40 and 48 . The full year dividend is expected to be JPY 88 . As I explained at the beginning, AI Agent using generative AI. We are going to do a press conference for the media. I would like to show you a video that was created for the press briefing.
[Presentation]
Well, I hope you like the video AI Agent service. This I think is a service that has very strong potential, so I hope you felt that potential too. This is kind of off the track, but my daughter, who is in fourth grade, I asked her to try out the AI Agent service because we just started the service and the question was that I'm only in elementary school, but she asked if there is a job I can do and this is the result that came back.
How should I say even as a human being, I'm not sure if someone can give this kind of a response. I think we were able to build an AI Agent that sits alongside with a user, and so I am very grateful if you would try it out too. Thank you.