Good day, and welcome to the Cheetah Mobile second quarter 2021 conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Sheryl Zhang, Investor Relations Director of Cheetah Mobile. Please go ahead, ma'am.
Thank you, Andrew. Welcome to Cheetah Mobile second quarter 2021 earnings conference call. With us today are Mr. Sheng Fu, Chairman and CEO, and Mr. Thomas Ren, CFO. Following management prepared remarks, we will conduct a Q&A session. Before we begin, I refer you to the safe harbor statement in our earnings release, which also applies to our conference call today as we will make forward-looking statements. At this time, I would now like to turn the conference call over to our CEO, Mr. Sheng Fu. Please go ahead, Fu Sheng.
Thank you, Sherry. Hello, everyone. In the second quarter of 2021, Cheetah Mobile's revenue was CNY 212 million, which is within our previous guidance. It is worth mentioning that it is for the first time in the past 10 quarters we realized quarter-over-quarter revenue growth. For our internet business, our membership maintained a strong momentum in both membership member and revenue. We are happy to see increase in renewal rate and more and more members has been choosing three month, six month, and even longer time membership. This shows our members are satisfied with our superior experience we deliver. The second advertising model has been successfully transformed to a diversified model of advertising plus subscription. We will stick to this strategy to expand the size of our membership business. In addition, our own mobile platform, we have been developing and launching new products to attract more high-value young users.
These products have efficiently increased user time and brought in revenue for the company. In general, although in past two years, we experienced huge external challenges. We have efficiently reshaped our internet business into right direction. As you see, this quarter, we have resumed sequential quarterly revenues growth. Besides resume domestic internet business we just mentioned, we also have two service to utilize our overseas experience and resource to empower Chinese company to develop business outside China. One service assist domestic companies to launch advertisement on large overseas advertising platform. The other service provides an integrated cloud platform for enterprise so they can seamlessly alternate through multi-cloud platforms at low cost. With our service, companies can improve operation and save costs. We expect these two business will take off the second half of 2021.
For our AI business, we have made good progress with business model of shopping mall coupon selling robots. We created a brand new inside shopping mall marketing model to attract customers for merchants and have got really positive feedback. So far, our robots see more than 1,000 kinds of coupons for more than 1,000 merchants in nearly 40 cities all over the country. Weekly average GMU has increased for consequently. Oh, sorry.
No, thank you.
Consecutive 11 weeks with a compounded growth rate of about 20%. Next, we plan to deepen our focus on high-quality shopping malls and merchants. In this model, merchants can attract customers. Customers can get good benefits, and we can achieve sustainable growth. This is a real multi-win situation. Lastly, I would like to mention that with great effort, the company's operational efficiency has been significantly improved. In the past quarter, the gross margin has been increasing and the non-GAAP operating loss has been narrowed. We will keep working to get the best outcome with very reasonable input. As of June 30th, 2021, our cash position was around $259 million, and the long-term equity investment was about $374 million. The abundant cash enables the rally of our internet business as well as the rapid development of our AI and other business.
We are confident in the second half of 2021, we will get out difficult position and achieve all-round growth in our business. With that, I will now turn the call to our CFO, Thomas Ren, to go through details of our fourth.
Second quarter, sorry.
Second quarter financial results.
Thank you, Fu. Hello everyone. Thank you all for joining us today. I will walk you through our key financial highlights. Please note that unless stated otherwise, all money amounts are in RMB terms. As Sheng just mentioned, we delivered a healthy quarter. In the second quarter of 2021, our total revenues were CNY 212 million, representing a year-over-year decrease of 46% and a quarter-over-quarter increase of 7%. The revenue was within the range of our previous guidance. To explain the reasons behind the changes, let me break down our revenues into Internet and AI and others sectors. Revenues from the company's Internet business decreased by 46% year-over-year and increased by 9% quarter-over-quarter to CNY 204 million in this quarter. The year-over-year decrease was due to the company's strategic efforts to diminish the gaming-related business in past quarters.
The quarter-over-quarter increase was mainly from the growth of our membership business and the commercialization of several new utility products. Revenues from AI and others were CNY 8 million in the second quarter of 2021, representing a 59% year-over-year decrease and a 27% quarter-over-quarter decrease. The year-over-year decline was primarily attributable to the planned drop in sales of consumer-facing AI-related products. The quarter-over-quarter decrease was from the expected volatility during the transition of business model. Although in the last couple of months, we have seen some preliminary success in the business model of shopping mall coupon-selling robots, fluctuations could happen in the short term as we are still optimizing this business model. Turning to costs and expenses, the following discussion of results will be on a non-GAAP basis, which excludes stock-based compensation expenses.
The use of non-GAAP measures in this context will help us to better present the results of our operating performance without the effect of non-cash items. For financial information presented in accordance with US GAAP, please refer to our earnings release. Our operating loss has been further narrowed with consistently improved operational efficiency. In the second quarter of 2021, our operating loss was CNY 56 million, narrowed from CNY 133 million in the same period of last year, and CNY 58 million in the previous quarter. Cost of revenue decreased by 56% year-over-year and 15% quarter-over-quarter to CNY 50 million in the second quarter of 2021. The decrease reflects our ongoing efforts to streamline the business and improve the operational efficiency. Research and development expenses decreased by 58% year-over-year and 33% quarter-over-quarter to CNY 47 million in the second quarter of 2021.
The decrease was due to the deconsolidation of certain gaming business in past quarters. At the same time, the technologies to support our current AI business have been relatively well-developed. Comparing with past quarters, the investment in AI-related R&D was lower in this quarter. Selling and marketing expenses decreased by 41% year-over-year, and increased by 52% quarter-over-quarter to CNY 121 million in the second quarter of 2021. This year-over-year decrease was attributable to the streamlining of our business and the strategic cost-cutting. While the quarter-over-quarter increase was mostly from the promotion of our new utility products. General and administrative expenses decreased by 47% year-over-year, and increased by 6% quarter-over-quarter to CNY 52 million in the second quarter of 2021.
The year-over-year decrease was mainly due to the streamlining of our business and our effective expense control, while the quarter-over-quarter increase was caused by a one-time reversal of share-based compensation expenses due to forfeitures in the first quarter of 2021.
Now, let me turn to our balance sheet. As of June 30th, 2021, we had cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash, and short-term investments of $259 million and long-term equity investments of $374 million. We have maintained a strong balance sheet as always, which makes it possible for us to invest across our core business to support our long-term growth plans. For our third quarter revenue guidance, we currently expect total revenues to be between RMB 180 million and RMB 230 million. Please note, this forecast reflects our current and preliminary views and is subject to change. This concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, we are now ready to take questions. Thank you.
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 are using a speakerphone, please pick up your handset before pressing the keys. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. When asking the question, please state your question in Chinese first, then repeat your question in English for the convenience of everyone on the call. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Our first question will come from Melody Chan of Jefferies. Please go ahead.
Thanks, management, for taking my question. I have two questions. The first one is on the advertising sector outlook, and the second one is about our AI shopping more robot business. Can management share a bit more on the future trends, please? Thank you.
Thank you, Melody, for your question. I will answer your first question regarding the advertising industry, and I think Sheng Fu will answer your second question regarding the AI business. For the advertising industry, recently in Q2, as we all know, there were some occasional COVID-19 cases in several cities across China. Therefore, we can see some negative impact on advertising for travel and transportation. Also because of the recent regulations on K-12 education, so we can see the online education industry is gradually stepping out of the market. However, we still see industries very active, such as internet service, consumer goods, cars, and so on. For us, as we mentioned, we have been transforming our single advertising business model to a diversified business model of both advertising and subscription.
Currently, for some of our utility products, we can see more than half our daily cash revenue received is from membership or user subscription. Also, as we mentioned, the renewal rate is up and more and more members are choosing longer-term memberships. This will be our continuing strategy in the long run. At the same time, as mentioned, we also launched some new utility products. These products revenues are mostly from the user paying models. Hope this answers your first question.
[Foreign language]
Okay. Let me translate this part. Based on our recent exploration, we realized that in the shopping mall, our robot can provide to the customers inquiries of location and also the information about the local merchants. We think there is a great chance we can do a really successful business model on the shopping mall.
[ Foreign language]
The local traffic in the shopping malls are increasing in the recent years.
[ Foreign language]
Yeah. The size of the local shopping malls are becoming bigger and bigger. It will be difficult for customers when entering the shopping mall. There is a lack of a channel to obtain merchant information.
[ Foreign language]
Our robot in the shopping malls, especially the noisy environment in the shopping malls, our robots can provide good voice interaction with the customers so that they can quickly obtain the merchant information in this shopping mall.
[ Foreign language]
This also helps the shopping mall to improve its service quality.
[ Foreign language]
When a customer is inquiring information regarding certain merchants, we can also recommend some coupons for the merchant he is asking.
[ Foreign language]
This can bring more traffic to the local merchants in the shopping mall.
[ Foreign language]
Yeah, this is a multi-win solution for the three parties, i.e., the shopping mall, the merchant, and the customers.
[ Foreign language]
Yeah, as we all know, the local merchants nowadays, their user acquisition is mostly from the big internet platforms, and the cost is becoming heavier for the local merchants. We can provide quick channel for the merchants to obtain local traffic.
[ Foreign language]
So far, our robots are selling more than 1,000 kinds of coupons for more than 1,000 merchants in nearly 40 cities all over the country. The weekly average GMV has increased for consecutive 11 weeks with a compounded growth rate of about 20%.
[ Foreign language]
Yeah, we believe this kind of business model can increase or grow substantively. Also, we can create a service platform based on the shopping mall environment.
[ Foreign language]
That's our answers about your second question. Thank you.
As there are no further questions at this time, I'd like to hand the conference back over to the management team for closing remarks.
Thank you, Andrew. Thank you all for joining us today. If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact us. Thank you. Bye.
The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation and you may now disconnect.