Technology

Yeahka Announces 2024 Interim Results

Published

3 months ago

August 28, 2024

Strengthened Commercialization across Payments and Digital Commerce Ecosystem
Remarkable Overseas Expansion Progress
Wider AI Technology Application

HONG KONG, Aug. 28, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Yeahka Limited (“Yeahka” or the “Company,” Stock Code: 9923.HK), a leading payment and digital commerce technology platform in China, is pleased to announce its interim results for the six months ended June 30, 2024 (the “Reporting Period” or the “first half”).

Business and Financial Summary

Our one-stop payment services continue to lead the industry and our market-leading position in app-based payments is solidified, with peak daily transaction counts reaching nearly 60 million;Against the backdrop of the high base in the same period last year and macroeconomic volatility, our gross payment volume (GPV) for the six months ended June 30, 2024 was RMB1,166.2 billion, representing a decrease of 17.8% compared to the same period in 2023;Commercialization capability was solid with our payments fee rate maintaining at 12.3 basis points (bps);Revenue for the six months ended June 30, 2024 was RMB1,577.7 million, representing a decrease of 23.5% from the same period in 2023;Revenue contribution from non-payment digital commerce services, comprising merchant solutions and in-store e-commerce services, continue to increase, with their percentage to total revenue increasing from 11.0% for the six months ended June 30, 2023 to 14.6% for the same period in 2024;Overall gross profit margin increased from 17.7% for the six months ended June 30, 2023 to 19.0% for the same period in 2024;Gross profit contribution from non-payment digital commerce services continue to increase, with their percentage to total gross profit increasing from 52.6% for the six months ended June 30, 2023 to 69.1% for the same period in 2024;Driven by our wider application of artificial intelligence, selling and administrative expenses decreased by 11.2% for the six months ended June 30, 2024 compared to the same period in 2023;Finance costs reduced by 6.2% for the six months ended June 30, 2024 compared to the same period in 2023;Profit for the Period amounted to RMB32.6 million for the six months ended June 30, 2024, exceeding the amount for the full year of 2023; andGearing ratio decreased to 41.1% as at June 30, 2024 on the back of the Company’s early repurchase of its convertible bonds using its internal cash flow.

Mr. Luke Liu, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, said, “Amid the macroeconomic volatility in the first half of 2024, we remain steadfast to our long-term vision being an all-rounded commerce enablement services provider to merchants. We made more progress increasing synergies beyond payments into other business lines, more international expansion and wider application of AI. We believe this provides higher quality of bases to seize many opportunities in the longer game and to deliver sustainable profits and value to our stakeholders. We made great strides overseas winning over 200 global brands covering more than 20,000 stores. Our investment company, Fushi, also offers proprietary and localized merchant solutions that satisfy demands from world-renowned customers. It is ramping up its products & verticals coverage. Overseas markets, especially developed ones, have many pockets with attractive economics and relatively high willingness to pay. This paves the way for a very wide channel of profits to come. On AI and technology, we also further integrated large language models for both revenue-generating and cost-optimizing purposes. Our new products helped merchants automate price setting to optimize monetization. We empowered them with precise marketing and automatic content generation tools to raise sales conversion. We also applied to our own customers servicing system, thereby meaningfully driving down our selling and administrative expenses. Our ESG efforts were also recognized internationally, for instance, in S&P Global’s 2024 Sustainability Yearbook and ranked first in our industry in China. Our business uplifts underserved merchants and consumers in communities locally and abroad. In this year’s first half, we increased energy usage utilization rate by 7% through constructing green data centers and treated 12 million risky transactions with wider adoption of AI.”

Mr. Vincent Chan, General Manager of Capital Markets, added, “We upped both our non-payment services’ commercialization and share of revenue and profit contribution. This makes our service offerings even more comprehensive and resilient than before. These non-payment businesses also enhanced their profit margins year over year. We also significantly increased sales efficiencies in our in-store e-commerce services and there is a visible pathway to run-rate profitability in the second half and sustainable growth in the years to come for this business. We also advanced our one-stop payment services’ business model with wider regions covered in underserved markets, further diversified & resilient sets of verticals penetrated, more profitable customer segments served and broader customer acquisition channels through deeper collaboration with strategic partners. We served more large-and-medium-sized merchants leveraging the network and partnerships with over 5,000 SaaS providers and over a hundred of banks as we scaled our product and region coverage. Our one-stop offerings of payments plus other commerce enablement services also gave us a unique edge in digitizing for and satisfying the various demands of large-and-medium-sized merchants. We therefore maintain our market leadership with a strengthened foundation. Our proposition has always been to leverage our extensive payments platform to fully digitize merchants all around their commerce. Such full-suite technology remains our edge over others in being more agile scaling up. And now is increasingly about “Going global”, as we play a more important role in the global journey of digitization.”

Outlook

Mr. Luke Liu concluded, “We are committed to being the go-to commerce enablement services provider for merchants. Whilst maintaining our established market leadership in the one-stop payment services segment. We strive to continue accelerating the growth and profit contribution of other services including merchant solutions and in-store e-commerce services as we upgrade our intrinsically synergistic business model. We have a strong foundation underscored by technical set-up, merchants servicing insights and business network domestically and beyond to further our progress in international expansion into attractive segments and widespread application of AI tools for both commercialization and efficiency purposes. By being steadfast to our vision and business model upheld for over a decade, such strategies will build a natural moat against further externalities whilst equipping us with early mover advantage capturing emerging opportunities on a much wider scale in the long-term.”

About YEAHKA LIMITED (Stock Code: 9923.HK)

Yeahka is a leading payment-based technology platform empowering businesses, dedicated to creating value for merchants and consumers. We are committed to expanding an independent digital commerce ecosystem by (i) providing seamless, convenient, and reliable payment service to merchants and consumers through our one-stop payment service business, (ii) enabling merchants to better manage and drive business growth through our merchant solutions business, and (iii) offering consumers high-value local lifestyle services through our in-store e-commerce service business.

For more information, please visit https://www.yeahka.com/

Investor and media inquiries, please contact:

Yeahka Limited
IR Team
E-mail: ir@yeahka.com

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SOURCE Yeahka

Technology

Positive Perception of Term “All-Electric Home” Increases 12 Percentage Points in Recent Years, E Source Survey Finds

Published

29 minutes ago

November 14, 2024

Research from the utilities-focused research, consulting, and data science company shows positive shift in homeowner perceptions of electrification technologies, though cost remains a barrier to fuel-switching.

BOULDER, Colo., Nov. 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — E Source, a utilities-focused consulting, research, and data science company, has shared the results of its 2024 Residential Electrification Survey, including a shift in consumer attitudes toward electrification technologies in residential settings. The independent study, first conducted in 2021, fielded in April 2024 with over 10,000 residential homeowner utility customers in the United States and Canada.

Designed and administered by the E Source Market Research team, the survey offers findings around:

Consumer perceptions of electrification technologies: Over three-quarters of respondents believe that electricity is a safer home and appliance fuel source than natural gas, an increase from 2021. Despite shifting perceptions, cost remains a barrier to fuel-switching.Current ownership of electrification equipment: More respondents say they own electric equipment in 2024 compared to 2021, with electric cooktops and smart thermostats reported as the most common electric appliances.Readiness for adoption: While many respondents said they were unlikely to switch fuel sources for most home equipment, 27% expressed interest in taking steps to electrify all their appliances.

In other notable findings, positive perception of the term “all-electric home” increased from 40% in 2021 to 51% in 2024. Additionally, over one-third of respondents would prefer homes with only electric appliances when choosing their next residence, with 63% stating that gas appliances contribute to indoor air pollution, an increase from 51% in 2021.

However, despite the growing interest in electrification, cost remains the largest barrier to fuel-switching, with 76% of respondents believing that switching fuel sources of any kind in their home appliances would be costly.

Utilities today are navigating fast-paced technological advancements, transitioning to cleaner energy sources, managing tighter budgets, and looking to meet heightened customer expectations. A systematic and targeted approach to electrification is central to successfully addressing these challenges.

“Electrification holds tremendous potential along with risks. Utilities can realize that potential and mitigate the risks by understanding how to best engage their customers in the energy transition. With in-depth market research like our Residential Electrification Survey, utilities can understand perceptions of electrification to promote the value of new technologies based on customer needs, beliefs, and behaviors,” said Filomena Gogel, President of research and advisory at E Source.

An overview of the insights is publicly available in a downloadable eBook here. Detailed findings are available in an industry report for members of the Distributed Energy Resource (DER) Strategy Service offered by E Source.

About E Source
E Source combines industry-leading research, data science, and consulting to help utilities make and implement better data-driven decisions that positively impact their customers, their bottom line, and our planet. Headquartered in Boulder, Colorado, E Source has teams across the US and Canada. Learn more at www.esource.com.

Media Contact:
Adarsh Nalam, Director, Solutions Marketing and Communications
adarsh_nalam@esource.com

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SOURCE E Source Companies LLC

Technology

Ironclad Launches Jurist: an AI-Powered Assistant That Shows its Work

Published

29 minutes ago

November 14, 2024

The conversational AI assistant utilizes purpose-built multi-agent technology that works together to automate legal work, giving legal professionals a singular place to work with all the right tools and information in one seamless experience

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Ironclad, the leading digital contracting platform for modern businesses, today announced the public launch of a new conversational AI legal assistant, Ironclad Juris t. Jurist allows legal professionals to draft, edit, review, summarize, translate, and answer questions related to modern contracting. Jurist is the only AI-powered assistant purpose-built for lawyers that lets users create and iterate on any legal document with past company precedent, benchmarks, and real-time changes in the legal space—all in an online, fully editable .docx workspace.

Jurist, built on Ironclad’s open-source visual programming platform Rivet, offers users unprecedented transparency into AI decision-making within a contract by displaying agent actions and reasoning, complete with citations in its online research mode. Leveraging industry-leading prompt routing, specialized legal prompt engineering, and a sophisticated retrieval automation generation (RAG) approach that harnesses multiple top-tier LLMs, Jurist is transforming the landscape of AI-assisted legal work.

“Jurist has already eliminated hours of manual review from our document review process. Its intuitive interface lets us easily define our own parameters, transforming tasks like NDA reviews into a streamlined workflow,” said Katelyn Canning, Director and Head of Legal at Ocrolus. “What truly sets it apart is its ability to select the most appropriate AI model for each task behind the scenes, delivering useful results without requiring us to craft intricate prompts. This combination of power and simplicity has made it an indispensable tool for our legal team.”

After a rigorous five-month beta, which included in-house legal teams at companies like Ocrolus and Signifyd, and leading law firms including Gunderson Dettmer, Jurist is now generally available. With Ironclad Jurist, users can:

Perform legal work in one central place: Jurist provides a new surface for lawyers to work with, iterate, draft, edit, research, and ask questions, all within a single environment. Users can directly edit AI outputs—and write prompts for specific sections of documents to fine-tune contract language—in a native .docx editor.Personalize AI outputs with past documents: Jurist produces personalized drafts, reviews, and edits based on the context users provide, including templates and executed agreements.Access the latest legal knowledge from verified online sources: Users can stay current with the ever-evolving legal landscape from the most reputable online legal research sources.Verify actions taken by your team of agents: Jurist explains its decisions in real time and cites sources when answering prompts, empowering users to use what they create with confidence.Work in a responsible, privacy-forward environment: Jurist does not allow companies like OpenAI or Google to retain or train on customer data. Ironclad provides customers with complete enterprise-grade security and holds numerous certifications, including several ISOs. Ironclad is also compliant with GDPR, HIPAA, and the SOC 2 Type II Security Trust Criteria. To learn more about Ironclad’s security certifications, click here.

“Legal is the perfect application for LLMs, because LLMs are exceptionally good at working with unstructured data – which is the lion’s share of the types of documents lawyers work with,” said Ironclad Chief Product Officer Michel Feaster. “We built Jurist to help bridge this gap, and wanted to create something that was congruent with the ways that lawyers are already working. Lawyers need to be able to edit in real-time in one place, or be able to ask questions about specific parts of a contract, or compare and edit groups of documents at the same time. And because Ironclad has been building technology for lawyers and optimizing contracts for 10 years, our AI agents are fine tuned to be best in class at legal editing.”

“Using Jurist has helped give us a singular workplace to drastically speed up many kinds of legal work,” said Zuhair Saadat, Contracts Manager at Signifyd. “For example, performing an MNDA review or drafting custom clauses for an order form typically takes an hour to a day. Using Jurist, we could do this in minutes—in some cases seconds—depending on complexity. If I need to edit the output, translate it, or ask a question about it, I can do that right in the product without leaving. It reduces time spent on these kinds of tasks, saves money on attorney fees, and gives me a leg up. Whatever I’m doing, I never have to start from scratch.”

“We’ve released Jurist as a standalone product, built on Ironclad architecture, because we feel this will benefit the entire legal community—whether they already use Ironclad or not,” said Ironclad President Jeremy Smith. “We are committed to enabling legal teams with the products they need to drive tangible business impact, and we believe Jurist will make a lasting impact on the future of the legal field.”

To learn more about Jurist and try it for yourself, click here.

About Ironclad
Ironclad is the #1 contract lifecycle management platform for innovative companies, powering billions of contracts every year. L’Oréal, OpenAI, and other leading innovators use Ironclad to collaborate and negotiate on contracts, accelerate contracting while maintaining compliance, and turn contracts into critical carriers of operational business intelligence. It’s the only platform flexible enough to handle every type of contract workflow, whether a sales agreement, an HR agreement or a complex NDA. The company is backed by leading investors like Accel, Sequoia, Franklin Templeton, Y Combinator, and BOND. For more information, visit www.ironcladapp.com or follow us on LinkedIn and X.

Media Contact:
Paul Chalker
paul.chalker@ironcladhq.com

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SOURCE Ironclad Inc.

Technology

Tom Atchison Honored as a Most Admired CEO by Denver Business Journal

Published

29 minutes ago

November 14, 2024

GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo., Nov. 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — National Corporate Housing is thrilled to announce that Tom Atchison, our esteemed Founder and Chief Executive Officer, has been honored with the Most Admired CEO Award by the Denver Business Journal. This prestigious award recognizes leaders in the Denver area who demonstrate exceptional leadership, vision, and community impact within their industries and beyond.

Under Tom’s visionary leadership, National Corporate Housing has achieved significant growth and success while maintaining a strong commitment to ethical business practices and a people-first culture. He has fostered an environment that prioritizes employee development, customer satisfaction, and industry-leading service.

“Tom exemplifies the highest standards of leadership, integrity, and Surprisingly Superior Service,” said Misty Gregarek, President of National Corporate Housing. “Part of what makes National so special is Tom’s incredible talent for identifying potential in people and providing them opportunities to excel. This recognition is a testament to his unwavering dedication to our company’s mission and to making a positive impact on our employees, customers, and the community.”

Tom was recognized along with 20 other executives Wednesday night at an award dinner at the Ritz Carlton in Denver. We congratulate Tom on this well-deserved honor and look forward to continued success under his exceptional leadership.

For media inquiries, please contact:
Heidi Hume, Vice President, Marketing
703-727-9124 | hhume@nationalcorporatehousing.com

About National Corporate Housing: At National, we turn complex temporary housing challenges into seamless solutions. As a global leader in customized corporate housing since 1999, we provide personalized, 360-degree services that ensure your employees feel at home, wherever they are in the world. With our extensive network and local expertise, we make the unfamiliar comfortable, delivering exceptional experiences that transform clients into lifelong partners.

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SOURCE NATIONAL CORPORATE HOUSING

Technology5 days ago

CloudOne Digital Appoints Packet Cofounder and Former Equinix Executive Zach Smith to Board of Directors to Drive Growth in Bare Metal and Hybrid-Cloud Solutions