In Q1 2023, BOSS Zhipin continued to provide efficient and cost-effective talent recruitment services for enterprises. With the recovery of corporate recruitment demand, the company saw strong revenue growth in the first quarter.
KANZHUN LIMITED (hereinafter referred to as "BOSS Zhipin", HK: 02076, NASDAQ: BZ), headquartered in Beijing, recently announced its first quarterly report for 2023. In Q1 2023, the company achieved revenue of CNY 1.28 billion (USD 186 million), up 12.3% year-over-year, and calculated cash billings of CNY 1.65 billion, up 27.7% from the same period last year. Both figures set new all-time highs and exceeded market expectations. The company reported adjusted net income of CNY 245 million (non-GAAP), an increase of 102% from the same period last year, with its eighth consecutive quarter of profitability.
In Q1 2023, BOSS Zhipin experienced a notable expansion in its user base, with the inclusion of 14.61 million users who meet the platform's ideal user profile. The number of users who engage with the platform every month experienced a 57.5% increase in comparison to the previous year, resulting in a total of 39.7 million active users. The demographic of blue-collar job seekers exhibited a more rapid rate of growth. During this quarter, the proportion of newly acquired users who were blue-collar workers exceeded 40%. Thus, the collective number of blue-collar job seekers represented 31% of the overall user base on the platform. From a geographical perspective, the expansion of the pool of job seekers from lower-tier cities exhibits a more pronounced growth rate.
In terms of R&D investment, the company’s expenses in the first quarter amounted to CNY 333 million, an increase of 15% year-on-year. The intensity of R&D spending is considerably high in comparison to the 12.3% year-over-year revenue growth in the first quarter. BOSS Zhipin has invested a total of CNY 3.177 billion in research and development from Q1 2019 to Q1 2023, exceeding its overall revenue for two years in 2019 and 2020.
Founded in 2014, BOSS Zhipin is currently the largest online recruitment platform in China in terms of average monthly active users. BOSS Zhipin is a pioneer in introducing an innovative model that is changing the online recruitment industry in China - the direct recruitment model. BOSS Zhipin's mobile solution enables real-time and direct communication between bosses and employees. The company was listed on the NASDAQ in the United States in 2021. The platform allows for fast direct communication between managers and job searchers, as well as accurate recommendation results powered by proprietary AI algorithms and big data.
In recent years, BOSS has been actively promoting globalization. In 2014, BOSS Zhipin App was first launched on the Apple Store, the world's first to introduce a direct online chat mode between BOSS and job seekers, significantly improving recruitment and job search efficiency. According to the official report of BOSS Zhipin, it has accumulated a large number of foreign users, of which the United States, Japan and the United Kingdom are the three countries where BOSS Zhipin users are most active. As of December 31, 2022, the number of BOSS Zhipin-certified companies reached 10.1 million, with over 113.2 million job seekers and over 18.4 million users on the enterprise side.
The main competitors of BOSS Zhipin include Chinese companies such as Zhilian Zhaopin (Chinese: 智联招聘), 51job (Chinese: 前程无忧), and Liepin (Chinese: 猎聘); as well as international players such as Linkedin from the U.S. and Recruit from Japan.
As of press time, BOSS Zhipin closed at USD 13.87 apiece, with a market cap of USD 6.17 billion.