Michael Du
谢谢,Lara。大家好。感谢各位参加我们2023年第三季度财报电话会议。在开始之前,我想说明,除非另有说明,本次财报中的财务信息和GAAP数据均以持续经营为基础并以人民币列示。让我从最新的业务更新开始。本季度,我们的业务持续发展,在建立更多计费模式方面取得进展,以在当前经济环境下保持灵活性。与去年同期相比,我们成功交付了更高价值的项目。然而,与去年同期相比,我们总收入下降的原因是由于监管环境变化,我们停止了自主学习的教育产品和服务以及其他教育服务。有两个积极趋势值得注意:第一,排除1.16亿元人民币的闵行长期项目后,我们在2023年第三季度签订的合同价值高于2023年第二季度;第二,越来越多的项目现在以SaaS计费模式签订,虽然这种模式在更长时间内产生收入,但更可能具有经常性。这将使公司能够积累更健康、更具经常性的项目组合,从而建立更健康的财务基础。同时,我们继续追求运营效率的提升和运营费用的降低。我们致力于通过我们对教育和技术的深刻洞察,建立一个提升教师教学和学生学习体验的业务。现在,请允许我详细介绍。本季度,公司成功中标上海崇明区价值约600万元人民币的新智能笔和智能作业数字化改造服务项目。该项目覆盖该区18所中学的290个班级,涵盖6至8年级,覆盖超过10,000名学生。此外,公司于2023年11月8日获得了上海崇明区小学的另一个智能笔和智能作业平台项目。这些新中标项目进一步扩展到28所小学,涵盖128个班级,惠及超过4,000名学生。这些项目让更多学校参与到我们的教学平台中,进一步扩大了我们在分发高质量解决方案方面的影响力和覆盖范围。这标志着这些教育局与17EdTech之间的持续合作关系,是自去年首次合作以来的第二次合作。这种经常性合作关系展示了我们在中国智能校内学习和教学解决方案领域公认的领导地位和能力。在第三季度,我们很高兴看到我们早期获得的关键教学项目持续发展。这些进展不仅体现在我们确认的收入上,也体现在不断增长的签约合同数量上。上海闵行区的智能笔和智能作业教育数字化改造项目在2023年第三季度继续产生可观的收入,此前已成功交付并获得客户验收。同样,北京西城云课堂评价系统项目在第二阶段也确认了相应收入。这些发展代表了我们在业务运营方面的稳步进展,确保了稳定的收入流。本季度,我们追求创新方法和灵活结构,针对该领域的其他客户群体,包括私立学校和领先的公立学校集团。这些客户往往对我们提供的解决方案细节要求更高,并且最愿意接受更具创新性和全套产品服务解决方案。通过与这些客户的深度合作,我们的目标是覆盖更多学校和学生,通过数字化和智能化手段丰富他们的教学体验,这将在我们基于模块的区域解决方案基础上得到增强。具体而言,2023年10月30日,我们与[听不清]语言学校启动了战略合作伙伴关系,旨在加强其数字教育基础设施。我们为初中班级和小学3至6年级的学生提供了我们的产品。为了利用我们在技术和教学过程中广泛大数据档案方面的核心竞争力,我们专注于个性化学习的价值,以促进每个学生的更好发展。展望未来,我们认为这些举措具有巨大潜力,并期待在后续季度持续增长并取得积极成果。搜索服务将使我们能够覆盖更多具有不同资金来源的客户类型,以在当前经济环境下保持敏捷性。此外,我们已成功与私立学校签订了多个新的代表性SaaS合同。这包括向湖南省长沙市一所拥有超过4,500名学生的领先私立学校提供基于智能笔和智能作业的高质量运营项目服务,以及另一个与湖南省私立学校集团的项目。这两个项目的预期年收入均约为1,000万元人民币或更多,并且很可能具有经常性。展望未来,我们预计随着市场对SaaS计费模式越来越熟悉,该模式将逐渐普及。尽管在这种模式下确认的初始收入较低,但我们看到了其经常性性质的强大优势,随着我们业务的持续增长。在产品和服务提供方面,我们一直在不断改进我们的核心产品,以满足客户需求并提升用户体验,促进学校内的常规使用。这一策略不仅增强了我们为客户提供的价值,也获得了客户的认可,这将有助于未来的经常性收入。本季度,我们通过将传统互动课堂与云报告相结合进行创新,这有助于高效教学、提升课堂质量并支持日常教学监督和评估。我们继续探索人工智能在我们真实教学场景中的应用,这一尝试已经开始在我们正在进行的项目中产生成果。在硬件方面,得益于物联网智能管理,我们的智能笔始终保持在最佳性能水平,已交付并正在使用的设备近20万台。我们自主研发的智能笔项目已成功完成试点测试阶段。我们计划在今年第四季度逐步增加其产量,目标是在明年实现大规模分发。本季度,我们积极参与了多个顶级教育技术会议,如上海教育博览会、GET 2023技术大会和第82届中国教育装备展示论坛。这些论坛是我们行业领先的平台,促进了与从业者和决策者就教育未来进行有意义的对话。我们分享了我们在
Michael Du
Thank you, Lara. Hello, everyone. Thank you all for joining us on our third quarter 2023 earnings call. Before we begin, I would like to note that the financial information and the GAAP numbers in this release are presented on a continuing operation basis and in RMBs unless otherwise stated. Let me start with our latest business update. In this quarter, our business continued to evolve and we made progress in establishing additional billing models to remain flexible under the current economic environment. We managed to deliver a high value of projects, compared to the same quarter last year. However, the decrease in our total revenue compared to the same quarter last year was because of the cessation of our self-directed learning products and services and our other educational services, due to regulatory environment change. There are 2 positive trends worth noting. We managed to sign contracts of higher value in the third quarter of 2023 than the second quarter 2023 when we exclude the RMB116 million long-term Minhang projects; and two, an increasing number of projects are now being signed under the SaaS billing model which although generates revenues over a longer period of time but is more likely to be recurring in nature. This will allow the company to accumulate a healthier and recurring project portfolios, that will lead to a healthier financial foundation. At the same time, we continue to pursue improvements in operational efficiency and reduce operational expenses. We are committed to build -- building a business that enhances teacher's teaching and student's learning experiences through our deep insights into education and technology. Now, please allow me to go into more details. During the quarter, the company successfully won the bid for our new smart-pen and intelligent homework-based digital transformation service projects in Shanghai Chongming project valued at around RMB6 million. The project includes 290 classes in 18 middle schools in the district, spanning across grade 6 to 8, covering over 10,000 students. Additionally, the company secured another project involving smart-pen and intelligent homework platforms in Shanghai Chongming District's primary schools on November 8, 2023. These newly won projects extends further to 28 primary schools incorporating 128 classes and benefiting more than 4,000 students. These projects have engaged more schools in our teaching and learning platform, further broadening our impact and reach in distributing our high-quality solutions. It signifies a continued partnership between these education bureaus and 17EdTech, marking the second collaboration since our initial engagement last year. This recurring partnership has demonstrated our recognized leadership and capability in the smart in-school learning and teaching solutions across China. In the third quarter, we are delighted to observe consistent development in our key teaching and learning projects that we have won earlier. These progressions are reflected not only in our recognized revenue but also that the growing number of signed contracts. The smart-pen and intelligent homework based educational digital transformation projects in Shanghai Minhang District continue to generate substantial revenue in the third quarter of 2023, following a successful delivery and acceptance by our clients. Similarly, the Beijing Xicheng cloud classroom evaluation system project, also recognized corresponding revenues in the second phase. These developments have represented steady progress in our business operations, ensuring a consistent revenue stream. During this quarter, we pursued innovative approach and flexible structures targeting additional customer groups in this space, including private schools and the leading public school groups. These clients tend to be more demanding in the details and the solutions we provided and are most receptive for more innovative and the full suite products and services solutions. Through deep collaborations with these clients, our aim is to reach out to more schools and students and enrich their teaching and learning experiences through digitalized and intelligent means which will be enhanced on top of our module-based district solutions. Specifically, on October 30, 2023, we initiated a strategic partnership with [indiscernible] Language School, aiming to strengthen its digital education infrastructure. We provided our offerings to junior high school classes and students in grades 3 to 6 of elementary schools. To leverage our core competency in technologies and extensive big data profiles in teaching and learning process, we focus on the value of personalized learning for the better development of each student. Looking ahead, we see great potentials from these initiatives and expect continued growth and positive outcomes in subsequent quarters. Search services will allow us to cover more types of clients with different funding sources to remain agile under the current economic environment. In addition, we have successfully signed multiple new representative SaaS-based contracts with private schools. This includes smart-pen and intelligent homework based, high-quality operational project services to a leading private school of more than 4,500 students in Changsha, Hunan province. And another project with a private school group in Hunan province. Both of these projects have an expected annual revenue of approximately RMB10 million or more and is likely to be recurrent. Going forward, we expect SaaS billing model to pick up gradually as the market is getting more familiar with it. Despite the lower initial revenue recognized under such model, we see strong benefit of its recurring nature as our business continues to grow. In the aspect of product and services offerings, we have been constantly refining our core offerings to align with our customers' needs and enhance user experiences, promoting regular usage within school. This strategy not only enhances the value we provide to our customers but also gains customer recognitions that will assist future recurring revenues. During this quarter, we innovate by integrating traditional interactive classrooms with cloud reporting which aids efficient teaching, elevate classroom quality and support daily teaching supervision and assessment. We continue to explore the application of artificial intelligence in our real teaching scenarios, a venture that has already began that -- to yield results in our ongoing projects. On the hardware front, thanks to IoT smart management, our smart-pen consistently performs on an optimal level with nearly 200,000 units already delivered and being used. Our self-development smart-pen project has successfully completed the pilot testing phases. We plan to gradually increase its production in the fourth quarter of this year, targeting to achieve mass distribution by next year. During this quarter, we actively participated in several Premier Education Technology Conference, such as the Shanghai Education Expo, the GET 2023 Technology Conference and the 82nd China Education Equipment Exhibition Forum. This forum is our industry-leading platforms that facilitate meaningful dialogue with practitioners and decision makers regarding future of education. We shared our experiences and a practice in One Teaching, One Learning SaaS platform, that provides insights into our overall high-quality intelligent homework solutions in the digital transformation of regional schools for mass scale and regular use. They have received broad recognition in attracted substantial attention from educational authorities and attendees. In terms of other educational services business, as the company shifts its strategic focus towards teaching and learning SaaS operations due to regulatory environment, we have observed a diminishing trends in their contribution in revenue. The demand for these projects -- for this product is highly dependent on the regulatory environment and the provision of competing services types. Moving forward, we remain committed to explore educational products and services that comply with regulatory environments. Now, I will turn the call over to Lara to walk you through our latest financial performance. Thank you.