In the past first quarter of 2024, under the condition that the external environment is still complex and grim, China's economy has achieved steady recovery, and GDP growth in the first quarter has exceeded expectations. However, the structural differences in economic development are still obvious, and the overall employment pressure remains.

Against this background, fellow hunters (6100)DoublebonuspokerfreeHK) hand over its first-quarter report card, which reflects the pressure and challenges faced by the company at the performance level, as well as the adaptability and stability of the company as a whole.

Combined with the recent strengthening of Hong Kong stocks, especially Internet technology and other sectors, the company's bottom-building consolidation phase is expected to have a positive impact on market confidence and boost market expectations.

1. The platform is ecologically robust and strengthens the AI capacity.

Focusing on the company's core performance indicators, first of all, at the revenue level, the financial report shows that the company achieved revenue in the first quarter.Doublebonuspokerfree.71 billion yuan, of which, due to the decline in rebates in 2023 and the limited recovery of confidence in mid-and high-end recruitment in the first quarter of 2024, the company's enterprise-end revenue fell year-on-year in the first quarter, about 401 million yuan, down 11.2 percent from the same period last year. There was also pressure on the company's overall gross margin, which was about 365 million yuan during the period, down 4.6% from the same period last year. The decline in profit showed a narrowing trend, with a net loss of 13.2 million yuan in the first quarter, down 72.7 percent from 48.27 million yuan in the same period last year.DoublebonuspokerfreeThe net loss attributable to the company's equity shareholders in the first quarter was 10.1 million yuan, down 76.2% from the loss of 42.38 million yuan in the same period last year.

However, the flip side of the pressure on the performance side is that the company still has a "strong foundation" around its users, laying good expectations for its repair in the general environment of economic recovery.

On the one hand, through the continuous optimization of platform services and products, Hunting has attracted more enterprise users and enhanced the enterprise activity of the platform.

According to the financial report, as of March 31, 2024, the number of users of hunting and verification enterprises reached 1.327 million, an increase of 12.9% over the same period last year.

The growth of enterprise users directly reflects the professional ability and service advantages of Hunting in meeting the recruitment needs of enterprises and providing efficient recruitment solutions. This growth not only reflects the strong attraction of recruitment in the recruitment market, but also indicates that the entire mid-and high-end recruitment market is gradually stabilizing and rebounding.

On the other hand, among individual users, the number of individual users increased to 97.8 million in the first quarter, a year-on-year growth rate of 7.6 per cent.

It is worth noting that in previous reports, individual users recruited data from recruitment platforms. In order to more accurately show the total number of individual users of the recruitment group, since its annual report in 2023, individual users have changed to cover the combined data of the recruitment platform and online vocational qualification training business (Saiyou). Over the past quarter, Hunting has given continuous attention and investment to the recall and activity improvement of platform users. This only enhances the participation of existing users, and with the steady growth of the number of individual users, it also provides a solid user base for the company's long-term development and market competitiveness.

Fundamentally speaking, individual users and enterprise users directly determine the long-term value of the recruitment platform. The performance of recruitment in these two dimensions benefits from its continuous investment in user experience and service quality, as well as the rapid response to market demand.

By constantly optimizing the service process, enhancing product functions, and timely adjusting the market strategy, recruitment can meet the needs of users, so as to attract and retain more users, and ensure the sustained growth of the platform and the competitiveness of the industry. In this regard, the financial report also mentioned that the company continues to polish products and improve matching efficiency according to the characteristics of current market demand, so as to meet the recovery of the market with a more perfect product matrix.

Among them, the deep integration and application of AI technology is one of the highlights of the financial report.

Under the blessing of AI, it not only brings the improvement of platform recruitment efficiency and user experience, but also expands the depth and breadth of its services, and opens up a new growth space for its development.

In this regard, the financial report also mentioned the successful application of a series of practical cases.Doublebonuspokerfree:

Among them, AI product "Super chat" effectively helps enterprises to intelligently and quickly reach target candidates and obtain intentions. Since its launch, it has issued more than 160000 orders, serving about 26% of paying customers, and maintaining a high delivery rate.

AI intelligent interviewer Doris is not only highly suitable for campus recruitment scenarios, but also suitable for consumer goods, urban services, manufacturing and other industries, helping enterprises to improve the interview efficiency in mass recruitment.

Duoshou RCN products introduce AI to hatch the function of digital assistant, and cooperate with headhunting consultants to intelligently screen resumes, inquire about intentions and obtain contact information, so as to save time and cost of headhunters and improve delivery efficiency. The internal testing phase has brought about a 25% improvement in the operational efficiency of headhunters' orders, and the product will be officially launched in the second quarter and empower more hunter customers.

It can be said that with the company's continuous integration and innovation in AI technology, the competitive strength of recruitment in the human resources service market will be further consolidated.

2. The logic of value increment under triple support.

Standing down, there are three key logical supports for the follow-up points of hunting and hiring.

First, macroeconomic recovery and the support of policies related to stable employment.

With the gradual recovery of the economy, the job market is becoming more and more active, especially with the adjustment of new and old momentum, the rise of a number of emerging industries has brought new opportunities for recruitment platforms that focus on mid-and high-end talents. In other words, the increasing demand for professionals in emerging industries provides a broad market space and business growth point for recruitment.

In addition, a series of policies related to stable employment issued by the government also provide a good external environment for the human resources service industry. As an important bridge between enterprises and job seekers, recruitment will also benefit from it. Through cooperation with government projects, it can provide more value-added services to meet the diversified needs of enterprises and job seekers. At the same time, with the help of policy support, we can get the opportunity to expand the service content and deepen the service level, so as to achieve the growth of business volume and the promotion of market share.

Second, the platform user growth, fundamental repair brought about by the "alpha" cash.

Through the continuous optimization of the platform ecosystem and the continuous improvement of service experience, especially the cost reduction and efficiency increase brought by the integration of AI technology and the comprehensive activation of business momentum, Hunying will greatly enhance the company's core competitiveness and consolidate its moat advantages, which in turn will bring positive effects to the further expansion of market share and the accelerated release of performance momentum.

Against the current background of a positive macro economy, the release of operating recovery potential after policy-level support and performance bottoming will also bring good market expectations, thereby strengthening the company's performance in the capital market and gaining more "alpha".

Third, the bull market in Hong Kong stocks, especially the "beta" opportunities brought about by the continued heating up of the Internet technology sector.

At present, the overall Hong Kong stock market is showing a positive trend. The return of overseas funds, the influx of funds from the south, and the combined advantage of low valuation of Hong Kong stocks have brought a lot of expectations to the subsequent market. The long-silent Internet technology sector is also experiencing a continuous warming up, which has also brought additional beta opportunities for the subsequent performance of the recruitment. As a part of the field of Internet technology, recruitment can take advantage of the overall upward trend of the market and gain more attention.

3. Conclusion

Currently, the valuation of recruitment is still at a low level. Futu market shows that the company's PS is only 0.61 times, while the industry average is 3 times. It is worth noting that the company's recent trading volume of Hong Kong stocks has continued to increase significantly, indicating a bullish trend of market funds. Considering the resilience of the company's short-term results and the long-term growth potential laid around AI technology application, user growth and market expansion, the subsequent performance is believed to be quite interesting.

It is worth mentioning that Haitong Securities (600837) and Founder Securities (601901) have also expressed optimism about the company in the research report. Haitong Research Report pointed out that the company's barriers are solid and it is expected to usher in a performance turning point as the mid-to-high-end recruitment market picks up. Founder Securities mentioned the company's leading high-end online recruitment platform, a highly sticky customer base and an efficient BHC business model. In the future, the company will focus on "platform +SaaS+" on the basis of adhering to the "one vertical and one horizontal" strategy."+ Service" model develops to achieve mutual empowerment of the three.