36Kr Holdings Inc. (KRKR)
NASDAQ: KRKR · Real-Time Price · USD
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May 1, 2026, 1:38 PM EDT - Market open
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Earnings Call: Q3 2021

Dec 9, 2021

Operator

Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by for 36Kr Holdings Inc.'s Q3 2021 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After management's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. Today's conference call is being recorded. I will now turn the call over to your host, Yang Li, IR Manager for the company. Please go ahead, Yang.

Yang Li
IR Manager, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

Well, thank you very much. Hope everyone welcome to 36Kr Holdings Q3 2021 earnings conference call. The company's financial and operational results were released earlier today and have been made available online. You can also view the earnings press release by visiting the IR section of our website at ir.36kr.com. Participants on today's call will include our Co-Chairman and CEO, Mr. Dagang Feng, and our Chief Financial Officer, Ms. Lin Wei. Mr. Feng will start the call by providing an overview of the company and performance highlights of the quarter in Chinese, followed by an English interpretation. Ms. Wei will then provide details on the company's financial results before opening the call for your questions. Before we continue, please note that today's discussion will contain forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. As such, the company's results may be materially different from the views expressed today. Further information regarding this and other risks and uncertainties is included in the company's prospectus and other public filings as well with the U.S. SEC. The company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required under applicable law. Please note that 36Kr earnings press release and this conference call include discussion of the audited GAAP financial measures as well as audited non-GAAP financial measures. 36Kr's earnings press release contain a reconciliation of the audited non-GAAP measures to the audited GAAP measures. Please note that all our numbers are in RMB. I will now turn the call over to our Co-Chairman and CEO, Mr. Dagang Feng. Paul, please go ahead.

Dagang Feng
Co-Chairman and CEO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

[Non-English content]

Yang Li
IR Manager, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

Thank you. Hello, everyone.

Thank you for joining our Q3 earnings conference call.

Dagang Feng
Co-Chairman and CEO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

[Non-English content]

Yang Li
IR Manager, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

In the Q3 , as a prominent brand and pioneering platform dedicated to serving new economy participants in China, we witnessed the rise of many new industry segments, including hardcore technologies, new consumption, the new carbon economy and the metaverse, a hot topic globally. The world of venture capital is as exciting and as thrilling as ever. In particular, the establishment of the Beijing Stock Exchange has created a more favorable capital raising environment for small and medium-sized enterprises, especially for the specialized, sophisticated, distinctive and innovative enterprises in China. Against the backdrop of uncertainties related to COVID-19 resurgence and heavy flooding in some regions of China, we observed many industry leaders actively embracing these changes, quickly adjusting to the challenging macro environment and courageously undertaking their corporate social responsibilities.

As we have been for the past 11 years, 36Kr were in the thick of it during the quarter, building connections and communications for industry participants and providing our customers and users with a complete ecosystem of innovative service and content.

Dagang Feng
Co-Chairman and CEO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

[Non-English content]

Yang Li
IR Manager, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

In the Q3, our total user traffic remained at a historically high level, with average monthly PVs jumping to 849 million, up 50% year-over-year. This marks our 14th consecutive quarter of PV growth, a powerful testament to our content's continued user resonance and our growing brand influence. We have expanded our content presentation formats as well as topic coverage to further broaden our well-rounded platform with unique innovative products and service offerings.

Dagang Feng
Co-Chairman and CEO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

[Non-English content]

Yang Li
IR Manager, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

We also continue to expand our content matrix during the quarter and launch Digital 36Kr, our official WeChat account dedicated to digital transformation phenomena and dynamics. In addition, our WeChat account appealing to younger users or youth supported a wide array of trending topic content for diversifying our user group. Recently, China's official media outlets Global Times picked up our content for the first time. They excerpted and translated our All Youth Report white paper on staying up late and published to foreign media, which demonstrated our content's rising influence.

As of the end of the quarter, we have expanded our high quality content offerings have extended to a wider range of areas, including new consumption, auto, real estate, advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence, new energy, autonomous driving, enterprise services, medical and healthcare, as well as primary and secondary markets related content, all providing the suitability, readability, quality, and usefulness that cater to users' diverse needs.

Dagang Feng
Co-Chairman and CEO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

[Non-English content]

Yang Li
IR Manager, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

We have been working tirelessly to develop our short form video business, which we believe will be a new growth engine for both commercialization and user base expansion. We published dozens of short form videos during the Q3 , attracting more than 6 million followers across all our online channels. Particularly our short form video on in-depth analysis of China's telecommunications industry demonstrated a standout success, accumulating 10 million video viewers across all channels. It was among Bilibili's most popular videos overall, and one of the top three hottest video in the knowledge section during the week of its launch. We also created videos in conjunction with Hou Lang, examining the lifestyles of the young generation that attracted an enormous number of video viewership and create internet buzz.

Dagang Feng
Co-Chairman and CEO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

[Non-English content]

Yang Li
IR Manager, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

We also continue to make positive progress in live streaming. For instance, our new knowledge program launched in collaboration with Kuaishou features finance and business breaking news as well as capital market stories. To this end, we live streamed expert discussions on the latest developments in industries such as commercial aerospace, new e-commerce, new consumption, film and TV entertainment, which engage a broader user base and generated massive attention. To illustrate, the number of new followers gained from a single live streaming session of new knowledge program was 30 times higher than our average daily add of new followers, making us an indispensable paying commercial content provider on Kuaishou.

Dagang Feng
Co-Chairman and CEO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

[Non-English content]

Yang Li
IR Manager, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

High-quality content requires omni-channel distribution empowerment. This has been our philosophy from day one. In Q3 , we produced multiple blockbuster content pieces with our trending topic content on Zhihu accumulating over 10 million PVs. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, we collaborated with People's Daily, the top official media outlets nationwide, to produce a H5 piece on moon exploration, which garnered 50 million total user exposures. In addition to well-known platforms such as WeChat, Weibo, Zhihu, Douyin, and Kuaishou, we have also been exploring collaborations with new distribution partners. In the Q3, we cooperated with renowned mobile phone brands such as Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO and vivo to enhance our presence on their display channels and news feeds, which helped the cell phone brands expand paying commercial content and increase our user exposure among target customers.

Dagang Feng
Co-Chairman and CEO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

[Non-English content]

Yang Li
IR Manager, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

We are also making steady progress with our new products. Our secondary market products launched in the Q2 of 2021 continue to perform well in the Q3 . Following the new energy vehicle industry summit held in partnership with Industrial Securities, we team up with Shenwan Hongyuan Securities to host a forum themed as E-commerce 4.1: The Rise of National Brands in the Age of New Consumption. In addition, one of our new products, 36Kr Capital π, featured notable domestic securities companies such as CICC, Industrial Securities, and [indiscernible] Securities to share their investment insights.

Dagang Feng
Co-Chairman and CEO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

[Non-English content]

Yang Li
IR Manager, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

Furthermore, we accelerated our coverage of Metaverse content in the Q3. On November 24, 2021, at our dual headquarters in Shenzhen, we held 36Kr's fourth Metaverse Focused Industry Conference, leading with discussion on the extended reality ecosystem and value chain, new social networking in the virtual world, and AI and virtual beings. The conference attracted a large cohort of Metaverse followers and facilitated connections and communication between Metaverse investors and companies. At this conference, we also announced that 36Kr will launch limited edition digital collectibles in collaboration with Tencent's [inaudible] app. 1,124 lucky users will receive a digital collectible to commemorate November 24th, an important milestone in our evolution, the day we start our journey into the exciting new Metaverse concept.

Dagang Feng
Co-Chairman and CEO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

[Non-English content]

Yang Li
IR Manager, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

On the international front, we continue to explore overseas business opportunities through our subsidiary, 36Kr Global. In addition to Southeast Asian markets, 36Kr Global made its first foray into Europe, Australia and New Zealand in the Q3 . These horizontal expansions are set to facilitate more new economy and tech companies entry into new international markets. It will also help boost overseas companies access to Asian markets, thus promoting deeper commercial collaboration between Asia and the rest of the world. Moreover, following our proprietary content inclusion on the Bloomberg Terminal, KrASIA content was also adopted by Dow Jones, a testament to our growing influence beyond China.

Dagang Feng
Co-Chairman and CEO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

[Non-English content]

Yang Li
IR Manager, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

In summary, we are delighted to see 36Kr's product and service offering has covered the entire enterprise life cycle, spanning from assisting startups in PR exposure, investment financing, pre-listing consultation and IPO, to what follows post-IPO, such as raising stock visibility and building shareholder value, supporting customer acquisition, government incentives and overseas expansion. We have helped six major customer communities consisting of unicorn and startups, TMT giants, investment institutions, local governments, traditional enterprises, and individual clients connect and succeed. On top of our full skill presence and sustained development efforts, more and more entrepreneurs and industry leaders value our brand influence, and we have firmly established our position as a leading new economy service provider.

Dagang Feng
Co-Chairman and CEO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

[Non-English content]

Yang Li
IR Manager, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

Next, I'd like to share our latest updates with respect to commercialization. During the Q3 , our three major business segments each delivered solid performance and our innovative new business continued making steady thrust.

Dagang Feng
Co-Chairman and CEO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

[Non-English content]

Yang Li
IR Manager, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

Despite multiple headwinds in the Q3 , including COVID-19 resurgence and macroeconomic uncertainties, our advertising business demonstrated its resilience and vitality, achieving solid year-over-year growth in each of the number of advertising customers and average revenue per customer.

Dagang Feng
Co-Chairman and CEO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

[Non-English content]

Yang Li
IR Manager, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

We have taken a two-fold approach to our advertising business. First, we leverage our content and brand influence to gain market recognition. Second, we continuously explore innovative forms of company promotion to efficiently increase both the number of advertising customers and average revenue per advertising customer. For instance, in the Q3 , we helped Intel promote its Evo platform-based laptops with short-form videos. Our short-form video team brought the complex technology to life with simple, easy to understand visual language, earning accolades from Intel's global team. This collaboration with Intel set a record in our average revenue per advertising customer in a stand-alone short-form video marketing campaign. We believe that a short-form video model can support us to raise our ARPU and drive commercial collaborations with more prominent international and domestic brands.

Dagang Feng
Co-Chairman and CEO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

[Non-English content]

Yang Li
IR Manager, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

In addition to short-form video, we have also been proactively exploring ways to better empower various brands through live streaming content. Our collaboration with Huawei Cloud in the Q3 is a perfect example. By turning a live streaming technical discussion into what looked like a variety show, the new format utilized fun field discussions to present complicated and obscure technologies, facilitating better user comprehension. Meanwhile, we cooperated with Intel to advertise its corporate clients' practical applications of this technology via live streaming interviews with its China partners. This innovative form of live streaming in turn boosts our commercialization capabilities.

Dagang Feng
Co-Chairman and CEO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

[Non-English content]

Yang Li
IR Manager, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

During the Q3, we also attracted new advertising partners through our Hou Lang WeChat account. For example, we worked with Zhihu to advertise its new columns and help iQIYI promote their new video program, further amplifying each brand's presence in the marketplace. Hou Lang's established as an advertising partner just shortly after its launch validates that our influence on younger generation has been well received and recognized by branded customers.

Dagang Feng
Co-Chairman and CEO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

[Non-English content]

Yang Li
IR Manager, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

Turning to our enterprise value-added services. We maintained steady performance during the Q3 while making meaningful progress in innovative new service offerings.

Dagang Feng
Co-Chairman and CEO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

[Non-English content]

Yang Li
IR Manager, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

Our Q3 offline activities include this September's China Investor Future Summit, which achieved double success in terms of revenue and influence. We invited a distinguished group of mainstream investment institutions to discuss on a set of leading industry sectors, including new consumption, hardcore technology, medical care, carbon utilization and enterprise services. We also selected 36 extraordinary investors under the age of 36 with our proprietary IP 36 Under 36. With our unique IPs, we effectively establish our own VC investor community while also enhancing user stickiness and repurchase rates.

Dagang Feng
Co-Chairman and CEO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

[Non-English content]

Yang Li
IR Manager, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

We also expanded the boundaries of traditional value-added services with our new innovation and entrepreneurship competition service model, targeting government clients and large-scale industry leaders. For example, we collaborated with BYD to organize its developer innovation contest, which attracted numerous applications from talented developers and produced countless new solutions for the smart automobile industry. This contest was BYD's first step in the direction of opening up the innovation process, supporting developers to access BYD's resources and its smart open ecosystem with a winning arrangement.

Dagang Feng
Co-Chairman and CEO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

[Non-English content]

Yang Li
IR Manager, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

On December 13th, we will hold our annual WISE New Economy Conference in Shanghai with Era of Hardcore as a theme. The conference will feature a comprehensive summary and review of the technology and venture capital industry in 2021 with heavyweights from the venture capital world, unicorns and other well-known companies. At the same time, academia and regulatory authorities will be gathering to share their view. Not only we are collaborating exclusively with Douyin to promote this conference, Douyin will provide a high level for platform cost, promotion resources package, and traffic support including KOL endorsements. With 36Kr's leading position in the pan-commercial content industry, our premium content matrix, and Douyin's massive traffic, we believe that this year's WISE Conference will again be a major industry influencer and enhance our brand thickness and commercialization capability.

Dagang Feng
Co-Chairman and CEO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

[Non-English content]

Yang Li
IR Manager, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

In addition to offline events, consulting service business is also an important component of our enterprise value-added services. 36Kr Research Institute assisted government and corporate clients in targeted industry research and provides customized solutions based on clients' needs. On the corporate side, we released a smart mob-mobility report in cooperation with Alibaba and helped leading high-tech companies such as Baidu and Xiaomi issue industrial research reports. On the government side, we produced research reports on investment promotion and new development zone construction planning for local governments in Chongqing, Shenzhen, and Hunan, among others, providing enhanced decision-making support. Notably, in late November, our 36Kr Research Institute become a member of the Suanshu Research Alliance, which is composed of the People's Data, Boston Consulting Group, Kantar Group, CITIC Securities Construction Investment Research Institute, China International Electronic Commerce Center, and Ocean Engine.

Being part of this alliance is a testimony to our professional research capabilities with recognition from professional authorities.

Dagang Feng
Co-Chairman and CEO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

[Non-English content]

Yang Li
IR Manager, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

Next, I'd like to share the latest updates on our new business, 36Kr Enterprise Service Review Portal. Since its launch in August 2020, we have made continuous efforts to expand it into China's top enterprise service review platform tailored to companies' digital transformation needs. As of the end of September 2021, we have grown the platform to cover nearly 5,000 software applications, greatly broadening its diversity and inclusion.

Dagang Feng
Co-Chairman and CEO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

[Non-English content]

Yang Li
IR Manager, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

We also launched new features for the review portal in September, allowing merchants to manage product profiles, publish content, view list data, and contract prospective customers. As of the end of the quarter, close to 400 merchants had established a presence on the enterprise service review portal, including well-known manufacturers such as Tencent, Kingdee, Kingsoft Office, and Beisen. The merchant-oriented features essentially transform us from a content producing firm to a marketplace platform as more merchants and third parties, participants are contributing content to our platform, which is facilitating our sales efforts and commercialization.

Dagang Feng
Co-Chairman and CEO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

[Non-English content]

Yang Li
IR Manager, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

Looking at operating data metrics. Average daily active user increased by 109% sequentially, and the number of review comments increased by 57% sequentially in the Q3 , primarily due to our platform software expansion and complementary engagement. During the quarter, we published a research report on social customer relationship management, private domain traffic operation and marketing design, which showed that customer of the products covering our reports were an average of 10 times more willing to leave their personal information on portal than customer of products not covered in our report. In Q3, the average conversion rate of potential customers that provided their personal information rose from 0.08% to 0.24%, a 200% increase.

To date, the conversion rate for leads generated on the review portal is roughly twice that of leads from public domain traffic. We are convinced the future refinement of the platform will improve customer acquisition efficiency for enterprise, and help them better optimize their products based on the growing number of real user reviews.

Dagang Feng
Co-Chairman and CEO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

[Non-English content]

Yang Li
IR Manager, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

Last but not least, let's turn to our subscription service. Throughout our 11-year history, we have both observed and provided exceptional service when new economy participants begin development. Now we hope to leverage our expertise and customized service offerings to expedite entrepreneurs empowerment. To this end, we continue building our comprehensive training system for enterprises and individual entrepreneurs during the Q3 , recording 52% subscription revenue growth with a 14% year-over-year increase in the number of institutional customer and a 48% year-over-year increase in average revenue per customer.

Dagang Feng
Co-Chairman and CEO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

[Non-English content]

Yang Li
IR Manager, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

Harnessing our commercial experience, we have been working tirelessly to refine our training systems as well as our premium knowledge content library for institutional and individual subscribers. We offer online courses to individual users to improve their professional expertise in management, personal finance skills and career development. We also offer very specialized training programs for institutional subscribers. For example, we launched 36Kr Capital π at the end of October to provide a learning platform that accelerates enterprise empowerment and helps enterprises to become industry front runners.

Dagang Feng
Co-Chairman and CEO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

[Non-English content]

Yang Li
IR Manager, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

In an era of rapid technological change, despite the evolving impact of COVID-19, businesses will never stop innovating and growing. As a witness to this era, 36Kr has been fortunate to accompany a multitude of Internet companies on their development and expansion journey, and we will continue to grow alongside them as we bear witness to the advance of the age of digitalization, hardcore technology and Metaverse. The Beijing Stock Exchange will provide a better capital environment for specialized, refined, differentiated and innovative companies, facilitating their growth with a broader playing field, and raise the ceiling of the new economy service sector. As an outstanding brand and innovative platform serving new economy participants, we believe that 36Kr is well positioned to capitalize on trends in the new era ahead and unlock commercialization potential as we empower more and more new economy enterprises.

We are confident that we will help our industry partners ride this wave to future success.

Dagang Feng
Co-Chairman and CEO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

[Non-English content]

Yang Li
IR Manager, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

With that, I will now turn the call over to our CFO, Lin Wei, who will discuss our key financial results. Please go ahead, Lin.

Lin Wei
CFO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

Thank you, Paul, and hello everyone. We are very pleased to have achieved another quarter of solid financial results across all of our business segments, despite multiple headwinds, including COVID-19 resurgences and macroeconomic challenges. As Paul mentioned earlier, our advertising revenues grew steadily year-over-year in the Q3 , with increases in both the number of customers and the average revenue per advertising customer. Also, thanks to our relentless efforts to provide customized and innovative enterprise value added services, revenues from this segment increased by 57% sequentially.

Notably, our ongoing subscription product optimization resulted in a strong 52% year-over-year increase in our subscription services revenues in the Q3 . As we continue to shift our resources and focus on higher margin businesses, we saw continuous improvement in both gross profit and gross profit margin, which expanded to 56.1% from 37.9% in the same period of last year. I would also like to highlight that we ended the Q3 with a very strong cash position as we achieved positive cash flow from operations. Going forward, we will continue to solidify our industry presence and expand our monetization approaches to cultivate sustainable long-term growth. Now I will walk you through more details of our Q3 of 2021 financial results.

Online advertising services revenues increased by 4% to RMB 53.4 million in the Q3 of 2021 from RMB 51.1 million in the same period of 2020. The increase was primarily attributable to more innovative marketing solutions we provided to our customers. The number of advertising customers and the average revenue per advertising customer both achieved growth in the Q3 of 2021. Enterprise Value-Added Services revenue were RMB 22.5 million in the Q3 of 2021 compared to RMB 66.4 million in the same period of 2020. The decrease was primarily due to our continuous shift in focus towards higher margin businesses. Starting from the Q1 of 2021, we ceased to act as a principal in certain low gross margin businesses and acted solely as an agent.

As a result, revenues of such businesses were recognized on a net basis from the Q1 of 2021 onward. To increase comparability of operating results and help investors better understand our business performance and operating trends, we introduced gross transaction value as a supplemental metric to describe our business. Gross transaction value of enterprise value-added services was RMB 66.3 million in the Q3 of 2021 compared to RMB 66.4 million in the same period of last year. In particular, our consulting services revenues and offline event revenues increased by 14% and 32% year-over-year respectively, reflecting our expansion efforts in enterprise value-added services have gradually paid off. Subscription services revenues were RMB 9 million in the Q3 of 2021, representing 52% growth compared to RMB 6 million in the same period of 2020.

The increase was primarily attributable to our continuous efforts to offer high quality subscription products to our subscribers. Total revenues were CNY 84.9 million in the Q3 of 2021 compared to CNY 123.5 million in the same period of last year. Taking into consideration of the aforementioned change in revenue recognition for our enterprise value-added services, whereas there was a CNY 43 million variance between net revenues and gross transaction value, investors can actually find out that our overall business trend is upward and demonstrated solid year-over-year growth on a comparable basis. Cost of revenues were CNY 37.3 million in the Q3 of 2021 compared to CNY 76.6 million in the same period of 2020.

The decrease was primarily due to our continuous shift in focus towards higher margin businesses and recognition of certain revenues on a net basis. Gross profit was RMB 47.6 million in the Q3 of 2021 compared to RMB 46.8 million in the same period of 2020. Gross profit margin was 56.1% in the Q3 of 2021 compared to 37.9% in the same period last year. The increase was again, primarily due to our continuous shift in our focus towards higher margin businesses, as well as recognition of certain revenues on a net basis. Operating expenses were RMB 80.3 million in the Q3 of 2021 compared to RMB 63.2 million in the same period of 2020.

Sales and marketing expenses were RMB 35.5 million in the Q3 of 2021 compared to RMB 31.6 million in the same period of 2020. The increase was primarily attributable to an increase in payroll-related expenses. G&A expenses were RMB 13.9 million in the Q3 of 2021 compared to RMB 20.5 million in the same period last year. The increase was primarily attributable to an increase in the allowance for credit losses and payroll-related expenses, partially offset by the decrease in share-based compensation expenses. Research and development expenses were RMB 13.9 million in the Q3 of 2021 compared to RMB 11.2 million in the same period last year. The increase was primarily attributable to the increase in payroll-related expenses as we bolstered our research and development capabilities.

Share-based compensation expenses recognized in cost of revenues, sales and marketing expenses, research and development expenses, as well as G&A expenses totaled CNY 4.9 million in the Q3 of 2021 compared to CNY 4.6 million in the same period of 2020. Other income was CNY 1.5 million in the Q3 of 2021 compared to other income of CNY 2.5 million in the same period of 2020. The decrease was primarily attributable to a decrease in the amount of government grants received in the Q3 of 2021. Income tax expenses were CNY 14 thousand in the Q3 of 2021 compared to income tax expenses of CNY 21 thousand in the same period of last year.

Net loss was CNY 31.3 million in the Q3 of 2021 compared to CNY 14 million in the same period of last year. non-GAAP adjusted net loss was CNY 26.4 million in the Q3 of 2021 compared to CNY 9.3 million in the same period last year. Net loss attributable to 36Kr Holdings ordinary shareholders was CNY 30.5 million in the Q3 of 2021 compared to CNY 14 million in the same period last year. Basic and diluted net loss per share were both CNY 0.03 in the Q3 of 2021 compared to CNY 0.014 in the same period last year.

As of September 30, 2021, the company had cash equivalents and short-term investments of RMB 178 million compared to RMB 149.6 million as of June 30, 2021. The increase was mainly attributable to cash inflow from operating activities. Lastly, let me provide some updates on our share repurchase program. On May 6, 2020, the company announced that its board of directors authorized a share repurchase program under which the company may repurchase up to a total of 1 million of its American depositary shares, each representing 25 Class A ordinary shares. As of September 30, 2021, the company had repurchased approximately 786,000 ADSs for approximately RMB 17.5 million under this program. This concludes our prepared remarks today.

We will now open the call to questions.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel the request, please press the pound or hash key. Once again, it is star followed by one on your telephone keypads to ask a question. For the benefit of all participants on today's call, if you wish to ask your question to the management in Chinese, please immediately repeat your question in English. Once again, it is star one to ask a question. We have the first question coming from the line of Vincent Yu from Needham & Company. Please go ahead. Pardon the interruption.

Hi, the line of Vincent Yu, your line is open. Please ask your question.

Lin Wei
CFO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

Vincent, we cannot hear you. Operator, maybe we go to the next question, please, and we can go back to Vincent later. Thank you.

Operator

Certainly. The next question comes from the line of Jing Chang from CICC. Please go ahead.

Jing Chang
Research Analyst, CICC

My first question is: Enterprise value-added services cover many items, which one contributes more to the company's revenue and will be the main growth point in the future? And the second question is: Under the current macro environment, how is the advertising business in the Q4 ? Thank you.

Lin Wei
CFO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

Hi, Jing Chang. Thank you for your question. This is Lin. I will answer your first question and then, Mr. Feng will give you more color on the growth strategies and the second question. Yes, you are correct that our enterprise VAS revenues include basically three sub-categories, namely, integrated marketing, consulting and offline events. From the Q3 perspective, you can see that our biggest component for this enterprise VAS revenue actually is consulting and followed by offline events.

Consulting services and offline event services account for around 60% and 30% of the total enterprise VAS revenue, respectively. These two revenues also grow on a very fast pace. For example, the consulting services grow actually 14% year-over-year, and the offline event revenue grew further even faster with a 72% year-over-year growth rate. Going forward, I think in the near term to mid-term, these two will be the driver for our enterprise VAS revenue. Certainly, we have been mentioning that our Enterprise Service Review Portal a few times, and this is a new, very innovative and promising service that we have been incubating since last August.

This quarter, as Paul mentioned, this business have achieved a very good performance on all kinds of operating metrics. This business haven't been really commercialized only with a very minimal monetization. In the future, I think, once it's ready and once we commercialize this product, it will be another very big and important growth engine for us. Mr. Feng will give you more color on your second question. Thank you.

Dagang Feng
Co-Chairman and CEO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

[Non-English content]

Yang Li
IR Manager, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

The main growth drivers of our enterprise value added service will be consulting and offline event. Our main target clients are enterprises and governments. We already have a mature and a saleable business model. We will continue to optimize and innovate products and service offerings to achieve a higher average revenue per customer. In addition, we will continue to increase the coverage of new industries and new segments to expand our customer base. Our local sites will also play to their regional advantages and penetrate the markets of lower tier cities. It is worth noting that our newly incubated Enterprise Service Review portal is in a process of continuous optimization. We believe it will become one of our growth driver in enterprise value added services. As of the end of the Q3 , our portal had 15 major categories and more than 200 segments.

Nearly 400 merchants have established a presence on the portal, increased 109% than the Q2. The portal has showcased nearly 5,000 software applications. The average DAU increased by 109% sequentially, and the number of review comments increased by 50% sequentially in the Q3 . All of these operational statistics demonstrated the influence of our platform.

Dagang Feng
Co-Chairman and CEO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

[Non-English content]

Yang Li
IR Manager, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

In a challenging macroeconomic environment, we remain cautiously optimistic about the Q4 . In the Q3 , the entire advertising industry was under pressure, as evidenced by the varying degrees of slowdown or decline in our competitors' advertising business. In contrast, despite the overall industry slump, our advertising business achieved solid growth year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter in both the number of advertising clients and average revenue per customer. A powerful testament to our brand influence and customer recognition.

Dagang Feng
Co-Chairman and CEO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

[Non-English content]

Yang Li
IR Manager, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

The main growth points of our advertising business will be expanding the customer base and increasing the average revenue per user. We will consistently increase our coverage of new industries and new segments, which will help expand our user base. In addition, we will keep diversifying our content and advertising formats such as short video and live streaming. While we will benefit our customer, which also continue to raise the

If there is no large-scale COVID-19 resurgence by the end of this year, we believe our advertising revenue for the Q4 will continue to grow.

Jing Chang
Research Analyst, CICC

[Non-English content]

Dagang Feng
Co-Chairman and CEO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

[Non-English content]

Operator

Thank you. We have the next question coming from the line of Vincent Yu from Needham & Company. Please go ahead.

Vincent Yu
Senior Research Analyst, Needham & Company

[Non-English content]

Lin Wei
CFO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

[Non-English content]

Vincent Yu
Senior Research Analyst, Needham & Company

[Non-English content] Thank you management for taking my question.

I have two questions. One is, can management share what our key revenue contributors in terms of industries are as we are seeing that overall the China online advertising are seeing some weakness due to various reasons. What do we think about our revenue stream from this quarter and for the next few quarters? My second question is on the enterprise value-added service. For the number of enterprise value-added service customers, even though they are lower than last year, but the past two quarters we are seeing they are steadily improving. Can management share some light on what's the driver behind this improvement and what we see on these trends in Q4 and next year? Thank you.

Dagang Feng
Co-Chairman and CEO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

[Non-English content]

Yang Li
IR Manager, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

In terms of total revenue, the top five industries were consumption, lifestyle, investment institutions, entertainment and media, e-commerce and government, which contributed 57% of total revenue. The top five industries for our advertising clients are consumption, lifestyle, social networking, hardware, e-commerce and entertainment and media, which contributed a total of 91% of our revenue. No matter from total revenue side or advertising business side, we have a very healthy mix of customers. When you mentioned that there was some weakness in the overall China Internet sector, not sure if you mean education sector and online game sector. These two industries are a very small part of our business that have no impact on us.

New economy companies do make up a considerable portion of our customer base, but a significant part of our revenue also comes from Fortune 500 companies and traditional companies such as Intel, Huawei, CATL, Haier, Alibaba and Midea. We have a very healthy mix of our advertising clients. The temporary volatility in one sector or industry segment will not have an impact on us. We will consistently increase our coverage of new industries. Demand for new economy companies emerging from promising industries such as high-end manufacturing and healthcare will be strong and sustained. We will also provide new surveys and products such as short videos, live streaming, and enterprise review portal that we mentioned before.

Lin Wei
CFO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

Hi, Vincent. For your second question, this is Lin Wei. Actually, I will be answering your second question regarding the enterprise VAS revenue. It's understandable that you got a little bit confused on the, you know, the number of enterprise VAS customers and our ARPU over there. I think if you compare on a year-over-year basis, it's not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison, because if you find out from our prepared remarks, starting from this year, we actually changed a revenue recognition. Last year we have a big portion of enterprise VAS revenue, namely integrated marketing revenue. Actually, we recognize that on a broad basis.

This year we recognize on a net basis, and we even introduce the GTV, gross transaction value to be a more comparable, you know, indicator. Only, you know, if you see from our earnings release, it's not exactly comparable if you look at the, you know, number of customers and our ARPU. You are also correct that if you are looking at a sequential basis from Q1 to Q2 and from Q2 to Q3, that number, both numbers have been increasing very obviously. That's because we have been, you know, shifting away our focus from integrated marketing business, which is a low growth margin business, to more higher margin business, which namely consulting services and offline events services.

I just mentioned in my answer to the CICC analyst that, you know, consulting services and offline events account for around the 60% and 30% respectively of enterprise VAS revenues. These two also grow very strongly. The consulting services grow 14% year-over-year and the other, the offline event grows 72% year-over-year. That's why, you know, this sector has been very strong. We put a lot of emphasis on that. If you are asking about the trend in Q4, as I understand you are in the U.S., so you might not be exactly familiar with the situation in China. In Q4 there are some outbreaks of COVID-19 again. There might be some impact on our offline events.

Overall, I think Q4 is our strong season, so we should still expect growth in this category. If you look at next year, the full year 2022, that will be very obvious. This category will be upward trend again, especially with, you know, our new business Enterprise Service Review Portal. Once that's been commercialized, there will be additional, you know, revenue streams coming from these new businesses that will be in the enterprise VAS category as well. I hope this answers your question, Vincent. Thank you.

Vincent Yu
Senior Research Analyst, Needham & Company

Yes.

Yes, very clear. Yes. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Once again, ladies and gentlemen, it is star followed by one on your telephone keypads if you wish to ask a question. For the benefit of all participants on today's call, if you wish to ask a question to the management in Chinese, please immediately repeat your question in English. Once again, it is star one to ask a question. We have the next question coming from the line of Peipei Qu from Industrial Securities. Please go ahead.

Peipei Qu
Research Analyst, Industrial Securities

I will translate my question. Could management give us more color on the development of the short video and live stream parts? And how much does these two new forms contribute to the advertising sector?

Lin Wei
CFO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

Yes.

Peipei Qu
Research Analyst, Industrial Securities

How much is pool now of these two new forms? Thank you.

Lin Wei
CFO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

Judging by the Q4 revenue, our revenue from short video and live streaming both achieved year-over-year growth. Given the considerable macroeconomic challenges faced by the entire advertising industry, we are quite satisfied with our performance. Our short video business continued to be a bright spot in the Q3. We have some customers like Intel promote its product with a short form video. Feedback is great and the over CNY 2 million revenues set a record on the short video advertisement average revenue per customer. Also other customers like IBM and Financial also start to co-operate with us. The short video revenue will be higher than the revenue we earn from the WeChat account.

In the future we will be able to raise the pool with the short form video model and thus to facilitate our penetration among individual customers, also the younger customers, and expand our customer base. Next we will let our CFO to answer some of the proportion of the short video form of the revenue. Hi, Peipei, this is Lynn. I think the short form video and live streaming are new forms of advertising and grow very quickly now. In terms of revenue scale, it because it's very new, even not yet a year since we launched these businesses. Right now they account around maybe less than 10% of total advertising revenue. The growth rate again is definitely outgrowing, outperforming the average growth rate of advertising revenue.

In the future will grow and will be a bigger percentage of total advertising revenue milestone. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. As there are no further questions, I'd now like to turn the call back to the company for closing remarks.

Lin Wei
CFO, 36Kr Holdings Inc.

Thank you once again for joining us today. If you have further questions, please feel free to contact 36Kr Investor Relations through the contact information provided on our website.

Operator

Thank you. This concludes our conference call today. You may now disconnect your line. Thank you.

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