On the evening of August 29, Career International (300662.SZ) presented its performance report for the first half of the year 2024. During the reporting period, the company achieved operating income of 5.541 billion yuan (USD 774 million), an increase of 16.55% year-on-year(YoY); the net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company, after deducting the cost of employees’ restricted stock units and non-recurring gains and losses, was 71 million yuan (USD 9.9 million), an increase of 0.78% compared to the same period last year.

In the first half of 2024, the company actively adjusted its strategy, and continuously pursued lean operation to reduce costs and increase efficiency. The growth trend of its domestic business was obvious, with operating income jumping by 24.64% YoY and net profit attributable to the parent company increasing by 20.93% YoY.

Offline Business Grew Against the Trend, Focusing on the Talent Supply for New-Quality Productive Forces

During the reporting period, the demand in the domestic mid-to-high-end recruitment market slightly recovered. The company seized the new opportunities brought by the industrial transformation and upgrading, and continued to cultivate in strategic emerging industries such as intelligent manufacturing, electronic information, artificial intelligence and big data. It fully utilized its core competitiveness in recruitment, with a focus on the extensive demand for top innovative talents generated by the rise of new-quality productive forces. Especially, the company has achieved remarkable results in recruiting high-end management talents such as CXOs urgently needed in the digital and intelligent transformation process of central and state-owned enterprises as well as private enterprises. Also, it has introduced lots of top-notch talents for national research institutes. In the first half of 2024, the company successfully recommended nearly 7,800 mid-to-high-end management and technical personnel to their domestic and foreign customers.

During the reporting period, the overall revenue of the company's offline business achieved growth against the trend, with a YoY increase of 16.59%. Among that, the flexible staffing service sector continued to show strong growth momentum. In the first half of 2024, the income of flexible services increased by 18.70% YoY, becoming an important engine driving the overall growth of the company. Thanks to its deep accumulation and efficient operational capabilities in the flexible staffing service, the company had more than 38,700 registered outsourced employees, who were dispatched for a total of 234,376 times by the end of the reporting period. Among them, the number of technical and R&D positions, as the key layout direction of the company's outsourcing business, increased by nearly 6,500, further consolidating the company's leading role in the field of technology talent services.

Industrial Ecological Advantages Gradually Emerged, with Significant Enhancement of Digital Intelligence Efficiency

In the first half of 2024, the company continued to adhere to digital intelligence empowerment, with a total investment in technology of 79 million yuan (USD 1.1 million), of which approximately 41.15% was used for internal digital construction to improve the efficiency of offline talent services; 58.85% was invested in the development and upgrade of digital products for the link, conversion, and application of data and traffic. During the reporting period, the company's technical services increased by 9.05% YoY.

In terms of internal digital construction, the company further initiated the research and development of the Match System. Relying on the strong search and understanding ability of the large model, and integrating its self-developed CRE (Career International Recruitment Embedding) language model and keyword sparse retrieval and other technologies, the Match System achieved efficient recall and intelligent sorting between candidates and positions, and between positions. It has been applied in all scenarios such as business development, talent sourcing, and internal collaboration, significantly improving the overall operational efficiency.

At the same time, the company integrated the "Tongdao" series of vertical recruitment platforms into the human resources industry networking platform of "HEWA", which promoted closed-loop talent services via the connection, conversion, and application of data and traffic between the platforms and the ecosystem. During the reporting period, the platforms reached more than 37,500 various types of customers, a YoY increase of 21.83%; managed more than 201,600 recruitment positions, a YoY increase of 9.34%; and linked nearly 14,100 eco partners, a YoY increase of 21.10%.

An Efficient Global Service Synergy was built with Global Resource Allocation Optimized

During the reporting period, under the guidance of the basic internationalization strategy, the company actively responded to the national "Belt and Road Initiative", and further built its global talent service system. Career International kept expanding its global business territory in response to the human resource needs brought about by the globalization of Chinese large companies and the expansion of the local clients of its overseas subsidiaries. By the end of the reporting period, the company had set up 10 branches in multiple countries including the United Kingdom, the United States, the Netherlands, Malaysia, Singapore, Germany, and Australia.

Relying on this strong overseas business layout, the company keenly captured the opportunity of the internationalization wave of Chinese enterprises, especially in key fields such as new energy, new energy vehicles, intelligent manufacturing, high-tech, biomedicine, and infrastructure construction, where the overseas expansion intention of the customer group was very strong. The company fully utilized the advantages of its localized service teams around the world to effectively connect various needs, closely collaborated with its overseas companies such as Investigo, Caraffi, and BioTalent, to form an efficient, collaborative, and comprehensive overseas service system, and provide solid talent guarantee and strategic support for Chinese enterprises expanding overseas.

In the “Resolution of the CPC Central Committee on Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively to Advance Chinese Modernization” adopted at the third plenary session of the 20th CPC Central Committee, it was proposed to uphold and fulfill “two commitments” unswervingly, releasing more positive signals in promoting innovative development, and the integration between the real economy and the digital economy. As a listed company, Career International will learn and understand such guidance thoroughly. The company will keep improving the allocation efficiency of human resource elements, promoting innovation in management, technology, service, and product, and strengthening the collaborative development of the human resource industry. It aims to empower the country's future characterized by new-quality productive forces with high-caliber talents and contribute to the realization of Chinese modernization.