iFlytek's automotive business grew by 30%, with total revenue of 3.21 billion in the first half of the year

On August 14, iFLYTEK released its 2018 semi-annual report. The report shows that in the first half of 2018, iFLYTEK achieved operating income of 320,998.93 million yuan, a significant increase of 52.68% compared with 210,236.27 million yuan in the same period of 2017; and achieved a net profit of 13,060.27 million yuan, an increase of 21.74% over the same period of the previous year.

However, in the first half of this year, iFLYTEK's net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies after deducting non-recurring gains and losses was only 20.2 million yuan, a significant decrease of 74.39% year-on-year.

In this regard, iFLYTEK believes that the main reason is that in the past two years, the company has continued to increase its investment in research and development in artificial intelligence-related fields, investment in ecosystem construction, and market layout in key areas such as education, politics and law, medical care, and smart cities, which has led to increased costs.

In the first half of 2018, iFLYTEK's new R&D expenses were RMB 229 million and its new sales expenses were RMB 319 million, resulting in a significant year-on-year increase in iFLYTEK's total R&D expenses and total sales expenses in the first half of the year, reaching 63.84% and 77.10% respectively, which in turn affected the growth rate of after-tax profits for the current period.

As the company's layout in key tracks continues to increase, correspondingly, the number of employees of iFLYTEK has also increased significantly in the first half of the year - the number of employees in the first half of 2018 increased by nearly 3,500 compared with the same period last year. The increase in salaries and expenses brought by the new employees also directly led to a significant decline in its net profit after deducting non-recurring gains and losses in the first half of the year.

In the first half of 2018, iFLYTEK continued to advance its "platform + track" artificial intelligence strategy based on its world-leading artificial intelligence technology with independent intellectual property rights, with remarkable results.

iFLYTEK has opened nearly 100 AI capabilities and scenario solutions through its iFLYTEK open platform, which is dedicated to providing artificial intelligence development and service capabilities to a large number of entrepreneurial developers and massive users in the mobile Internet and smart hardware. The number of developers has reached 800,000, a year-on-year increase of 114%, and its market share has remained the first.

The automobile business also showed rapid growth, with revenue in the first half of this year increasing by 30.04% year-on-year to RMB 120.6462 million. In this field, iFLYTEK revealed that it has currently cooperated with many domestic and foreign automobile brands such as Volkswagen, Toyota, Venucia, Volvo, Mazda, Lexus, Changan, GAC, Geely, Great Wall, and Weilai.

iFlytek's related products have been installed in nearly 2 million vehicles in the original equipment market, with a cumulative installation volume of more than 12 million vehicles. The artificial intelligence interactive system Feiyu 2.0 has also been implemented in multiple car manufacturers and vehicle models, such as helping Geely Automobile launch the GKUI intelligent network ecosystem and jointly launching the "Lion" system with Chery Automobile.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.