360 Security Technology (SH:601360) Xin Lang Cai Jing·2025-09-05 10:37Core Viewpoint - The year 2024 is recognized as the year of AI application explosion, with AI expected to become a fundamental service empowering various industries. The performance of AI-related companies in the A-share market is under scrutiny as they report their mid-year results for 2025, questioning whether their AI businesses have formed a positive commercial cycle [1]. Group 1: Company Performance - Company 360 has faced continuous revenue decline from 2019 to 2024, with a reported revenue of 3.827 billion yuan in the first half of this year, reflecting a year-on-year growth of 3.67%. However, the net profit attributable to shareholders was -282 million yuan, showing a year-on-year increase of 17.43% [1]. - Despite a slight rebound in revenue growth, the company remains in a state of continuous loss. Notably, the growth rate of sales expenses has significantly outpaced revenue growth, with sales expenses increasing nearly 35% while revenue growth was less than 4% in the first half of the year [1]. Group 2: Business Model and Market Dynamics - The company's internet advertising and service business relies on various products such as "Nano AI Search," "360 Search," and "360 Security Guard" as traffic entry points. The traditional PC product matrix has been the core of its traffic acquisition and retention [2]. - The PC security product, particularly 360 Security Guard, has maintained a leading user scale, with an average monthly active user count of 430 million. However, the mobile internet wave has captured a significant portion of advertising budgets, with mobile accounting for nearly 89% of internet advertising expenses according to QuestMobile's report [2]. - The company has acknowledged the challenges posed by the shift to mobile internet, which has led to a reduction in the traditional PC advertising market and a risk of declining revenue scale [3]. Group 3: AI Strategy and Product Development - In response to market challenges, the company has deepened its "AI+AI" strategy, focusing on reshaping its business with AI. It continues to iterate on AI-native internet products such as "Nano AI Search" and "360 AI Office" [3]. - According to the AI product rankings published in June 2025, "Nano AI Super Search" ranked first in the "AI Product List - Intelligent Agent List" with a monthly visit count exceeding 150 million. However, there has been a decline in overall monthly active users for Nano AI Search [3]. - The company has made significant R&D investments, with expenditures of 3.129 billion yuan, 3.314 billion yuan, 3.104 billion yuan, and 3.202 billion yuan from 2021 to 2024, and 1.565 billion yuan in the first half of 2025 [3].