Phoenix New Media Ltd. Sponsored ADR Class A Aktie

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Phoenix New Media Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to your first speaker today, Muzi Guo from Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Welcome to Phoenix New Media's Earnings Conference Call for the Second Quarter of 2026.

Today's call will begin with an overview of our quarterly results, followed by a Q&A session. Our quarterly financial results and the webcast of this conference call are available on our website at ir.ifeng.com. Before we continue, please note the safe harbor statement included in our earnings press release, which applies to any forward-looking statements made during this call. Unless otherwise stated, all figures mentioned are in RMB.

Joining me today are our CEO, Li Qi and our CFO, Edward Lu.

I will now pass the call to Mr. Li for his opening remarks. I will provide translation as needed.

[Foreign Language]

[Interpreted] Hello, everyone, and welcome. I am Li Qi, the new CEO of Phoenix New Media. It is my pleasure to join you for the first time in this role. I look forward to maintaining ongoing communication with our investors. Together with the management team, I will continue to focus on Phoenix' core strengths including our professional content capabilities, brand influence and commercial capabilities. We will continue to improve operational efficiency, strengthen our business foundation and enhance long-term value for our shareholders.

Next, I would like to invite our CFO, Edward, to walk you through our business performance and key developments during the quarter.

Okay. Thank you, Muzi. In Q2 2026, we saw continued strong demand from brand advertisers for high-quality content. As information becomes more fragmented and the user attention becomes harder to capture, high-quality content that effectively connects brands with audiences has become increasingly valuable. Leveraging our long-standing content expertise, we are deepening our strategy of driving business value through quality content.

This quarter, several major international events demonstrated our ability to produce high-quality content and respond quickly. During President Trump's visit to China, Phoenix provided full live coverage of the key activities and captured the critical moments in real time. Our video who were the Chinese company representatives at Trump's welcome dinner achieved over 40 million views on Douyin and WeChat channels, while also leading to additional business opportunities with major brand clients. This is a good example of how premium journalism can translate into commercial value.

Our systematic approach to major event coverage from preparation and the live reporting to follow-up analysis continue to differentiate us. During the Iran conflict, we delivered a fast, high-quality coverage through breaking live broadcast and special programs. For the 2026 World Cup hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States, we built comprehensive content and marketing products around the tournament. Our original sports content IP generated more than 75 million impressions across the web, attracted over 10 leading brands and achieved significant commercial growth.

In addition, our reporting on the Shanxi Xingyuan mine accident demonstrated our investigative capabilities and journalistic expertise in major public events with multiple exclusive stories being republished by mainstream media. Our original content IPs continue to demonstrate long-term value. Programs such as Journey and Analyst Conversations have built strong audience engagement and the brand influence through authentic storytelling and in-depth conversations. We believe premium branded content creates value beyond product promotion by connecting brands with meaningful social issues and compelling stories.

Our flagship interview IP show, Wisdom Talk, has operated for 8 seasons and maintained 8 consecutive years of brand partnerships. The advertiser base of this premium IP has expanded from traditional liquor brands into industries, such as automobile and technology, demonstrating that strong content IPs are not only effective audience acquisition but also long-term commercial assets with repeat monetization potential. As our content capabilities continue to build, commercial value is being unlocked across key verticals. Following the shift toward more in-depth original vertical videos on WeChat Channels, our tech channel achieved quarterly revenue growth of over 100% year-over-year.

Our ifeng Car Research Lab established differentiated expertise with professional such as Xiaomi, EV's airbag testing and delivered strong revenue growth through event marketing around the Beijing Auto Show. Meanwhile, our large-scale event IPs also performed well. The Her Power Weibo topic approached 200 million reads and the Greater Bay Area Finance Forum achieved over 100 million impressions and was republished by industry organizations. AI is now integrated into our content workflow. We use AI to support content preparation, production and post production. This allows us to maintain high quality while improving efficiency and optimizing costs.

We are also enhancing content distribution, user reach and operational precision to maximize content value and commercial conversion. Looking ahead, our priorities remain clear: continue investing in trusted content, deepen the use of AI across our workflow, expand monetization opportunities in key verticals and strengthen the connection between our content capabilities and commercial value. We believe this effort will further reinforce FENG's position as a trusted media company. and support sustainable long-term growth.

This concludes our CEO, Mr. Li's prepared remarks.

I will now walk you through our financial performance for the second quarter of 2026. All figures mentioned will be in RMB. Our total revenues were RMB 216.7 million representing a 15.8% increase year-on-year from RMB 187.1 million. Specifically, net advertising revenue were RMB 146.9 million compared to RMB 153.3 million in the same period of last year. Paid services revenues were RMB 69.8 million, representing a 106.5% increase year-on-year from RMB 33.8 million primarily driven by revenue generated from our digital reading services offered through mini programs on third-party applications.

Cost of revenues decreased by 2.6% to RMB 92.6 million from RMB 95.1 million in the same period of last year. Gross margin for the second quarter improved to 57.3% from 49.2% in the same period of last year. Total operating expenses were RMB 129.4 million reflecting a 30.4% increase year-on-year from RMB 99.2 million. This increase was primarily due to higher sales and marketing expenses incurred for the digital reading services mentioned earlier. Loss from operations were RMB 5.3 million compared to RMB 7.2 million in the same period of last year. Net income attributable to ifeng was RMB 6.5 million compared to net loss attributable to ifeng of RMB 10.4 million in the same period of last year.

Moving on to our balance sheet. As of June 30, 2026, the company's cash and cash equivalents, term deposits, short-term investments and restricted cash totaled RMB 990 million or approximately USD 145.9 million. Finally, I'd like to provide our business outlook for the third quarter of 2026. We forecast total revenues to be between RMB 220.9 million and RMB 235.9 million. For net advertising revenues, we project between RMB 151.9 million and RMB 161.9 million. While for paid service revenues, we project between RMB 69 million and RMB 74 million. This forecast reflects our current and preliminary view, which is subject to change and the potential uncertainties.

This concludes the prepared portion of our call. We are now ready for questions. Operator, please go ahead.

[Operator Instructions] First question comes from [ Alexandra Liu ] from First Shanghai.

Congratulations on -- for this quarter's achievement. So my question is related with advertising. So the company achieved year-on-year revenue growth this quarter. So we are looking at the advertising business more broadly, the picture seems more nuanced. Can you walk us through the dynamics, what's creating pressure and what's giving you confidence and how you see the near to medium-term trajectory?

Thank you, Alexandra. The advertising environment was mixed this quarter in some categories such as Chinese liquor, the timing of certain contract renewal fell outside Q2, which had an impact on the quarter. But we don't see any fundamental change in the underlying demand. At the same time, we saw growth in several other areas. It's coming from deeper vertical content, event-based campaigns helping brands reach a larger audience and the branded content IP that support long-term client relationships. We are seeing these models work across a range of categories, including technology, automotive, finance and consumer brands. So we believe this is more of a structural shift rather than just a short-term thing. Going forward, we think that content-driven monetization will be an important area of growth.

Our focus is to expand the models that have worked well for us build relationships with clients who see ifeng as a content partner rather than just a media channel. We are also expanding into new advertiser segments where our lightweight fast-turn campaigns have proven effective. I hope I have answered your questions, Alexandra. Thank you again.

I see no further questions at this time. I will now turn the conference back to Muzi Guo.

Thank you. This concludes our Q&A session and conference call. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us. Thank you for joining us, and have a great day.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

[Portions of this transcript that are marked [Interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Phoenix New Media First Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

I would now like to turn the conference over to your first speaker today, Muzi Guo from Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator. Welcome to Phoenix New Media's earnings conference call for the first quarter of 2026. Today's call will start with an overview of our quarterly results, followed by a Q&A session.

Our quarterly financial results and the webcast of this conference call are available on our website at ir.ifeng.com. Before we continue, please note the safe harbor statement in our earnings press release, which applies to any forward-looking statements made during this call. Unless otherwise stated, all figures mentioned are in RMB.

Joining me here today are our CEO, Mr. Yusheng Sun; and our CFO, Mr. Edward Lu.

I will now pass the call to Mr. Sun for his opening remarks. I will provide translation as needed. [Foreign Language]

[Foreign Language]

[Interpreted] And I will provide translation. Thank you all for joining today's call. In the first quarter, we stayed focused on strengthening our core capabilities, leveraging major domestic and international events to improve both our brand influence and user engagement.

Our ability to respond quickly to breaking news and deliver structured coverage of key events reflects solid execution and content competitiveness. We also continue to integrate technology into our content operations to improve efficiency. Finally, we achieved revenue growth and narrowed operating losses with overall performance improving year-over-year.

Next, I would like to invite Edward to present specific highlights and achievements of Q1.

In Q1, we continued to capitalize on major domestic and international events to reach more audiences, increase the impact of our content and strengthen our brand and long-term user engagement. In major event coverage, the biggest highlight this quarter was our strong execution.

During the U.S., Israel, Iran conflict, we responded quickly and coordinated well across teams and formats. We delivered real-time updates, live broadcast, in-depth commentary and feature stories at key moments with both speed and accuracy. Our time line product and multilingual reporting system played a key role, supported by fact-checking and on-the-ground reporting.

Our daily reports from Tehran added a strong sense of immediacy, and we were the first to conduct an in-depth exclusive interview with the Chinese seafarers stranded in the Strait of Hormuz. This showed our ability to deliver international news directly from the field.

Overall, what mattered most was not any single viral piece, but the entire process. It proved that our international news reporting system is now at industry-leading level of maturity and responsiveness.

During the 2 sessions, we combined structured interviews with delegates with targeted issue-based content planning. This helped us reach a wider audience. Several short videos on public policy topics made it on to trending lists, showing we can balance authoritative mainstream reporting with content that appeals to the general audience.

In vertical content, sports coverage performed very well during major events. Around the Milan Winter Olympics and other key tournaments, we used the full platform coordination to significantly increase exposure and engagement. Total Winter Olympics exposure exceeded 250 million. Our Abu Dhabi Masters coverage achieved full integration across fixed TV, PC, mobile app and third-party video platforms. It attracted over 1.2 million live viewers with 3 topics entering 6 trending lists, generating more than 15 million total reads.

We also saw once again that high-quality human-centered content can still stand out in today's crowded information environment. Our Journey series is a good example. One recent episode alone reached over 80 million views and triggered follow-up reports from major national media outlets. This kind of impact is hard to replicate and remains one of our core strengths.

On the commercialization front, we made solid progress through our in-depth participation and coverage at major international exhibitions. In Q1, through our active media coverage of CES, MWC and AWE, both our client numbers and revenue in tech sector grew substantially. This success validated our business model of international exhibitions plus premium content plus monetization in the tech sector and give us valuable experience that can be applied to other vertical fields.

On the product side, our mobile app saw a clear increase in user engagement, driven by major news events. To meet users' need for both speed and better understanding, we improved our content structure and distribution. We added new sections such as On the Scene and World Affairs, which made it easier for users to find content and helped improve retention.

Overall, our direction remains unchanged. We are building a more stable and scalable content system, one that can deliver reliable output during major news cycles, create strong original content and adapt to new technologies. At the same time, we are steadily accelerating commercialization.

Looking ahead, we will keep focusing on content quality, strengthen our IP portfolio, improve operational efficiency, and pursue steady and sustainable growth.

This concludes our CEO, Mr. Sun's prepared remarks. I will now walk you through our financial performance for the first quarter of 2026.

All figures mentioned will be in RMB. Our total revenues were RMB 188.8 million, representing a 21.6% increase year-on-year from RMB 155.2 million. Specifically, net advertising revenues were RMB 125.3 million, representing a 4% increase year-on-year from RMB 120.5 million. Paid services revenues were RMB 63.5 million, representing an 83% increase year-on-year from RMB 34.7 million, primarily driven by revenue generated from our digital reading services offered through mini programs on third-party applications.

Cost of revenues decreased by 5.1% to RMB 87.8 million from RMB 92.5 million in the same period of last year. Gross margin for the first quarter improved to 53.5% from 40.4% in the same period of last year. Total operating expenses were RMB 130.9 million, reflecting a 29.5% increase year-on-year from RMB 101.1 million. This increase was primarily due to higher sales and marketing expenses incurred for the digital reading services mentioned earlier.

Loss from operations was RMB 29.9 million compared to RMB 38.4 million in the same period of last year. Net loss attributable to ifeng was RMB 16.8 million compared to RMB 29.7 million in the same period of last year.

Moving on to our balance sheet. As of March 31, 2026, the company's cash and cash equivalents, term deposits, short-term investments and restricted cash totaling RMB 955.8 million or approximately USD 138.6 million.

Finally, I'd like to provide our business outlook for the second quarter of 2026. We forecast total revenues to be between RMB 195.7 million and RMB 210.7 million. For net advertising revenues, we project between RMB 141.8 million and RMB 151.8 million, while for paid service revenues, we project between RMB 53.9 million and RMB 58.9 million. This forecast reflects our current and preliminary view, which is subject to change and substantial uncertainties.

This concludes the prepared portion of our call. We are now ready for questions. Operator, please go ahead.

[Operator Instructions] First question comes from Alice Tang of First Shanghai.

We saw that the company achieved year-on-year revenue growth in Q1. So could you please share the highlights and challenges in advertising revenue and your views on the near to medium-term outlook, please?

Alice, actually, in Q1, we did see some budget adjustment pressure in certain categories, but we are happy to see that several high potential consumption and service sectors delivered solid growth, which helped offset the pressure.

Areas like liquor, Internet services, automotive, home appliances, finance and retail all grew year-on-year. We are especially encouraged by the strong momentum in emerging AI application sectors.

Also, our deeper involvement in international sports events and exhibitions also performed well and really showcases our progress in international marketing. We are seeing a clear shift in brand marketing. It's moving away from just chasing traffic toward building deeper emotional connections with users and creating lasting brand value. This plays directly to our strength in content marketing.

In the near to medium-term, we think macro headwinds and budget pressure may continue for a while. We will keep optimizing our client mix and focus on areas with stronger resilience and better growth prospects. We will also push on internationalization to sharpen our competitive edge. Overall, I think we will make steady progress through 2026. Thank you, Alice.

I see no further questions at this time. I will now turn back to Muzi for closing remarks.

Thank you. This concludes our Q&A session and conference call. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us. Thank you for joining us today, and have a great day.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.

[Portions of this transcript that are marked [Interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Phoenix New Media Fourth Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

I'd now like to turn the conference over to your first speaker today, Muzi Guo from Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Welcome to Phoenix New Media's Earnings Conference Call for the Fourth Quarter of 2025. Today's call will start with an overview of our quarterly results, followed by a Q&A session. Our quarterly financial results and the webcast of this conference call are available on our website at ir.ifeng.com.

Before we continue, I would also like to point to the safe harbor statement in our earnings press release, which also applies to any forward-looking statements made during this call. Unless otherwise stated, all figures mentioned are in RMB.

Joining me today are our CEO, Mr. Yusheng Sun, and our CFO, Mr. Edward Lu. I will now pass the call to Mr. Sun for his opening remarks. I will provide translation as needed.

[Interpreted] Thank you all for joining today's call. Over the past quarter, we have continued to increase our inputs in in-depth reporting, professional commentary and the planning of major thematic coverage with the aim of enhancing the quality and influence of our core columns and flagship products. At the same time, we have optimized and upgraded key events and branded initiatives, promoting greater integration between our content and product formats. In an environment characterized by information overload and increasingly similar traffic-driven content, the value of professional in-depth and credible journalism becomes even more important. We will stay focused on our core strength and strategy while managing risk prudently and advancing our transformation in a disciplined and steady manner to build a more sustainable foundation for the future growth.

Now I will hand over to Edward for a more detailed update on our business progress and financial results.

Okay. Thank you, Muzi. In the fourth quarter, influenced by macroeconomic environment, so overall market competition remained intense. Against this backdrop, we are focused on strengthening our core capabilities, reinforcing our positioning as a mainstream media online, refining our original content system and advancing our technology and collaboration initiatives.

In terms of content reporting, we maintained high frequency, professional coverage, further reinforcing our influence on major political and current affairs topics. With outstanding performance in coverage of events such as the Maduro incident and the development of U.S.-Iran conflict. In addition, as a historic moment of China's Fujian aircraft carrier interim service, we delivered an expert live broadcast that attracted over 1.8 million views and produced in-depth analytical content on the technological development, strengthening our voice in professional commentary.

We have always focused on social issues, fulfilling the public value of media through continuous observation and reporting. For example, 1 of our reports focused on Regency International in Hangzhou, known as the first building for mass influencer leasing and a typical example of the rapid growth of live streaming e-commerce. By systematically analyzing the structural changes behind it, we published an in-depth report, which garnered over 10,000 reads and prompted an official government response, contributing to broader public discussion.

In original content, deeply reported human-centered stories remained the strongest foundation for our brand and audience engagement. For example, 1 episode of our program journey told the story of a father who after his son's suicide joined an online chat group to reach out to other struggling young people and help them found hope again, garnering 120 million views. Another episode featured ongoing coverage of public figures [ tightly battled ] with ALS, capturing the resilience of human spirit with a single episode reaching 145 million views. These and other programs form a key part of our broader content portfolio, which is structured as a complementary matrix, different formats and themes support 1 another, elevating brand value and providing a more stable foundation for monetization.

Beyond content production, we also strengthened our presence in high-end events through cooperation with platforms such as The World Chinese Entrepreneurs Convention. We integrated key resources to enable synergy between content and offline events. Our Action League Charity Gala marked its tenth anniversary, receiving coverage from major offline, including CCTV and other TV stations, and bringing together leaders from multiple net national level foundations, further reinforcing our organizational capability and social influence in the public welfare space.

In content distribution, our presence across major platforms continue to expand, undergoing average live per cost -- per post increased by 54% quarter-over-quarter, with total followers growing to 18.9 million. Our WeChat video account also saw strong follower growth, bringing the total to over 6 million. On our app, AI applications now support content aggregation and trending topic operations, improving distribution, efficiency and user engagement. Interaction volume increased by over 10% and average time spent per user rose 8% quarter-over-quarter. Meanwhile, our cooperation within Huawei's HarmonyOS ecosystem provides us with a more stable traffic entry point and deeper technological collaboration.

Looking ahead to 2026, we will continue to prioritize capability, building and structural optimization. We remain focused on developing original content as our core assets, leveraging technology as an efficiency driver and steadily advancing our business upgrade.

This concludes our CEO, Mr. Sun's prepared remarks. I will now walk you through our financial performance for the first quarter of 2025. All figures mentioned will be in RMB.

Our total revenues were RMB 222.3 million, representing a 1.9% increase year-on-year from RMB 218.1 million. Specifically, net advertising revenues were RMB 181.1 million compared to RMB 189 million in the same period of last year. Paid services revenue were RMB 41.2 million representing a 41.6% increase year-on-year from RMB 29.1 million, primarily driven by revenue generated from our digital reading services offering through mini-programs on third-party applications.

Cost of revenues decreased by 18.6% to 98.6% (sic) [ RMB 98.6 million ] from RMB 121.1 million in the same period of last year. Gross margin for the fourth quarter improved to 55.6% from 44.5% in the same period of last year.

Total operating expenses were RMB 99.2 million, reflecting a 9.9% increase year-on-year from RMB 90.3 million. This increase was primarily due to higher sales and marketing expenses incurred for the digital reading services mentioned earlier.

Income from operations increased by 265.7% to RMB 24.5 million from RMB 6.7 million in the same period of last year. Net income attributable to ifeng was RMB 45.3 million compared to net loss attributable to ifeng of RMB 3.6 million in the same period of last year.

Moving on to our balance sheet. As of December 31, 2025, the company's cash and cash equivalents, term deposits, short-term investments and restricted cash totaled RMB 1.02 billion or approximately USD 145.6 million.

Finally, I'd like to provide our business outlook for the first quarter of 2026. We forecast total revenue to be between RMB 160 million and RMB 175 million. For net advertising revenues, we project between RMB 111.2 million and RMB 121.2 million. While for paid service revenues, we project between RMB 48.8 million and RMB 53.8 million. This forecast reflects our current and preliminary view, which is subject to change in the substantial uncertainties.

This concludes the prepared portion of our call. We are now ready for questions. Operator, please go ahead.

[Operator Instructions] We will now take the first question from Alice Tang of First Shanghai.

So what are the key challenges the company is currently facing? And how do you view the outlook for the advertising market in 2026?

Alice, thank you for the question. Actually, in Q4, advertising budgets declined among major Internet platforms while the automotive and the liquor sectors were relatively weak. At the same time, we achieved growth in consumer categories, such as personal care, tourism and entertainment and home appliances, partially offsetting declines in traditional sectors and reflecting opportunities arising from industry shifts.

In the near term, market challenges persist, and we will focus on optimizing our client mix while exploring new growth drivers. Internationalization has become a key differentiator for us. In the fourth quarter, the light of Chinese events launched alongside The World Chinese Entrepreneurs Convention strengthened our connections with overseas business communities, and enhanced both brand influence and collaboration potential.

On the innovation front, demand for short-term video continues to grow, and we will enhance content differentiation and conversion capabilities through our social media metrics. At the same time, AI technologies are being increasingly applied to content production and the data analytics to improve marketing efficiency, and this will remain a key focus going forward.

As consumption continues to upgrade, we will prioritize sectors with stronger budget potential, including home appliances, transportation and daily consumer goods, while aligning with things such as technological innovation and green consumption, supported by our credibility and authoritative platform, we remain an important partner for brands seeking differentiated communication.

Thank you. There are no further questions, and this concludes the Q&A session. I'll now turn the conference back to Muzi Guo for her closing comments.

Thank you. We have now come to the end of our conference call and Q&A session. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us. Thank you for joining us today, and have a great day.

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect your lines.

[Portions of this transcript that are marked [Interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]

Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Phoenix New Media Third Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded.

I'd now like to turn the conference over to your speaker today, Muzi Guo from Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Welcome to Phoenix New Media's Earnings Conference Call for the third quarter of 2025. Today's call will begin with an overview of our quarterly results, followed by a Q&A session. Our quarterly financial results and the webcast of this conference call are available on our website at ir.ifeng.com.

Before we continue, please note the safe harbor statement in our earnings press release, which applies to any forward-looking statements made during this call. Unless otherwise stated, all figures mentioned are in RMB.

Joining me today are our CEO, Mr. Yusheng Sun; and our CFO, Mr. Edward Lu. I will now pass the call to Mr. Sun for his opening remarks. I will provide translation as needed.

[Foreign Language]

[Interpreted] Thank you for joining today's call. This quarter, we stayed focused on both quality content and brand impact. Our reports around major social and cultural moments continue to perform well across platforms, while flagship events also achieved strong market response. From trending coverage to large-scale campaigns, we helped clients amplify their presence and connect with audiences in meaningful ways. These efforts reflect our ability to combine storytelling, marketing and innovation, keeping our brand relevant and resilient in a cautious ad market.

Now I'll hand over to Edward for a more detailed update on our business progress and financial results.

Okay. Thank you, Muzi. In the third quarter, through high-quality original content, innovative product experiences and influential offline events, we further strengthened our influence and reputation in the media industry while achieving solid progress in both commercialization and user engagement. Our newsroom once again demonstrated its agility and depth in covering major news and breaking events. During the highly anticipated September 3 military parade, our 5-hour live broadcast on Phoenix military channel drew over 32 million total views across platforms, underscoring the strong audience trust in our in-depth coverage.

During Typhoon Huajiasha, our live stream delivered continuous 3D reporting where our Tang Bohu column reported the natural disaster with sharp investigative storytelling that inspired public reflection and trended widely on Weibo, achieving both depth and broad reach. On the international front, the Phoenix Insights column provided balanced analysis of the U.S.-Russia Summit through exclusive interviews with leading experts from the U.S., Russia and Ukraine. The series was reported by influential publications such as Beijing Culture Review, earning strong recognition among professional and academic readers.

Our media influence and the capabilities to integrate resources also supported significant growth in the public and the regional sectors. In early September, as the exclusive media partner and co-organizer, we successfully hosted the Shanxi Culture and Tourism Development Promotion Event centered on integration, collaboration and consumption. The 2-day event generated more than 2 billion online impressions in 29 trending mentions across major platforms, rejuvenating Shanxi's culture tourism brand with a modern image.

Also in September, we hosted the Phoenix Bay Area Finance Forum 2025 in Guangzhou. The forum achieved over 720 million total impressions and appeared on 3 trending lists. It trended simultaneously on Weibo, Kuaishou and Douyin, highlighting its strong brand influence. The [ Phoenix Star Awards ] also triggered enthusiastic organic promotion from awardees and broad coverage from mainstream business and finance media outlets, creating a second wave of dissemination.

Our key IP programs continued to deliver both impact and reputation throughout Q3. Our mini documentary journey continued to resonate emotionally through human-centered storytelling. Its feature on the sausage vendor angle experimented with a new program plus live stream commerce model, trending on Weibo with over 30 million total views. [ RizTalk ] maintained its premium standards with every original piece entering trending charts. The feature interview with cancer survivor and the vlogger, [indiscernible] was especially noted for its worth and humanity, earning widespread praise as one of the most moving stories of the quarter.

Meanwhile, [ Key Talk Alliance ] expanded its international footprint through participation in global events such as EFA Berlin, empowering brands across markets and effectively transforming content influence into commercial value. While our flagship event generated large-scale offline buzz, our daily operations continued converting that momentum into sustained user engagement. The number of our followers grew steadily across multiple platforms. For instance, our Phoenix video accounts gained nearly 0.5 million new followers this quarter alone, showing strong traction on video platforms.

Our presence on RedNote also continued to build consistently expanding our reach among younger audiences. From a product standpoint, we further optimized the APP experience around reading, interaction and seamlessly integration with the HarmonyOS ecosystem. Our strategic cooperation with HarmonyOS began to bear fruit. Phoenix news app was showcased as one of few premium apps at Huawei's new product launch. Together with Huwei's Xiaoyi team, we co-developed an AI news feature and launched the Phoenix TV highlights app. Our quick news product will go live soon, completing our HarmonyOS product suite.

In summary, in the third quarter, we strengthened our core advantages in authoritative reporting and brand events while achieving measurable progress in user engagement, commercial innovation and ecosystem expansion. Looking ahead, we will continue to prioritize content innovation and IT creation, enhance brand influence, diversify monetization channels and improve operational efficiency to drive sustainable long-term growth.

This concludes our CEO, Mr. Sun's prepared remarks. I will now walk you through our financial performance for the third quarter of 2025. All figures mentioned will be in RMB. Our total revenues were RMB 200.9 million, representing a 22.3% increase year-on-year from RMB 164.3 million. Specifically, net advertising revenues were RMB 159.3 million, representing a 7.3% increase year-on-year from RMB 148.4 million. Paid services revenues were RMB 41.6 million, representing a 161.6% increase year-on-year from RMB 15.9 million, primarily driven by revenue generated from our digital reading services offered through mini programs on third-party applications.

Cost of revenues increased by 3.1% to RMB 105.2 million from RMB 102 million in the same period of last year. Total operating expenses were RMB 109 million, reflecting a 23.6% increase year-on-year from RMB 88.2 million. This increase was primarily due to higher sales and marketing expenses incurred from the digital reading services mentioned earlier.

Loss from operations was RMB 13.3 million compared to RMB 25.9 million in the same period of last year. Net loss attributable to iFeng was RMB 4.9 million compared to RMB 18.5 million in the same period of last year.

Moving on to our balance sheet. As of September 30, 2025, the company's cash and cash equivalents, term deposits, short-term investments and restricted cash totaled RMB 1 billion or approximately USD 140.5 million.

Finally, I'd like to provide our business outlook for the fourth quarter of 2025. We forecast total revenues to be between RMB 205.9 million and RMB 220.9 million. For net advertising revenues, we project between RMB 171.4 million and RMB 181.4 million, while for paid service revenues, we project between RMB 34.5 million and RMB 39.5 million. This forecast reflects our current and preliminary view, which is subject to change and substantial uncertainties.

This concludes the prepared portion of our call. We are now ready for questions. Operator, please go ahead.

[Operator Instructions] We will now take our first question from the line of Alice Tang from First Shanghai.

The company's advertising business managed to grow in the third quarter despite market pressure. Could you please share how this was achieved? And what's your outlook for the ad market in Q4?

Thank you, Alice. It's a good question. Actually, achieving growth in advertising revenue under current conditions was not easy. Many clients are still very cautious with their budgets and their marketing is changing faster than before. This brought more challenges for us.

Actually, we focus on 2 main areas. First, each client industry sales unit now works more closely with related content teams, sharing insights and taking joint responsibilities for business results. This helped us respond to clients faster and more precisely. Second, we followed the marketing trends and used our media influence to connect with more key clients. For example, in Q3, we organized the Shanxi Culture and Tourism promotion event, which involved the provincial government and multiple partners, strengthening our ability to serve public sector clients.

Another highlight is our [ Star Anchor ] program. It started last year and has tripled its revenue this year. The program helps brand fans and train new generation hosts, meeting the rising demand for strong content creator. These efforts show how we are securing our position in the market. In the fourth quarter, competition will remain intense and cost control will stay critical, but we will keep focusing on innovation, improving our service capabilities and doing our best to maintain steady performance.

Thank you, there are no further questions at this time. I'll now turn the conference back to Muzi Guo for her closing comments.

Thank you. We have now come to the end of our earnings conference call for the third quarter of 2025. If you have any additional questions, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. Thank you for joining us today, and have a nice day.

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect your lines.