The Zhitong Finance App learned that on August 19, Kuaishou Technology (01024) announced the results for the second quarter of 2026 and held a results conference call. According to financial reports, Kuaishou's total revenue for the second quarter reached 35.5 billion yuan; core business revenue, including online marketing services and other services, mainly e-commerce and Keling AI, increased 7.4% year-on-year; adjusted net profit reached 3.9 billion yuan, and the adjusted net profit margin was 11%.
In terms of users, the average daily active users of the Kuaishou app reached 412 million in the second quarter, and the average monthly active users reached 797 million, a record high. Core commercial revenue continues to grow, Keling AI commercialization continues to grow rapidly, AI also continues to improve the efficiency of its main business and organizational operations, and Kuaishou's management resilience is further evident.
At the performance conference call, Cheng Yixiao, founder and CEO of Kuaishou Technology, further introduced business developments such as Keling AI, organizational AI upgrades, online marketing, and e-commerce operations; Kuaishou CFO Jin Bing revealed the company's cash flow, capital expenditure, and shareholder return plans.
Keling's AI revenue increased by more than 200% year over year, and AI capabilities are deep in business and organizations
In the second quarter of 2026, Keling AI's revenue exceeded 850 million yuan, an increase of more than 200% over the previous year. As of June, Keling AI had surpassed 100 million global users, covering 224 countries and regions, and nearly 50,000 enterprise customers. The simultaneous growth in user size, enterprise customers, and revenue further validates Keling AI's product capabilities and commercialization potential in the professional creation market.
In the second quarter, the Keling AI 3.0 series model launched the industry's first native 4K video direct output function, which directly outputs high-resolution images without complicated post-processing for professional creative scenarios such as film, television, and advertising. Keling 3.0 Turbo further improves creative efficiency and reduces creation costs while ensuring dynamic quality and audio-visual synchronization; Keling MCP and CLI support AI agents to schedule Keling AI for batch creation, expanding workflow automation and intelligent orchestration capabilities.
Cheng Yixiao, founder and CEO of Kuaishou Technology, said that since its inception, Keling AI has focused on professional content creators to improve the work efficiency of professional groups through video generation technology. Keling AI has strong ability to understand cues and control spectral mirroring, and can help users achieve accurate and consistent creative expression; in terms of image quality performance and production scalability, it can also meet the needs of professional creators for high-quality video content. Following the recent completion of independent financing, Keling AI's competitiveness in the industry will be further strengthened.
In addition to Keling AI, Kuaishou is driving AI deeper into its main business and organizational operations. Cheng Yixiao explained that in June 2026, Kuaishou employees used various self-developed AI agent products accounting for more than 92%, and R&D technicians contributed 60% to AI code. In the second quarter, the average demand delivery cycle for Kuaishou R&D technicians was shortened by more than 10% compared to the first quarter. The average number of code lines submitted by AI developers per day increased by more than 70% month-on-month, and the AI contribution rate for new code was over 60%.
For industrial recommendation systems, Kuaishou launched Agent-driven R&D closed-loop AgentX. In the past, recommendation strategies, from idea submission to launch, required multiple steps such as data analysis, program design, code modification, experimental configuration, effect observation, and attribution review. AgentX can be the executing entity for recommendation iterations, allowing engineers to focus more on goal setting, key review and advanced judgment, and improving the iterative efficiency and effectiveness of recommendation strategies.
The in-house general agent myFlicker has completed Skill-based integration of important internal systems and has begun to fully serve all employees. The enterprise-level large model service and development platform “Kuaishou Wanqing” supports Kuaishou's internal AI applications while providing large model infrastructure services to external enterprise customers, and has achieved good revenue growth. On OpenRouter, the world's largest model aggregation platform, the various open source models provided by Kuaishou Wanqing ranked in the highest number of calls.
Content supply opens up room for growth, and AI deepens marketing and business operations
In the second quarter, core commercial revenue, including online marketing services and other services centered on e-commerce and Keling AI, increased 7.4% year-on-year, continuing to support Kuaishou's basic business market. Among them, on the one hand, AI is driving the supply of new content and the growth of marketing demand, and on the other hand, it is also deepening marketing delivery and merchant operation links to improve the efficiency of the platform to meet commercial needs.
Content consumption is one of the areas where this change is most evident. As AI lowers production costs and creative thresholds, the supply of skits and comics is rapidly expanding. In 2025, the number of Kuaishou comic series was 60,000, and it is expected to reach 500,000 in 2026; as of June this year, the supply of skits, including reality skits and AI skits, has increased more than fivefold compared to January. The increase in content supply further drove the release of relevant marketing demand. Online marketing consumption for short dramas increased by more than 100% year-on-year in the second quarter; in July 2026, the average daily exposure of Kuaishou skits reached 230 million.
Cheng Yixiao, founder and CEO of Kuaishou Technology, said that the skit industry still has room for further growth and will gradually shift from quantitative expansion to content quality improvement in the future. As the share of the IAA model increases, skits are developing into an ecological business with both content consumption value and advertising carrying capacity. In the future, it may also expand in the direction of IP derivation, interactive drama, virtual companionship, and cultural tourism, cultural and creative integration.
At the same time as the supply of content is growing, Kuaishou is also improving the efficiency of handling marketing requirements through AI. In the second quarter, Kuaishou built a scenario-based marketing material production agent, driving AIGC's short video marketing consumption to increase by more than 70% year-on-year; the generative recommendation model and intelligent bidding model were further expanded to scenarios such as live streaming, search, and pan-shelf, improving the matching and conversion efficiency of marketing content with target users.
The role of AI in marketing is also moving from a single point of competence to a complete workflow. On the material production side, Kuaishou can upgrade from “finding marketing video materials” to “creating videos for users” by opening up user interest modeling and video production; on the customer management side, AI has begun to enter business opportunity insight, product selection suggestions, marketing diagnosis, effect review, and customer service to help customers and service providers standardize and automate tasks that rely heavily on manual labor, and further improve operational efficiency.
Cheng Yixiao further stated that in the e-commerce business, Kuaishou will continue to improve the merchant ecosystem from the supply side, and brands and industrial belts are two key investment directions this year. For different groups such as brands, large merchants, and small and medium-sized start-ups, Kuaishou will help different types of businesses find a more suitable business path for themselves through differentiated products, policies, and resource support.
In the second quarter, the number of new Kuaishou merchants increased by nearly 10% month-on-month, the number of new merchants moving in the next month increased by nearly 30% year-on-year, and the number of matches between products and talents in the distribution warehouse increased by more than 20% year-on-year. At the same time, AI capabilities are also further entering the daily operations of merchants. In the first half of 2026, more than 850,000 merchants used free AI management tools provided by Kuaishou, covering scenarios such as product selection, material production, business diagnosis, intelligent delivery, and intelligent customer service. Kuaishou will continue to improve the efficiency, stability, and certainty of merchant operations through supply structure optimization, hierarchical merchant operations, and intelligent tools.
Continue to maintain positive free cash flow in the second half of the year to balance business expansion with shareholder returns
While continuing to invest in AI, Kuaishou maintains prudent financial discipline. As of June 30, 2026, the company's total usable capital, such as cash and cash equivalents, time deposits, financial assets and restricted cash, reached a total of 121.3 billion yuan, and net cash from operating activities reached 5.9 billion yuan in the second quarter.
Kuaishou CFO Jin Bing said that after completing independent financing, Keling AI will adopt a more flexible form of cash flow expenditure, including leasing to meet more computing power requirements, further optimize capital allocation, and improve the group's overall cash flow situation to a certain extent.
Kuaishou will continue to adhere to a sound financial strategy in terms of cash management and capital expenditure. Jin Bing said that most of the company's capital expenditure was already concentrated in the first half of the year, and free cash flow was positive in the second quarter. The goal is to continue to maintain positive free cash flow at the group level in the second half of the year.
In terms of shareholder returns, since 2026, Kuaishou has completed a total of approximately HK$2 billion share repurchases and HK$3 billion in cash dividends. Total shareholder returns are close to the level of the full year of last year. Jin Bing said that while firmly advancing AI strategic investment, Kuaishou has achieved a steady increase in shareholder returns, and the total shareholder return for the full year of 2026 is expected to exceed last year.
Jin Bing said that while fully embracing the AI era, Kuaishou will continue to establish a firm financial security bottom line, reduce costs and increase efficiency with prudent financial discipline, maintain abundant and healthy cash reserves, and achieve a healthy balance between business expansion and shareholder returns with a sound financial structure, laying the foundation for long-term high-quality growth.