Operator
大家好,感谢各位今天参加111公司的电话会议。今天公司方面出席电话会议的有:联合创始人兼执行主席于刚博士;联合创始人、董事长兼首席执行官刘峻岭先生;111主要子公司的首席财务官陈路先生以及首席运营官王海辉先生。提醒一下,今天的电话会议正在通过网络直播进行。公司今天早些时候发布了财报新闻稿,财报演示文稿与新闻稿一同可在公司投资者关系网站上查阅。在电话会议开始之前,请允许我提醒各位,本次电话会议可能包含根据1995年《私人证券诉讼改革法案》安全港条款所作的前瞻性陈述。这些陈述基于管理层当前的预期以及当前的市场和运营状况,涉及已知和未知的风险、不确定性和其他因素,所有这些因素都可能导致实际结果存在重大差异。有关这些风险的更多信息,请参阅公司向美国证券交易委员会提交的文件。除非适用法律要求,111公司不承担因新信息、未来事件或其他原因而更新任何前瞻性陈述的义务。请注意,除非另有说明,所有数字均以人民币为单位,所有比较均为同比比较。有关同比财务业绩的详细信息,请参阅财报新闻稿。接下来,我将把电话会议交给111公司的首席执行官刘峻岭先生。
Operator
Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining 111's Conference Call today. On the call today from the company are Dr. Gang Yu, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman; Mr. Junling Liu, Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO; Mr. Luke Chen, CFO of 111's Major Subsidiary and Mr. Haihui Wang, COO. As a reminder, today's conference call is being broadcast live via webcast. The company's earnings press release was distributed earlier today and along with the earnings presentation are available on the company's IR website. Before the conference call gets started, let me remind you that this call may contain forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are based upon management's current expectations and current market and operating conditions and relate to events that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors all of which would cause actual results to differ materially. For more information about these risks, please refer to the company's filings with the SEC. 111 does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable law. Please note that all numbers are in RMB and all comparisons refer to year-over-year comparisons unless otherwise stated. Please also refer to the earnings press release for detailed information of the comparative financial performance on a year-over-year basis. With that, I will turn the call over to 111's CEO Mr. Junling Liu.
Junling Liu
翻译中...
Junling Liu
Good morning and good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining the fourth quarter and full year 2024 earnings call. The information we'll be discussing here is also available in the slides posted earlier today on the company's website. I encourage everyone to download the presentation as well as the earnings report from our investor relations website @ir.111.com.cn. 2024 was a year of significant challenges stemming from the macroeconomic pressures and ongoing healthcare reforms. These headwinds have impacted the broader healthcare industry, yet we delivered our first ever operational profitability and positive operating cash flow, an important milestone in our company's history. This solid performance is a direct result of our diligent execution of strategic initiatives to boost operational efficiency and cement us as one of the most efficient Healthcare platform operators in the sector. It also underscores our agility and resilience in navigating unfavorable and complex market conditions. Beyond financial performance, we also advanced our technologies and strengthened our supply chain infrastructure, laying the foundation for long-term growth. These improvements position us to better meet future demand with greater speed and lower costs, ultimately driving value across the industry. Next, I will provide a deeper look into the current industry landscape, outline our outlook and opportunities, and highlight key financial achievements. I will also share updates on our advancements in technology and supply chain infrastructure, as well as the recent industry recognition. Finally, I will discuss our growth strategies for navigating this challenging environment before handing over to our CFO, Mr. Luke Chen, for a detailed analysis of our financial performance. Turning to the macroeconomic landscape, economic uncertainties in China have led to increasingly cautious consumer behavior, slowing discretionary spending and significantly dampening retail sales growth. The healthcare sector is no exception. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, China just saw a 3.6% year-over-year growth in 2024 per capita healthcare expenditure. This represents a sharp decline of 12.4% points from the 16% growth in the prior year and the lag behind the 5% GDP growth during the same period. At the same time, downstream pharmacies continue to face pressure from ongoing health care reforms, including adjustments to individual medical accounts, face the rollout of coordinated outpatient benefits and heightened regulatory oversight. These reforms aim to build a more sustainable and efficient healthcare system, ultimately benefiting well managed pharmacy chains with strong product offerings and service capabilities. However, the transition period presents short-term challenges as the industry adapts to new policies and regulatory frameworks. Another key factor impacting pharmacies is an aggressive expansion that took place during the pandemic. Optimism about long-term healthcare demand led to a surge in new store openings, but market growth has not kept pace. As a result, China's total retail pharmacy sales dropped by 2.2% in 2024, according to Zhongkang data. With more stores competing in a stagnant market per store, revenues have fallen, intensifying industry competition. Newer stores still in their growth phase, face additional pressure, weighing on short-term profitability. Large pharmacy chains are already feeling the impact. For instance, Jianzhijia or JZJ Chain Drugstore expect its net profit attributable to shareholders, excluding non-recurring gains analysis, to decline by up to 69% in 2024, followed by 66% and a 45% decline for Yixintang or YXT Health and the Shanghai Del Ye or Shanghai no.1 Pharmacy Co. respectively. Independent pharmacies with limited resources face even greater financial strain. Given its challenging backdrop, digital transformation is no longer optional. It is essential. Pharmacists must cope with weaker consumer sentiment, slower healthcare spending and shifting patient behaviors while managing cost pressure and operational inefficiencies. The key to survival and growth lies in innovation, rethinking service delivery, optimizing product categories, enhancing client management and improving operational coordination across stores. This is where digitization and AI driven solutions come in. As a pioneer in the digital revolution, we have integrated leading technologies across our operations from sales and procurement to customer demand identification, inventory optimization and warehouse allocation. Our fully digitized operating system also empowers our upstream and downstream partners to reduce costs, improve efficiency and enhance service quality. Beyond the necessity of digital transformation, we remain highly confident in China's long-term healthcare market, supported by two key structural trends. First, the ongoing anti-corruption campaign in the healthcare sector is driving greater transparency in hospital procurement which is anticipated to expedite the shift of drug sales and prescriptions to retail pharmacies. This transition represents a trillion RMB out of hospital pharmaceutical distribution market that could eventually account for nearly half of the entire pharmaceutical distribution sector. In the short-term, however, policy execution remains uneven across provinces and cities with uncertainties and delays in medical reform, refinement and implementation. In the 2025 Government Work Report, China called for promoting the coordinated development and governance of healthcare, medical insurance and the pharmaceutical sector. It aims to steadily advance provincial level coordination of basic medical insurance while improving its financing and benefit adjustments mechanisms. Once these adjustments are fully in place, particularly with on time payments from government, national medical insurance, pharmacy chains will be among the primary beneficiaries. As a trusted partner to chain pharmacies, we're well positioned to capitalize on this growth. With an extensive and price attractive product portfolio and a relentless focus on customer experience, we strive to strengthen our leadership and expand market share in this dynamic landscape. Second, China's rapid aging population will fuel sustained growth in healthcare consumption while the government encourages the silver economy. Despite recent fluctuations, China's healthcare expenditure as a percentage of GDP remains significantly lower than that of developed countries, indicating ample room for expansion. As healthcare needs continue to rise, we believe the overall trajectory of the pharmaceutical and health care market will remain strong over the long-term. Turning to our financial highlights, our rigorous and disciplined approach to raising operational efficiency delivered meaningful improvements in Q4 despite ongoing short-term headwinds. We effectively reduced total operating expenses by half year-over-year, bring them to just 5.5% of revenues, down 470 basis points from the prior year. While fulfillment expenses rose slightly as a percentage of revenues, primarily due to a one-time warehouse relocation fee. We drove reductions across multiple cost categories. Selling expenses declined by 220 basis points to 2% of net revenues from 4.2% a year ago, while the general and administrative expense ratio fell by 190 basis points and the technology expense ratio decreased by 80 basis points. Excluding share-based compensation, our operating expense ratio improved by 130 basis points to a record low 5.3%. For the full year 2024, we achieved a yearly profit from operations for the first time with income from operations reaching RMB2.1 million, representing a sharp turnaround from an operational loss of RMB350.1 million in 2023. Our bottom line improved by RMB332.7 million or 94% 0.1% from a year ago. On a non-GAAP basis, income from operations was RMB22.3 million compared to the RMB123.9 million lost a year earlier. Non-GAAP bottom line improved by RMB126.6 million or 99.5% from 2023. Additionally, we generated yearly positive operating tax flow of RMB263 million for the first time. These milestones highlight the efficiency of our strategic initiatives and the resilience of our business model. In 2024, we reduced operating expenses by 31% year-over-year, lowering them to 5.7% of revenues, down 230 basis points from 8% in 2023. While fulfillment expenses remain largely unchanged as a percentage of revenues, the general and administrative expense ratio declined 100 basis points to 0.5%. Selling expenses fell to 2.2% in revenues compared to 3% in the prior year while technology expenses dropped to 0.5% of revenues from 0.8% a year earlier. Excluding share-based compensation, operating expenses as a percentage of revenues decreased 90 basis points to 5.6%. Our high operational efficiency was driven by strategic investments in infrastructure and optimized personnel arrangements. By prioritizing sustained growth, we have continuously enhanced our industry leading digital capabilities for operations, marketing, supplier empowerment and supply chain. This ensures that our technology driven efficiencies remain a key competitive advantage. In Q4, our advanced digital infrastructure contributed to further reductions in technology and staffing expenses, reinforcing our ability to adapt to evolving market conditions while positioning us for future opportunities. Although our revenues are smaller than some more established players, our operational efficiency is a key differentiator. As one of the most efficient healthcare E-commerce platforms, we remain committed to driving further cost reductions and enhancing profitability through scalability and refined execution. This unwavering focus on leveraging technology to drive operational excellence across various aspects is a cornerstone of our strategy. The savings generated from our continuous optimizations will bolster our financial flexibility allowing us to strategically allocate resources and reinvest in tech advancements, business growth and customer experiences at the right moment. From a technological standpoint, we have been strengthening our digital capabilities by investing in system development, advanced models, algorithms and data applications. These efforts are designed to fortify our core competitiveness in the digital landscape. As a result, we have made further strides in in leveraging digital and AI technologies. First, powered by our proprietary intelligent JVP platform and inventory sharing technology, we have achieved foundational system level integration with upstream partners to establish a unique decentralized inventory network that enhances stock volume and availability. This development, enabled by smart demand forecasting algorithms and an advanced inventory management system has successfully expanded platform accessible SKUs by 33,000 and inventory availability by RMB290 million in 2024. By strengthening our supply capability, we are not only optimizing efficiency but also ensuring real time elastic response capabilities to meet customer demand. Second, we have optimized our marketing strategies to stimulate demand and build intelligent operational systems to support key events by leveraging cutting edge technology. During our flash sales event from November to December, we utilized advanced data analytics and AI driven insights to fine tune discount mechanisms or implement necessary technology upgrades for our operational system nearly every week. This tech driven efforts drove user retention and higher transaction volumes. The results speak for themselves. Gross Merchandise Volume GMV in December increased by 17% from the prior month while gross profit grew by 8%. Notably, average revenue per user or ARPU surged about 18% and average revenue per order or ARPO rose by 14%. These results underscore the strategic value of our technology investments and effectiveness of our precision targeted promotions and a tech enabled intelligent platform. Finally, 2025 marks a pivotal year for AI technology development in China and the world. As an industry leader at the forefront of technological innovation, we have made AI a key focus in advancing our capabilities and it plays a critical role in driving our intelligent demand analysis, optimizing supply chains and enhancing market responsiveness. For example, by integrating technology advancements with deep business collaboration, our AI powered Borguan catalog can better utilize procurement data from our operations and thousands of partners pharmacies to identify market trends, analyze consumer behavior shifts and update demand lists more precisely. We assigned greater weight to high demand products in assortment strategy while giving regional attention to long tail goods to meet specific demands. On the technology front, we improved forecasting accuracy from 71% to 82%. As a result, the broadband catalog introduced 6,598 new products in 2024 contributing over RMB905 million in GMV. The platform wide stock out rate dropped from 4.9% to 2.4%, setting the industry benchmark for supply chain efficiency. We also re-engineered our data pipeline reducing demand list generation time from five hours to just 30 minutes, a tenfold efficiency boost. By prioritizing precision forecasting plus real time response, we have established a model to demonstrate smart integration of cost reduction, operational efficiency and business growth and ecosystem synergy in the healthcare e-commerce industry. Beyond technology, we are leading supply chain management with expanded infrastructure and continual innovations in warehousing and order delivery for enhanced efficiency cost reductions ensuring high quality services. Next, I'd like to move to new achievements made. The initiation and expansion of the Kunpeng Network is one of the most important milestones achieved in 2024. It's designed to streamline logistics services while lowering costs both internally and externally. This advanced cross fulfillment center transshipment model has established an integrated highly efficient logistics network connecting our five major super hubs across East, Central, South, North and Southwest China. By incorporating first mile and last mile services, we are heading towards a comprehensive Kunpeng National Network with seamless end to end supply chain control. In Q4, we expanded last mile delivery coverage to additional metropolitan areas including Wuhan, Guangzhou, Chongqing and Tianjin. With 28 transportation routes now in operation, our network continues to strengthen this reach. Our ability to execute at scale is reflected in our growing external customer base which increased by 17 in Q4, a 20% rise from the previous quarter. Operationally, we have also achieved significant improvements for the full year 2024, the order damage rate dropped by 56% while average delivery time improved by nearly a full day. Financially, the Quantum network generated RMB7.1 million in total gains in 2024, including cost savings. In the future, we plan to integrate fulfillment centers on the corporation into the network, further enhancing our distribution infrastructure and logistics efficiency. Moreover, in 2024, negotiations with key logistics partners led to a 5% reduction in JD logistics, delivery fees and the total savings of RMB1.22 million from SF Express and ZTO. In addition, through rent negotiations and strategic warehouse relocations, we achieved RMB8.63 million in annual cost savings including one time relocation expenses. These endeavors combined with improvement in warehouse labor efficiency and packaging optimization resulted in a 4.9% year-over-year reduction in fulfillment costs to RMB381 million in 2024. Furthermore, to enhance our supply and distribution of capabilities and align with our strategy for the nationwide Kunpeng network, we have expanded our supply chain infrastructure with seven new fulfillment centers going online in Q4. These additions include centers in Guangzhou, Wuhan, Shijiazhuang, Jinan, Chongqing, Xinjiang and Hunan. The new centers will reduce delivery times for local customers while expanding our national network to a total of 18 fulfillment centers. This will enable us to to deliver to over 300 major cities within 24 hours and nationwide within 72 hours. Our rapid fulfillment center expansion is a testament to the effectiveness of our current margin friendly franchise model, a collaborative approach that transforms existing warehouses into full-fledged fulfillment centers in a significant shorter time frame supported by our fully digitized systems and processes, especially in remote regions. Under this model, 111 holds a share of the gross merchandise value. In 2025, we plan to expand our fulfillment center's footprint by adding at least 15 more centers. As we reflect in Q4 performance, I'd like to highlight several key industry recognitions that underscore our market leadership and a strong regional influence. First, we were recognized as the most valuable healthcare and pharmaceutical company for investment, highlighting our strong growth potential and long-term value creation. Second, we were ranked among the top 100 private enterprises in Chongqing. Third, we're honored as an outstanding case of a productive internet service platform in Shanghai's Pudong New District, recognizing our innovative approach to digital transformation in healthcare e-commerce. Meanwhile, our tech portfolio now includes 33 patents upon four new additions in Q4. These latest patterns reflect our commitment to technological advancements and a strategic focus on enhancing efficiency, safety and user experience. This includes a group chat content semantic analysis-based incident monitoring system and a method which leverages AI driven language processing to improve real time risk detection and crisis management. We have also developed a doctor allocation algorithm based on consultation data, optimizing physician matching to enhance service efficiency and patient outcomes. Additionally, we introduced an advanced drug sorting method and system improving fulfillment accuracy and efficiency. Lastly, our emotional analysis system based on pharmaceutical purchase pathways provides deeper insight into customer behavior, allowing us to refine personalized services and consumer engagement. We're deeply grateful for the recognition from both local markets and the industry. These accolades will undoubtedly bolster our credibility as we continue to solidify our market position and foster innovation within the sector. Last but not least, I'll provide an overview of our growth strategies for revenue margin and profit. As we look ahead to 2025, we remain optimistic, although fully prepared for many challenges lying ahead. On the supply side, we have strategically consolidated resources from major commercial players across the country through our JBP initiative and we will continue to prioritize investment in the JBP platform to optimize the range of product offerings. This model has already proven its significant value in connecting new partners and enhancing our supply capabilities. Additionally, our wholesale purchasing models will expand the promotion of key products from leading pharmaceutical companies, leveraging our strong digital marketing network. To further strengthen our supply capabilities, we're increasing the number of Franchise fulfillment centers in multiple underserved provinces, thus expanding our reach. Finally, our Kunpeng National Network will ensure an integrated approach to managing products and logistics across the entire country. With these enhanced supply capabilities, we can better offer customers the most comprehensive selection of pharmaceutical products at competitive prices. On the other side, we're strategically stimulating customer engagement and loyalty through high impact initiatives such as flash sales events which led to substantial traffic and demand and enhanced customer retention. Together with GROW Project aims to increase customers share of wallet, strengthening relationships and driving further growth. It focuses our mid-tier customers enhancing service quality across all sales stages to meet their core needs, fuel their business development and ultimately elevate our platform's value and scale. Moreover, by utilizing Inovatix online and offline integrated marketing models including Brand Live Streams and the Number One Summit, we are directly connecting industries with end customers, creating new growth avenues while reinforcing our brand as a leader in customer centric digital driven solution. We remain steadfast in our commitment to driving operational efficiency, recognizing it as a critical factor of our continued success in a competitive and fast evolving market. The integration of AI and fully fledged digitization is essential for us to maintain our industry leading efficiency but also deepen customer engagement and enable the creation of innovative products and services. These initiatives are well aligned to reinforce our market leadership. Technology is not just an enabler, it is the backbone of our strategy empowering us to build a more agile, intelligent and customer centric business in an evolving healthcare landscape. At the heart of this transformation is AI which we are leveraging to redefine how we interact with customers, optimize decision making and enhance operational efficiency. We have made significant investments in AI driven analytics, automation and digital infrastructure to elevate customer engagement, customized experiences and improve service delivery. Our AI powered tools analyze vast amounts of data in real time enabling predictive insights that allow us to anticipate market shifts, refine resource allocation and drive smarter decision making. Our 100% digitized platform is not just about efficiency, it is a dynamic intelligent engine that continuously leans, learns and adapts allowing us to proactively shape industry trends rather than react to them. As the industry undergoes rapid transformation, our commitment to leading edge technologies ensure we remain at the forefront. We remain steadfast in advancing our AI driven digital transformation, embedding intelligent automation, machine learning and next generation customer interfaces into our operations. Our goal is to seamlessly integrate technology and human expertise, creating frictionless, intelligent and engaging experiences that redefine how customers and businesses interact in the healthcare sector. With that, I'll hand the call to our CFO, Mr. Luke Chen, to walk through our financials. Thank you.
Luke Chen
谢谢Jimmy,大家早上好、晚上好。首先,我要感谢所有同事在2024财年的坚韧不拔和辛勤工作,我们在充满挑战的环境中进行了必要的变革,以改善运营和成本效率,同时保持竞争优势。接下来谈谈财务方面,我的准备发言将聚焦于几个关键业务和财务亮点。您可以在我们演示文稿第二部分第17至20页查阅2024年第四季度及全年业绩的详细信息。再次说明,所有比较均为同比数据,所有数字均为人民币,除非另有说明。让我们从第四季度业绩开始。总净收入为38亿元人民币,分部毛利润为2.025亿元人民币。由于不利的宏观环境,净收入和分部毛利润分别下降了6.3%和5.5%。本季度总运营费用下降了50.1%,至2.098亿元人民币。占净收入的比例来看,本季度总运营费用从10.2%降至5.5%,因为我们持续提升运营杠杆并优化运营效率。履约费用占第四季度净收入的2.7%,而去年同期为2.5%。销售和营销费用占本季度净收入的比例为2%,低于去年同期的4.2%。行政费用占净收入的0.5%,低于去年同期的2.4%。技术费用占净收入的0.4%,低于2023年同期的1.2%。因此,非GAAP运营亏损为230万元人民币,较去年同期的5,520万元人民币改善了95.8%。占净收入的比例来看,本季度非GAAP运营亏损为0.1%,低于一年前的1.3%。归属于普通股东的非GAAP净亏损为1,480万元人民币,较去年同期的5,900万元人民币改善了74.9%。占净收入的比例来看,归属于普通股东的GAAP净亏损本季度为0.4%,低于一年前的1.4%。关于我们2024财年全年业绩,我想简要介绍几个亮点,您同样可以在我们的演示文稿和财报新闻稿中查阅与2023年全年业绩的详细对比。我们2024年全年净收入为144亿元人民币,分部毛利润为8.292亿元人民币。净收入和分部毛利润分别下降了3.7%和2.3%。2024年全年,总运营费用下降了31%,至8.271亿元人民币。占净收入的比例来看,总运营费用下降了230个基点,从一年前的8%降至5.7%。履约费用占净收入的2.6%,而去年同期为2.7%。销售和营销费用占净收入的比例从2023年的3%降至今年的2.2%。行政费用占净收入的0.5%,低于一年前的1.5%。技术费用占净收入的0.5%,而2023年为0.8%。因此,运营收入为210万元人民币,而2023年运营亏损为3.51亿元人民币。非GAAP运营收入为2,230万元人民币,而2023年GAAP运营净亏损为1.239亿元人民币。归属于普通股东的GAAP净亏损占净收入的比例从一年前的1.1%降至0.3%。我们相信,凭借我们强大的技术能力,我们正走在实现盈利的正确道路上,这些能力将继续使我们能够高效扩展业务并提升运营绩效,最终实现盈利并为所有股东创造最大价值。请参阅附录部分第21至25页,了解我们精选的财务报表。另外,关于我们的现金状况,截至2024年12月31日,我们拥有现金及现金等价物、受限现金和短期投资共计5.183亿元人民币,并且我们首次实现了年度正向经营现金流。截至目前,公司记录在可赎回贷款、控制权权益、应计费用和其他流动负债项下的总未偿还金额为10.8亿元人民币。这笔款项是根据先前披露的2020年股权投资条款,欠一家药房技术公司的一组投资者的。111已收到其中部分投资者的赎回请求。经过沟通和谈判,公司已与代表约97%总金额的投资者达成协议或获得承诺函,同意重新安排还款计划,允许在持有人行使赎回权的情况下,在延长的期限内分期偿还。截至目前,公司已在签署协议时支付了部分回购资金。2025年1月,上海仲裁庭裁定支持一名寻求赎回的投资者,要求公司的香港子公司以3,000万元人民币加应计利息回购其在药房技术公司的投资份额。我们预计仲裁结果不会对我们中国实体的业务运营产生任何影响,并且我们仍在与剩余投资者积极讨论,以协商并最终确定双方同意的修订还款计划。如有任何重大进展,我们将向投资者提供更新。我们的准备发言到此结束。谢谢。主持人,我们现在可以开始问答环节了。
Luke Chen
Thank you, Jimmy, and good morning, evening everyone. I want to begin by thanking all of our colleagues for their resilience and hard work over fiscal year 2024 as we navigated a challenging environment for making necessary changes to improve our operation and cost efficiency while maintaining our competitive edge. moving to the financials, my prepared remarks will focus on a few key business and financial highlights. You can refer to the details of the fourth quarter and fiscal year 2024 results from slide 17 to 20 in section two of our presentation. Again, all comparisons are year-over-year and all numbers are in RMB unless otherwise stated. Let's start with the fourth quarter results. Total net revenues were RMB3.8 billion and gross segment profit was RMB202.5 million. Due to an unfavorable macro environment, macroeconomic environment, net revenues and gross segment profit decreased 6.3% and 5.5% respectively. Total operating expenses for the quarter decreased 50.1% to RMB209.8 million. As a percentage of net revenues, total operating expenses for the quarter were down to 5.5% from 10.2% as we continue to enhancing our operating leverage and optimizing our operating efficiency. Fulfillment expenses accounted for 2.7% of Q4 net revenues as compared to 2.5% in the prior year. Sales and marketing expenses as the percentage of net revenue for the quarter was 2%, down from 4.2% a year earlier. G&A expenses accounted for 0.5% of net revenue, down from 2.4% in the previous year, and technology expenses accounted for 0.4% on net revenue, down from 1.2% in the same quarter 2023. As a result, non-GAAP loss on operations was RMB2.3 million, representing an improvement of 95.8% from RMB55.2 million in the prior year. As a percentage of net revenues, non-GAAP loss from operations accounted for 0.1% in the quarter, down from 1.3% a year ago. Non-GAAP net loss attributable to ordinary shareholders was RMB14.8 million, representing an improvement of 74.9% from RMB59 million in the previous year. As a percentage of net revenues and GAAP, net loss attributable to ordinary shareholders accounted for 0.4% in the quarter, down from 1.4% a year earlier. As for our fiscal full year 2024, I would like to run through a few highlights, again you can refer to details in our deck and earning release of our comparisons to our full year 2023. Our full year 2024 net revenues are RMB14.4 billion and the gross segment profit was RMB829.2 million. Net revenues and the gross segment profit had a 3.7% and a 2.3% decrease respectively. For full year 2024, total operating expenses decreased 31% to RMB827.1 million as a percentage of net revenues, total operating expenses decreased by 230 basis points to 5.7% from 8% a year earlier. Fulfillment expenses accounted for 2.6% of net revenues as compared to 2.7% in the previous year. Sales and marketing expenses as a percentage of net revenues reduced to 2.2% this year from 3% in 2023. G&A expenses accounted for 0.5% of net revenue down from 1.5% a year earlier. Technology expenses account for 0.5% of net revenues as compared to 0.8% in 2023. As a result, income from operations was RMB2.1 million compared to loss from operations of RMB351 million in 2023. Non-GAAP income for operations was RMB22.3 million compared to net GAAP loss on operations of RMB123.9 million in 2023. In GAAP net loss attributed to ordinary shareholders as the potential net revenues decreased to 0.3% by 1.1% a year ago. We are confident that we are on the right path towards profitability driven by our robust technology capabilities and these capabilities will continue to enable us to scale our business efficiently and enhance our operation performance, ultimately delivering profitability and maximize value for all our shareholders. Please refer to slides 21 to 25 of the appendix section for our selected financial statements and a quick note on our cash position as of December 31, 2024, we had cash and cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investment of RMB518.3 million and we have achieved first ever annual positive operating cash flow. To date the company has a total outstanding amount of RMB1.08 billion recorded under redeemable loan, controlling interest and accrual expenses and other current liabilities. This amount is owed to a group of investors in one pharmacy technology pursuant to their 2020 equity investment as previously disclosed in accordance with terms of this investment. 111 has received a redemption request from certain of such investors. Following communication and negotiation, the company has reached agreements or obtained commitment letters from investors representing approximately 97% of total amount to reschedule their repayments, allowing for phased repayments over extended periods if the holders exercise their redemption rights. To date, the company has already paid a portion of the repurchase of funds upon signing the agreement. In January 2025, an application tribute in Shanghai ruled in favor of an investment seeking redemption requiring the company's Hong Kong subsidiary to repurchase the investment share in one pharmacy technology for RMB30 million plus accrued interest. We do not expect the arbitration outcome to have any impact on the business operations of our PRC entities and we remain in active discussions with net investors to negotiate and finalize our mutually agreed revised repayment schedule. We will provide updates to investors if there are any significant developments. This concludes our prepared remarks. Thank you. Operator, we are now ready to begin the Q&A session.
Operator
感谢您的第一个问题来自Water Tower Research的Robert Sassoon。
Operator
Thank Your first question comes from Robert Sassoon with Water Tower Research.
Robert Sassoon
您好,最近怎么样?在不利条件下表现非常坚韧。那么让我就这一点提问,不利的宏观经济环境,您能否具体说明这实际上如何影响了公司本季度以及整个2024年的业绩?
Robert Sassoon
Hi, how are you doing? Very resilient performance in the face of adverse conditions. So let me ask you on that point, the unfavorable macroeconomic environment, can you actually specify how that has actually affected the company’s performance in the quarter and of course for 2024 as a whole?
Junling Liu
早上好,Robert。是的,当然。首先,即使在非常严峻的宏观环境下,我们通过实现首次非GAAP和债务层面的营业利润,达到了公司历史上的一个重要里程碑。我们还实现了超过2.63亿美元的正现金流。同时,我们将运营支出削减了130个基点至收入的5.3%,使我们成为行业内最高效的运营商之一。即使与一些真正庞大的国有老牌公司相比也是如此。此外,我们的GAAP层面净利润改善了近3.5亿元人民币。我为团队全年不懈努力感到非常自豪。他们执行我们战略的专注和奉献精神确实非常出色。在2024年,我们通过创新的商业模式,如我在讲话中提到的特许经营、仓库以及与上游供应商和合作伙伴的共享库存,他们非常努力地提供有竞争力的价格,显著增加了我们的产品范围。我们大幅增加了履约中心以扩大覆盖范围。人工智能也成为我们业务运营不可或缺的一部分,它使我们效率极高,达到了可以与行业内最大巨头竞争的水平。这就是我们团队取得的成就,并转化为营业利润和正现金流。谢谢。
Junling Liu
Good morning, Robert. Yes, sure. So first of all, even with the very tough macro environment we achieved a major milestone in the company’s history by delivering the first ever operating profits both at the non-GAAP and debt level. We also achieved a positive cash flow over $263 million. And, in the meantime, we slashed operating expenditure by 130 basis points to 5.3% of revenue, making us one of the most efficient operators in the industry. And even compared with some of the really gigantic state-owned established companies. And also, our bottom line improved by almost RMB350 million at the GAAP level. And I’m very proud of the team who worked tirelessly throughout the year. The dedication and focus on executing our strategy is really outstanding. In 2024, we managed to significantly increase our product range by innovative business models like the franchise, the warehouse I spoke about in my script and shared inventory with the upstream supply and partners who worked extremely hard to offer competitive prices. We substantially increased our fulfillment centers to increase our reach. And AI also has become an integral part of our business operations and it made us extremely efficient to a level where we can compete against the biggest giants in the industry. That’s the accomplishments that our team achieved and that which translated into the operating profit and a positive cash flow. Thank you.
Robert Sassoon
好的。这是一个很好的回答。谢谢。尽管如此,您的毛利率在第四季度和全年仍然持续同比改善。那么推动这一改善的主要因素是什么?您能否提供更多关于毛利率趋势的详细信息?
Robert Sassoon
Right. That’s a good answer. Thank you. Your gross margin nevertheless has still continued to improve year on year in the fourth quarter and in the full year. So what are the main factors driving that? And can you provide more color on gross margin trends?
Junling Liu
是的。我们实现了毛利率的提升,但与此同时,为客户提供了非常有竞争力的价格。这里没有什么魔法。首先,为了为客户提供最佳选择,我们坚持同时提供低毛利和高毛利产品。当然,低毛利产品不赚钱。我们所做的是将部分低毛利产品外包给更靠近客户的合作伙伴,以节省运输成本,从而在保持竞争力的定价下获得合理的利润。其次,团队有具体的目标和关键绩效指标来销售高毛利产品,包括我们自有品牌产品。我们做的另一件事是尝试采用去中心化模式,鼓励供应商以寄售方式将库存存入我们的仓库,并提供全方位服务。说到服务,除了我刚才提到的,我们还开发了其他服务模块,如供应链金融、直播等。因此,服务收入流将继续是我们精心管理的核心指标之一。最后,我们不断调整商品组合管理,人工智能辅助的数据分析使我们能够真正优化商品组合。谢谢。
Junling Liu
Yes. We achieved gross margin improvement, yet at the same time, offered customers very competitive prices. There is no magic here. So first of all, in order to offer the best selection for our customers, we insist on providing both low margin and a high margin products. And of course, the low margin products don’t make money. What we did is that we outsourced part of the low margin products to our partners who reside closer to their customers to save on shipping costs in order to having in order to have a reasonable margin with competitive pricing. Secondly, the teams have specific goals and the KPIs to sell the higher margin products, including our own private label products. The other thing we do is we try to use a decentralized model to encourage our suppliers to store their inventory into our warehouses on a consignment basis, and we offer holistic services. Speaking of services, in addition to what I just mentioned, I mean, I’ve also developed other service modules such as supply chain financing, the live streaming and so on. So the service revenue stream will continue to be one of the core metrics we manage with great diligence. In the last part of the list, we constantly tweak our assortment management and the AI assisted data analytics enable us to really optimize our assortment. Thank you.
Robert Sassoon
那么转到运营费用方面,看起来你们在这方面取得了相当显著的下降。第四季度运营费用占收入的比例进一步同比下降至5.5%。这是如何实现的?
Robert Sassoon
So moving on to the operating expenses side, it seems you’ve managed to decrease that quite significantly. And the fourth quarter operating expenses as a percentage of revenues further decreased year on year to 5.5%. So how was this achieved?
Junling Liu
是的,我的意思是,平衡我们的利润线和收入线始终是一场艰难的战斗。大幅削减运营开支最终可能导致收入线遭受重大损失。我们的核心竞争力确实来自于效率。多年来,我们已经形成了一套非常健全的方法。人员优化至关重要。我们不断审查和调整组织结构和员工人数,因为这是费用最容易失控的地方。我们做的另一件事是,在我们的运营中有几个费用类别。非常简单地说,我们有履约费用,这是我们运营开支中最大的部分。还有销售费用以及一般及行政费用。一般及行政费用也包括技术团队。我们分解这些费用的每一个细项,并以非常精细的粒度进行管理。以履约费用为例,我们会将其分解为仓库租金、员工数量、货架成本、拣货成本、货架材料、运输成本、损坏率、退货等等。上述每个类别都有专人负责达成目标。最后,当然,最关键的要素确实是我们的数字化能力。多年来,我们已经在技术上投入了数亿元人民币,我们的整个运营实现了100%数字化,这提供了实时数据。而这些实时数据使我们能够进行实时调整。今年,我们希望确保公司需要进行人工智能转型。我真的很期待更新我们在客户界面和底层人工智能系统架构方面的努力。谢谢你,罗伯特。
Junling Liu
Yes, I mean, it’s always a tough battle to balance our bottom line and top line. A deep cut in the OpEx could end up a big loss in the top line. And our core competence really comes from being efficient. And over the years, we have developed a very sound approach. Staffing optimization is critical. We constantly review and adjust our org structure and headcounts as this is where expenses can easily get out of control. The other thing we do is there are few buckets of expenses in our operations. Very, very simply put it, you have fulfillment, which is the biggest portion of our OpEx. You have sales and you have G&A. G&A also includes the technology team. We break down each line item of those expenses and manage with very fine granularity. To give an example like fulfillment, we will break it down into warehouse rental, the number of employees, the shelving cost, the picking cost, the racking material and the shipping costs, the damage rate, return, etcetera. Each of the above category has someone responsible to hit the target. Lastly, of course, the most essential element is really our digital capabilities. Over the years, we have invested hundreds of millions of yuan into technology, and our whole operation is 100% digitized, which provides real time data. And that real time data enable us to make real time adjustments. And this year, we want to ensure that the company will need to go through an AI transformation. And I’m really looking forward to updating our efforts in customer interfaces and the underlying AI system architecture. Thank you, Robert.
Robert Sassoon
感谢您详细的回答。我还有一个最后的问题。显然,尽管面临非常不利的条件,你们实际上实现了有史以来首次年度营业利润和正营业现金流,这令人印象深刻。那么,您能否详细说明实现这一里程碑的关键驱动因素是什么?更重要的是,这种盈利能力的可持续性如何?
Robert Sassoon
Thank you for that detailed answer. Just a final question from me. Obviously, it’s quite impressive that you despite the really adverse conditions that you are facing, you actually posted your first ever annual operating profit and positive operating cash flow. So can you just go through what the key drivers behind that milestone were? And how sustainable is this profitability going forward more importantly?
Luke Chen
是的,Robert,我来回答这个问题。是的,我们都注意到我们在2024年全年基础上实现了上半年年度营业利润和正现金流。我们认为这背后的关键驱动力是我们持续努力提升杠杆效率。你可以看到,在保持收入规模的同时,我们的运营费用在2024年同比下降了230个基点,长期负债改善了31%。我们还很好地管理了营运资本以产生正经营现金流,我们的现金周期约为2.63亿元人民币。我们的应付账款天数约为45天,应收账款天数约为10-12天,库存周转天数约为25-30天。因此,与同行扩张相比,甚至与那些动态参与者相比,我们的效率非常高且管理良好。我们相信我们已经为2025年及以后奠定了坚实的基础。2025年,我们将在AI支持下继续扩大总利润规模并提高效率。我们相信,我们的盈利能力和正现金流生成将是可持续的。谢谢,Robert。
Luke Chen
Yes, Robert, let me answer this question. Yes, we have all noticed we have achieved first half of annual operating profit and positive cash flow in 2024 on a whole year basis. And we believe the key drivers behind our relentless efforts to improve our leverage efficiency. You can count on there while maintaining our revenue scale, our operating expenses decreased two thirty basis points for year over year in 2024 and our long-term improved by 31%. We also well managed our working capital to generate positive operating cash flow, our time between RMB 263 million. Our accounts payable days are about forty-five days and our accounts receivable days is about ten to twelve days and our inventory turnover days are about twenty-five to thirty days. So we are highly efficient and well managed compared to as gaining expansion even compared to those dynamic players. We believe that we have built a solid foundation for 2025 and onwards. In 2025, we will continue to build up the scale in total margin and efficiently with this AI support. And our profitability and positive cash flow generation, we believe will be sustainable. Thank you, Robert.
Robert Sassoon
感谢所有分享。我暂时回到队列中。
Robert Sassoon
Thanks for all that. And I’ll jump back in the queue.
Operator
您的下一个问题来自CICC的Xipeng Feng。
Operator
Your next question comes from Xipeng Feng with CICC.
Shifan Sun
好的。感谢回答我的问题。我是CICC的[ph]Shifan Sun。祝贺你们在2024年取得的巨大进展。我实际上有两个问题。第一个是关于费用控制的快速跟进问题。我想知道2025年我们是否可以期待进一步的费用控制措施?另一个问题是关于收入和盈利。考虑到当前的市场环境,支持收入增长的驱动力是什么,特别是考虑到我们还需要保持良好的利润率?谢谢。
Shifan Sun
Okay. Thank you for taking my questions. This is [ph]Shifan Sun from CICC. Congratulations on your great progress in 2024. I have two questions actually. The first one is just a quick follow-up question on expense control. I just wondered if there’s any further expense control action that we could look forward to in 2025? And another question is about revenue and earnings. Given the current market environment, what’s the driver to support revenue growth, especially considering that we also need to maintain a good profit margin? Thank you.
Luke Chen
你期待控制那些成本。[听不清]
Luke Chen
You look forward to taking that cost. [indiscernible]
Haihui Wang
你好,Shifan。我是Harvey。我来回答你关于运营成本的问题。实际上回顾去年的各项运营成本,从年度角度来看,它们基本上是以非常结构化的方式进行优化的。当然,这些优化中的许多将逐渐从那些小型临时的改进升级为结构性优化。在今年2025年,当然在明年和未来,我们肯定会继续利用AI和我们的互联网技术来持续优化成本。这已经成为我们公司DNA和我们每位员工的一部分。第二个关于增长的问题。实际上,在我们的供应端,我们采用去中心化模式,并不断增加更多的履约中心,正如Shireen刚才提到的。实际上,本周就有一个新的履约中心刚刚开业。我们还带来了更多样化的产品选择。我们建立了数字化的外部竞争机制。这一机制促使上游供应商,特别是那些制药公司,持续降低成本并提供越来越有竞争力的价格。而在需求端,我们的重点是抓住行业中最有效和最具竞争力的趋势为客户服务。我们最近推出了'共同成长'计划,去年底还推出了'新鲜销售节',每周一和周二举行,一直持续到现在。还有我们AI驱动的智能采购系统。通过这些举措,我们的目标是从客户那里获得更多的共享钱包,特别是连锁店客户。在扩大规模的同时,我们将降低成本并肯定提高盈利能力。
Haihui Wang
Hi, Shifan. This is Harvey. I’ll take your question regarding this operation cost. And actually looking back on each operation cost last year, from an annual perspective, they were basically optimized in a very structured way. While, of course, many of these optimizations will gradually upgrade from those small and temporary improvements to structural optimization. And in this year, 2025, of course, in next year and in the future, we will definitely continue to utilize AI and our Internet technologies to continuously optimize their costs. This has already become ingrained in our DNA of our company and on our each employee. And the second question regarding the growth. And actually, on our supply side, we adopt a decentralized model and adding more and more other fulfillment centers, as Shireen just mentioned. And actually, there is a new fulfillment center just opened this week. And we also bring a greater variety of our product selection. And we established a digital external competition mechanism. This mechanism prompts upstream suppliers, our upstream especially those pharmaceutical companies, to continuously reduce their costs and also to offer more and more competitive prices. While on our demand side, our focus is on seizing the most efficient and competitive trends for our customers in this industry. We launched the Growing Together program recently and also last year end, we launched fresh sales festival. It’s every Monday and Tuesday every week, until now. And also our AI powered intelligent procurement system. With all that, we aim to obtain more shared wallets from our customers, especially from those chain store customers. While expanding our scale, we will reduce cost and definitely enhance our profitability.
Junling Liu
谢谢,Shifan。
Junling Liu
Thank you, Shifan.
Shifan Sun
好的。非常清楚。我没有其他问题了。谢谢。
Shifan Sun
Okay. That’s very clear. I have no further questions. Thank you.
Operator
下一个问题来自花旗银行的Zoe Bian。
Operator
Your next question comes from Zoe Bian with Citi.
Zoe Bian
你好。我是花旗银行的Zoe。谢谢回答我的问题。我的第一个问题是,能否详细谈谈过去一年你们在技术方面的进展,特别是在AI应用方面?你们的一些竞争对手正在向医疗机构提供AI赋能的解决方案。你们是否考虑推出类似的业务,AI是否会成为你们未来增长的关键部分?我的第二个问题是关于降低履约成本。去年你们采取了哪些关键举措来进一步降低成本?未来还有哪些潜力?我的第三个问题是,你们为AI投资预算是多少?
Zoe Bian
Hi. This is Zoe from Citi. Thank you for taking my questions. My first question is about, can you talk about more about your technology advancement in the past year, especially in AI applications? And some of your competitors are offering AI empowered solutions to graduate medical institutions. Are you considering launching a similar business and will AI be a key part of your future growth? My second question is about the reducing fulfillment cost. What are your key initiatives last year to further reduce the cost? And what are further potentials in the future? My third question is, how much are you budgeting for AI investment?
Luke Chen
好的。让我回答您的问题。让我回顾一下我们去年通过技术取得的成就。去年,我们有两个关键举措或战略。一是利用技术驱动效率以实现盈利。我们已经完成了这一点。第二是更多地转向平台业务,而不是重资产的自主业务。让我就此展开,更多地谈谈人工智能,我们如何投资于人工智能,关于功能性人工智能。正如您所见,首先,我们更多地推动平台业务。我们构建了许多系统。其中一个系统是研发补贴系统的服务体系。我们为平台上的商家构建了这个系统,他们将有监控系统、定价系统以及DIY服务,他们可以自行操作。通过这个系统,我们每周可以处理超过1,000家商家和30,000个SKU的促销活动。所有促销活动都取得了良好效果,通过促销销售额增长了一倍以上。背后的技术支撑了一切都建立在良好的技术基础上。第二,重要的是我们称之为共享库存。我们是行业内首个为BRC启动共享库存的公司。所有这些听起来很简单,但在系统和流程中非常复杂,因为B客户按定制购买,B客户按单位购买,我们不仅要构建系统来处理这些差异,还要有供应链来管理整个不同的流程。我们完成了这一点。但我们将其扩展到与我们的库存和DPP合作伙伴共享,正如Binny提到的,特许经营履约中心。特许经营履约中心有自己的库存,我们的系统将他们的库存与我们的共享,并呈现给客户,只有在销售实现时才确认平台收入。这是一个非常复杂的系统,目前我们已经拥有11个特许经营履约中心,未来我们计划再增加15个。通过这种方式,我们可以以更轻的资产、更高的效率快速增加我们的商品选择。这为您提供了所有关于整体数据的信息,我们也使用行业数据、我们自己的数据、合作伙伴的数据、客户的数据,通过直接连接他们的ERP系统。借助人工智能的辅助能力,我们能够实现非常高的效率和准确性,预测准确性达到95%,预测准确性达到82%。我们还谈到了人工智能,我们去年所做的工作。我们构建了所谓的人工智能驱动的价格指数工具,以更好地预测和优化我们的定价策略。这已经投入使用。我们还使用大数据大样本模型构建了所谓的人工智能商业智能,用于Chart BI、Oracle系统。这是使用大语言模型技术生成的AI产品。目前,我们的员工、我们的团队都可以使用聊天系统获取系统信息。例如,我们可以通过自然语言查询为什么上周某些地区的转化率下降,并获取数据反馈。我们还构建了由人工智能驱动的客户服务系统,减少了我们的服务人员。今年,我们将把人工智能作为我们战略的重要组成部分。我们计划开发各种人工智能代理并全面推广。我们将人工智能作为核心引擎,驱动端到端的技术整合,涵盖价格智能、产品选择、供应链优化和客户服务。这大概回答了第一个关于我们如何利用技术进行管理的问题。让我也谈谈供应链优化。我们将如何实现更好的效率。我知道履约是一个很大的成本。目前,随着更多履约中心的增加,特别是特许经营履约中心的增加,我们更接近客户。因此,我们的最后一公里配送成本将会降低。然而,我们需要平衡仓库之间的库存分配,以确保减少长距离跨区域配送,增加区域配送。这是我们正在努力的方向。去年,我们与所有承运商谈判,确保我们有大量的区域配送和区域成本。此外,我们重新布局了仓库,使其更加高效,建立了超级枢纽。现在增加更多特许经营仓库将实现更好的区域配送,通过临床网络,我们能够将库存重新分配到所有特许经营仓库以及我们的超级枢纽。我们还利用临床网络为大型供应商进行首公里配送,为大型客户进行最后一公里配送。协议网络非常高效。不仅成本降低了20%-30%,物流效率提高了35%,而且在债务流方面也有很大优势。这些是Kumbo网络的好处。今年,我们将扩展我们的网络,包括所有特许经营合作伙伴。但我们仍在完成所有超级枢纽之间的连接。因此,我们确实预计近期成本会下降。希望这回答了您的问题,Billy。
Luke Chen
Okay. Let me answer your question. Let me review that what we have accomplished last year through the technology. Last year, we had two critical initiatives or strategies. One is that using technology to drive efficiency towards profitability. So we have accomplished that. And second was to drive more towards the platform business instead of heavy asset set of own business. So let me just go to that and talk more about AI, how we invest in AI about the function AI. So as you can see that first of all, we drive more for the platform business, okay. We build a lot of systems. One system was kind of set of services system for building R&D subsidy system. So we do that system for merchants on our platform and they will have monitoring system, have pricing and have pricing and have pricing system and kind of a day to DIY with the DIY service, they do it by themselves. Through that, we can handle over 1,000 merchants and 30,000 SKUs promotions per week. And all the promotions achieved good results, more than doubled their sales through that promotion. So behind the technology was kind of everything was on good technology. Second, what’s important, we call shared inventory. We were the first in the industry to start shared inventory for BRC. All of these sound very easy, but very complex in the systems and in the processes because B customers purchase by customs and B customers purchase by units, how we build the system not only to handle the differences, but also have the supply chain to manage the whole different processes. So we accomplish that. But we send it back to sharing between our inventory and our DPP partners as well as what Binny mentioned, the franchise fulfillment centers, okay. The fulfillment centers the franchise fulfillment centers, they have their own inventory and our system where share their inventory with ours and present to customers and only realize the sales wins so well platform. It’s a very complex system and right now we already have 11 franchise fulfillment centers and in the future, we’re adding another plan 15. So with more of that, we can quickly increase our selection with a much lighter asset, much higher efficiency. So this is giving you all information about the whole data and that’s also we use industry data, we use our own data, we use our partners’ data, our customers’ data by direct connections with their ERP systems. So with AI’s assistant power department, we’re able to achieve very high efficiency accuracy, achieved about 95% accuracy and forecasting accuracy reached 82%. So, we also talk about the AI, what we have done last year. So we built the so called AI powered price index tool to better predict, optimize our pricing strategies. So that’s already used. We use also large data large sampling models to build so called AI business intelligence for the Chart BI, Oracle system. This is generated AI product using the large semi model technology. Well, right now, we can our employees, our people, we can all be using the chat with the system acquiring the system information. For example, we got what’s the why the conversion base was down for certain regions last week by using the natural language and getting the data back. And we’ll also build customer service powered by AI system, reducing our service staff. This year, we’ll make AI as a very big part of our strategy, okay? We would have a plan to develop various AI agents and be sold all the way. And we integrate AI as a core engine to drive end to end technology integration, spanning the price intelligence, product selection, supply chain optimization and the customer service. So that’s probably answered the first question about how we use technology for the management. Let me also talk about the supply chain optimization. How we will achieve better efficiency. I know that the selecting a big cost is the fulfillment. Also, right now, with more fulfillment centers, adding more the franchising fulfillment centers, we are closer to customers. So our loss now delivery cost will be reduced. However, we need to balance the distribution of inventory among the warehouses to make sure that we reduce the long distance cross region delivery, but have more regional delivery. So that’s the part we are open in, okay. So last year, when we negotiated with all the carriers to make sure that we have a lot of regional delivery and with regional cost. Also, we relocated our warehouse much more efficient, okay, super hubs. Now adding more franchising warehouses will have a much better more regional delivery, better through the clinical network, we were able to redistribute our inventory to all those franchising for semiconductor as well as our super hubs. And we also use the clinical network to do first now for our large suppliers and also do last now for large customers. And the protocol network is very efficient. Not only the cost is 20%, thirty % lower and asking for 35% logistics, but also big draw in debt stream. So those are the benefits of the Kumbo network. So this year, we extend our laws to include all our franchising partners, okay. But still we’re only accomplishing the connection among all supercars. So this will we really anticipate a decrease in our recent past. So hope this answers your question, Billy.
Zoe Bian
是的,谢谢。我的最后一个问题是,你们每年为AI投资预算多少?
Zoe Bian
Yes, thank you. My last question is how much are you budgeting for AI investment per year?
Luke Chen
是的。我们有一些计划来构建我们的平台,以托管一系列AI智能体,我们已经开始了前几个,并且我们感觉与客户有直接的互动。这不仅会改善客户体验,还会增加客户粘性以及RPU和转化率。因此,通过这些各种应用,我们希望不仅实现成本降低,还能实现客户获取。在团队建设方面,我们正在组建团队,并培训所有员工使用AI应用,以及如何有效开展工作以更好地利用AI。
Luke Chen
Yes. We have some plans over building our platform to host a series of agents AI agents and we started on the first few and we feel that there are immediate interactions with our customers. This will not only improve customer experience, but also increased our customer stickiness as well as RPU and conversion rate. So through these various applications, we hope to achieve more not only cost reduction, but also customer acquisition. In terms of we are building a team and we are training all our employees AI applications and how we effectively conduct the work to better use of AI.
Zoe Bian
当然,当然。明白了。谢谢。
Zoe Bian
Sure, sure. Got it. Thank you,
Operator
您的下一个问题来自私人投资者Sean Yan。
Operator
Your next question comes from Sean Yan, private investor.
Unidenified Analyst
首先,祝贺你们首次实现年度营业利润和正营业现金流。我有两个关于2025年未来计划和展望的问题。第一个问题是,是否有计划扩大与制药公司、药房和其他医疗保健提供商的合作伙伴关系?这些合作的关键重点领域是什么?第二个问题是,您对2025年市场有何预期?是否有即将出台的法规和法律变化会影响您的商业模式或盈利能力?谢谢。
Unidenified Analyst
First of all, congratulations to you on the first ever annual operating profit and positive operating cash flow. I have two questions about the future plan and outlook of 2025. First question is, are there any plans to expand partnerships with pharmaceutical companies, pharmacies and other healthcare providers? What will be the key focus areas of these collaborations? The second question is, what are your expectations for the market in 2025? Are there any changes in the regulations and laws on the horizons that will impact your business model or your profitability? Thank you.
A
好的,Yan。我认为你的两个问题实际上是相关的。我先谈谈市场,然后再谈与上下游公司的合作。关于这个市场,我认为就像中国所有其他市场一样,我们知道目前正在医药领域进行一场由国家政府主导的改革。这次改革的关键重点,我们都知道是提高所有环节和所有步骤的效率。结果是降低医保成本,当然也降低居民的医疗费用。在这个关键重点下,我们作为互联网技术公司、AI公司,相比传统参与者具有固有优势,也需要承担更大的责任。在其他行业如3C行业和快消品等领域已经有很好的实践。因此,我们相信政府将继续出台新政策,鼓励该行业的创新,以提高效率并降低成本。在这场改革中,我们将利用我们在AI、互联网数字化方面的优势,巩固我们的商业价值并创造更大价值。然后谈谈你关于合作的第二个问题。实际上,我们的商业模式是通过我们的数字平台连接上游合作伙伴(即制药公司、药品供应商)与下游合作伙伴(即药房终端甚至患者)。因此,未来我们将进一步扩大与上下游合作伙伴的合作。关键也是让这些药品更有效地进入中国零售终端(即药房),并通过AI驱动的数字平台帮助这些药房更好地销售和推广这些药品。我们相信,在AI技术浪潮下,这将彻底改变并超越严重依赖人力的传统药品推广模式。我希望我回答了你的问题。谢谢。
A
Okay, Yan. I think your two questions actually are correlated. I’ll talk about the market first and then about a partnership with upstream and downstream companies. So regarding this market, I think like all the other markets in China, we know there is a reform led by our state government, currently happen in this pharmaceutical area. And the key focus of this reform, we all know is to enhance the efficiency of all steps and all links. The result is to reduce the cost of medical insurance and of course reduce the cost of the medical expenses of the residents. Under this key focus, we as Internet technology company, AI company, we have inherent advantage and also need to take greater responsibility compared to those traditional players. And they have been very good practices in other industries like in 3C industry and FMCG, etcetera. So we believe that our government will continue to introduce new policies to encourage innovation in this industry to improve efficiency and to reduce costs. So during this reform, we will leverage our advantage in AI, in Internet digitization to consolidate our business values and to create greater value. And then talk about your second question on partnerships. Actually, our business model is to connect our upstream partner, that is pharmaceutical companies, drug providers with those downstream partners, that is pharmacy terminals and even patients through our digital platform. So in future, we will further expand our cooperation with both upstream and downstream partners. The key is also to enable those drugs to enter China’s retail terminals, that is pharmacy, more effectively and to help those of pharmacy better sell and promote these drugs through an AI powered digital platform. We believe under the wave of AI technology, this will totally change and succeed with the traditional model of drug promotion that relies heavily on human effort. I hope I answered your question. Thank you.
Unidenified Analyst
感谢您的详细回答。
Unidenified Analyst
Thank you for your detailed answer.
Operator
最后,我代表111整个管理团队,感谢您对今天电话会议的关注和参与。如果您需要进一步信息或有兴趣参观位于中国上海的111公司,请告知公司。感谢您的参与。今天的电话会议到此结束。
Operator
In closing, on behalf of the entire 111 management team, we’d like to thank you for your interest and participation in today’s call. If you require further information or have any interest in visiting 111 in Shanghai, China, please let the company know. Thank you for joining us. That concludes today’s call.