[中报]科大讯飞(002230):2024年半年度报告（英文简版）
原标题:科大讯飞:2024年半年度报告（英文简版） The Board of Directors, Supervisory Board, and all senior management members of iFLYTEK Co., Ltd. (the "Company") collectively guarantee the truthfulness, accuracy, and completeness of the information in this Interim Report, affirming the absence of any false records, misleading statements, or significant omissions, and accept full joint and severable legal accountability for its contents. Liu Qingfeng, the Company's Chairman; Wang Ming, the person responsible for accounting; and Zhao Linyue, the head of the accounting department (accounting supervisor), hereby declare that the financial statements in this Interim Report are authentic, accurate, and complete. All directors were present at the Board of Directors meeting that reviewed this Interim Report. In "Section III: Management Discussion and Analysis," under "X. Company's Risks and Countermeasures," the Company analyzes potential risks it faces along with corresponding countermeasures, and invites investors to pay attention to these details. The Company plans not to distribute cash dividends, issue bonus shares, or convert capital reserves into share capital. Contents Section I Important Notice, Contents and Definitions ............................................................................................................................. 2 Section II Company Information and Financial Highlights ..................................................................................................................... 7 Section III Management Discussions and Analysis ............................................................................................................................... 10 Section IV Corporate Governance ......................................................................................................................................................... 42 Section V Environmental and Social Responsibility ............................................................................................................................. 45 Section VI Significant Events ................................................................................................................................................................ 54 Section VII Changes in Shares and Shareholder Information ................................................................................................................ 66 Section VIII Preferred Shares ................................................................................................................................................................ 71 Section IX Bonds ................................................................................................................................................................................... 72 List of Documents for Inspection 1. Financial statements signed and sealed by the legal representative, the person responsible for accounting, and the head of the accounting department. 2. Originals of all company documents and announcements publicly disclosed in the newspapers designated by the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) during the reporting period; and 3. The original Interim Report 2024 signed by the Chairman. Definitions
Section II Company Information and Financial Highlights I. Company Information
1. Change to contact information Is there change to the Company's registered address, office address and postal code, company website, email address during this reporting period? □ Yes √ No No change has occurred to the Company's registered address, office address and postal code, company website, email address, etc., during the reporting period. For details, please refer to the Company’s 2023 Annual Report. 2. Change to outlets and websites for disclosure and the location where copies of this Interim Report is kept Is there any change to the outlets and websites for disclosure and the location where copies of this Interim Report is kept during this reporting period? □ Yes √ No The websites of the stock exchange and media outlets where the Company discloses its Interim Report, as well as the location where copies of this report are kept, have not changed during this reporting period. For details, please refer to the Company’s 2023 Annual Report. 3. Change to other relevant information Is there any change to other relevant information during this reporting period? □ Yes √ No IV. Financial Highlights Does the Company need to retroactive adjust or restate accounting data for previous years? □ Yes √ No
excluding non-recurring profits and losses attributable to the Company's shareholders, please refer to "III. Analysis of Core Business Activities: 1. Overview" under Section IIII below. V. Differences in Accounting Data under Chinese and International Accounting Standards 1. Differences in Net Profit and Net Assets in Financial Reports Prepared Under IFRS and CAS □ Applicable √ Not applicable There were no differences in net profit and net assets between financial reports prepared under the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and the Chinese Accounting Standards (CAS) during this reporting period. 2. Differences in Net Profit and Net Assets in Financial Reports Prepared Under Overseas Accounting Standards and CAS □ Applicable √ Not applicable The company did not experience any differences in net profit and net assets between financial reports prepared under overseas accounting standards and the Chinese Accounting Standards (CAS) during this reporting period. VI. Non-recurring Profits and Losses: Items and Amounts □ Applicable √ Not applicable In RMB yuan
There are no other profits and losses that meet the definition of non-recurring profits and losses. Clarification of circumstances where non-recurring profits and losses, as listed in Explanatory Announcement No. 1 on Information Disclosure for Publicly Traded Companies — Non-Recurring Profits and Losses, are categorized as recurring profits and losses □ Applicable √ Not applicable The Company does not have any circumstances where non-recurring profits and losses, as listed in Explanatory Announcement No. 1 on Information Disclosure for Publicly Traded Companies — Non-Recurring Profits and Losses, are categorized as recurring profits and losses. Section III Management Discussions and Analysis I. Business Highlights During This Reporting Period 1.Industry Overview The Company complies with the disclosure requirements for the software and information technology services industry as stipulated in the Guidelines of Self-Regulation for Companies Traded on Shenzhen Stock Exchange No. 3: Industry Information Disclosure. Since 2023, the emergence of cognitive large language models like ChatGPT have demonstrated significant advancements towards general artificial intelligence, marking a major technological leap in AI development. This has triggered a global surge in large language models, attracting major tech companies, significant governmental interest, and widespread industry adoption, which collectively highlight the vast potential of these technologies to initiate a new growth era. In April 2023, Goldman Sachs forecasted that generative AI, driven by these large language models, would increase global GDP by 7% over the next decade, amounting to nearly 7 trillion US dollars. Further emphasizing this trend, Gartner's October 2023 report predicted that over 80% of businesses will deploy generative AI by 2026. Continuous breakthroughs in AI development and its vast potential for growth are providing strong momentum across the entire industry chain, transforming AI from a beneficial supplement to a core driver of digital and intelligent industry transformation. This shift moves the focus from “+AI” to “AI+”. As a pivotal force in the latest industrial revolution, AI is rapidly becoming as fundamental as water and electricity, empowering diverse sectors and promoting societal progress and development. In terms of industry policy, artificial intelligence has been included in China’s National Program for Medium and Long-term Science and Technology Development (2021-2035), which serves as a prominent example of the robust government support for the sustained development of the AI industry. ? January 31, 2024: During the 11th collective study session of the 20th Politburo of the CPC Central Committee, General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed the need “to strengthen scientific and technological innovation, especially original and disruptive innovations, accelerate the efforts to boost self-reliance and strength in science and technology, and do a good job in making breakthroughs in core technologies in key fields, so that original and disruptive scientific and technological innovations can emerge one after another, and foster more momentum for the development of new productive forces." ? March 2024: The government work report delivered to the National People's Congress further proposed to "step up R&D and application of big data and AI” and to launch its AI+ initiative, underscoring the critical role of AI in promoting economic and social development. ? June 2024: The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Cyberspace Administration of China, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the National Standards Committee jointly issued the Guidelines for Comprehensive, Standard and Systematic Development of the Artificial Intelligence Industry (2024)," demonstrating a strong commitment to the systematic planning of AI development efforts and accelerating the establishment of a standards system that aligns with the high- quality development goals of the AI industry and empowerment for “AI+”. ? July 4, 2024: Premier Li Qiang of the State Council, at the 2024 World AI Conference and High-level Meeting on Global AI Governance, announced that China will work to achieve the innovative development of artificial intelligence. ? July 2024: The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee emphasized "boosting self-reliance and strength in science and technology," "fully leveraging the strengths of the new system for mobilizing resources nationwide to improve China’s performance innovation across the board," "developing new productive forces characterized by high technology, high efficiency, and high quality," "updating policies and governance systems that promote the development of strategic industries like next-generation IT and AI," and "recognizing the principal role of businesses in technological innovation, establishing mechanisms to nurture and grow leading technology companies," reflecting the CPC Central Committee's resolve to support technological innovation. The gradual introduction and implementation of supportive industry policies will fuel the advancement of China's AI technology and the accelerated development of the industry, ultimately supporting the high-quality development of China's economy. A favorable policy and macro environment is emerging for enterprises to drive core technology innovation and the scaled industrial implementation of artificial intelligence. 2.Business Overview Since its inauguration, iFLYTEK has adhered to a "reaching for the sky, rooted on the ground" development strategy. "Reaching for the sky" refers to maintaining a leading international position in core technologies, while "rooted on the ground" involves the scaled industrial application of technological achievements. The Company continues to focus on core underlying AI technologies such as intelligent speech, natural language understanding, multimodal intelligence, and cognitive intelligence, managing to always remain at the cutting edge of the world. It actively promotes the research and development of AI products and their application in various industries, committed to making machines that can listen, speak, understand and think, and creating a better world with AI. iFLYTEK launched its advanced large language model, known as “iFLYTEK Spark”, on May 6, 2023, building on its long-term development of foundational core technologies. This model is undergoing continuous, rapid enhancements and iterations. Through rigorous, systematic, and authoritative evaluations, iFLYTEK Spark has established itself as a leader among testable large language models developed by Chinese companies. It now serves as the foundational platform for the Company's AI industrialization, playing an increasingly crucial role across various business sectors and in the operation of its open platform. iFLYTEK has adopted a two-prong “platform + business” approach, positioning itself as a leader in China’s AI industry. Through the iFLYTEK Open Platform, one of the first national new-generation AI open innovation platforms, the Company empowers developers with 708 AI capabilities and delivers comprehensive AI solutions. This initiative is continuously broadening the AI industry ecosystem, with a particular focus on key sectors such as education, healthcare, smart cities, telecommunications, automotive, and finance. iFLYTEK sets practical, scalable, and verifiable benchmarks for AI applications, establishing sustainable “strategic bases”. Additionally, the Company has secured a prominent market position and reliable revenue streams through consumer products, including AI learning devices, smart notebooks, recorders, translators, hearing aids, and iFLYREC . Figure 1: Overview of iFLYTEK’S key businesses 3.Major Business Developments During this Reporting Period iFLYTEK’s Large Language Model:iFLYTEK Spark As China's leading artificial intelligence company, iFLYTEK has built the country's State Key Laboratory for Cognitive Intelligence and the National Engineering Research Center of Speech and Language Information Processing. The Company has exceptional expertise in deep learning and natural language processing. Significant early technological breakthroughs include the first AI systems to pass China's National Practicing Physician Qualification Examination and China Accreditation Test for Translators and Interpreters (CATTI) at level II for Chinese-English interpreting, and machine reading comprehension capabilities that exceeded the average human performance in the SQuAD 2.0 challenge. Building on its long-term expertise and robust foundations in AI, iFLYTEK launched its large language model, known as 'iFLYTEK Spark', on May 6, 2023, which continues to be upgraded iteratively. In numerous rigorous, scientific, and authoritative third-party evaluations, iFLYTEK Spark consistently ranks first among testable large language models developed by Chinese companies. For instance, according to an evaluation report by the Xinhua Institute released in August 2023, iFLYTEK Spark topped the overall rankings with the highest IQ and the strongest tool efficiency capability among Chinese large language models. Furthermore, a report by the Development Research Center of the State Council in January 2024 stated that iFLYTEK Spark possesses the best comprehensive capabilities among Chinese models and is internationally first-class. Continual upgrades and iterations of iFLYTEK Spark: On January 30, 2024, iFLYTEK Spark V3.5, an open model trained on China's first fully domestic TH/s computing platform Feixing-1, was released, surpassing ChatGPT-4 Turbo in language understanding, mathematical abilities, and voice interaction capabilities, possessing 96% of ChatGPT-4 Turbo’s code and 91% of GPT-4V’s multimodal understanding capabilities. Additionally, iFLYTEK has released its first voice model using iFLYTEK Spark’s foundational capabilities, surpassing OpenAI Whisper V3 across 37 languages in voice recognition and elevating the MOS score by 0.25 on average across 40 languages in voice synthesis, achieving a near-human synthesis MOS of 4.5 with 83% human likeness. On April 26, iFLYTEK released iFLYTEK Spark V3.5, which supports long texts, extended mixed media content, and long voice inputs. This update introduced the iFLYTEK Spark image-text recognition model, featuring multi-emotion hyper-realistic synthesis and single-sentence voice replication capabilities. On June 27, iFLYTEK Spark V4.0 was released. iFLYTEK Spark V4.0 is the only fully autonomously controlled, domestically powered (trained on China's first fully domestic TH/s computing platform Feixing-1) open large model in China, and it matches up comprehensively with ChatGPT-4 Turbo. iFLYTEK Spark 4.0 excels in 8 out of the 12 mainstream test sets in Chinese and English, both domestic and international. iFLYTEK Spark's voice model made further breakthroughs, possessing dialogue capabilities in 74 languages/dialects without the need for switching, solving the challenges of voice recognition under strong interference, and capable of voice transcription in challenging and complex circumstances. Strengthening domestic computation foundations to ensure the sustainable development of AI in China: iFLYTEK, listed on the US Entity List and successfully countering extreme pressures, has gradually achieved full autonomy in core technology research and product development. The core capabilities developed under these conditions have given iFLYTEK a first-mover advantage in developing autonomously controllable large language models. In collaboration with Huawei, iFLYTEK is building computation foundations for general AI in China, placing domestic large models on a platform of self-developed hardware and software, achieving full autonomous control over the core technological infrastructure of these large models. On October 24, 2023, iFLYTEK, in collaboration with Huawei, announced the official launch of Feixing-1, China's first fully domestic trillion-parameter computing platform designed to support the training of large language models. On January 30, 2024, iFLYTEK released its updated large language model, iFLYTEK Spark V3.5, which is a hundred-billion-parameter model trained on the Feixing-1 platform. This model boasts outstanding performance indicators within China, confirming the reliability of Feixing-1. Then, on June 27, iFLYTEK launched SparkV4.0, also based on Feixing-1. This update enhanced seven core capabilities and achieved parity with ChatGPT-4 Turbo, further demonstrating the effectiveness of this computational platform. Empowering the iFLYTEK Open Platform, Accelerating AI Ecosystem Development: On its Open Platform, the Company offers 708 AI capabilities and foundational capabilities of its large language model to developers/teams, fostering an ecosystem with an API matrix and a comprehensive third-party plugin market. It also engages in industry collaborations and empowerment initiatives with startups and universities. From January 30, 2024, when iFLYTEK Spark V3.5 was released, to June 30, 2024, the number of developers on the iFLYTEK Open Platform grew from 5.98 million to 7.06 million. The platform also supports more than 400,000 overseas developers and 580,000 large model developers. For enterprises, the Company is enhancing industry empowerment, developing innovative applications of iFLYTEK Spark together with over 360,000 corporate clients, and has partnered with leading companies like Chery Automobile, Pacific Insurance, Bank of Communications, National Energy Group, and China Mobile to create benchmarks in industry-specific large model applications, accelerating industrial upgrades. To accelerate the development of an original developer ecosystem, iFLYTEK launched the first open-source large model, Spark-13B, on January 30, 2024. This model provides developers, universities, and businesses with a comprehensive, independent, controllable, and free Spark optimization suite. It is not only highly optimized for domestic computational resources but also delivers leading application performance in various scenarios. This supports enhanced academic collaborations and industry explorations. Enabling diverse business applications: Since the official release of iFLYTEK Spark, it has achieved significant industrial application results across various business areas of the Company, including education, healthcare, consumer platforms, smart cities, and telecommunications. 1. Smart Education In the field of education, guided by its commitment to "using artificial intelligence to aid education and provide personalized instructions to realize dreams," iFLYTEK works to address major educational issues. By deeply integrating AI technologies in educational and teaching scenarios, and leveraging its foundational large model technologies, iFLYTEK provides targeted and convenient services to students, teachers, and education administrators at all levels. This facilitates the accumulation and application of data in the teaching and learning processes, helps reduce burdens and increase efficiency for teachers and students alike, and thus promotes educational progress. Currently, iFLYTEK's smart education products are used in 32 provincial regions across China as well as in overseas markets like Japan and Singapore. iFLYTEK's smart education endeavors revolve around the goals of "reducing student homework burden while improving learning quality; reducing exams while scientifically assessing learning effectiveness; and promoting balanced education development while aligning with the goal of building a technologically advanced nation." In line with national and regional strategies for achieving digital transformation in education and high- quality educational development, iFLYTEK systematically constructs a business system tailored to customers on three sides: G (government), B (business), and C (consumer): G-side business mainly focuses on regional development, including the county/district level, offering comprehensive education solutions for local educational administrators and customized solutions for individual school teachers and students; B-side business primarily targets school infrastructure, offering smart blackboards, smart classrooms, big data-driven targeted teaching assistance, English listening and speaking classes, digital homework, and innovative education solutions; and C-side business primarily aims at parents as direct purchasers, offering products such as AI learning devices, personalized learning guides, and after-school services. In his report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, General Secretary Xi Jinping promised to “promote the digitalization of education and build a society and country of learning where lifelong learning is pursued by all.” It was the first time that “digitalization of education” was included as a goal in an official report delivered to the national congress of the CPC. In January 2024, Chinese Minister of Education Huai Jinpeng stressed at the 2024 World Digital Education Conference that China “needs to place high importance on the digitalization of education, treating it as a crucial breakthrough for pioneering new pathways in educational development and shaping new advantages.” On May 24, Deputy Minister of Education Wu Yan announced at the Digital China Summit that China would implement an action plan to advance the application of large AI models in the education sector. This plan includes accelerating the development of an education-specific large AI model, designed to harness AI's capabilities to enhance personalized learning experiences. This initiative aims to achieve the long-standing goal of personalized education, adapting teaching methods and materials to the needs and abilities of individual students. On July 19, Minister Huai Jinpeng stated at a press conference held by the CPC Central Committee that China is committed to advancing the development of smart campuses, deploying large AI models tailored for the education sector to enable mass personalized education and foster innovative and personalized teaching methods, aiming to substantially enhance the quality of education to meet the public's expectations. This initiative represents a strategic effort to integrate advanced technologies into educational activities, thereby enhancing educational outcomes and experiences across the country. The aforementioned policies have created a favorable environment for the seamless integration of information technology and educational practices through advanced artificial intelligence applications. Furthermore, these policies offer strong support for iFLYTEK’s deployment of comprehensive, scenario-based smart education solutions. 1.1 Promotion of region-specific personalized education solutions During the reporting period, iFLYTEK significantly expanded its personalized teaching solutions in five regions: Fugu County in Shaanxi Yulin, Zhuji City in Zhejiang, Pingtan Comprehensive Pilot Zone in Fujian, Jingzhou City in Hubei, and Changchun City in Jilin. These efforts supported the “Double Reduction” initiative as part of China’s ongoing education reform, notably with a smart homework project in Xiaoshan District, Zhejiang. Collaborating with the Hubei Provincial Department of Education, iFLYTEK helped establish a provincial-level education data center, setting benchmarks and advancing the digital transformation and quality development of education. To date, iFLYTEK’s personalized education solutions have been implemented in over 60 cities, districts, and counties, proving effective in reducing workload and increasing efficiency for teachers and students alike. This scaled application has increased the efficacy of regional teaching management through digital tools, with intelligent teaching assistants significantly easing teachers' grading and planning burdens. Additionally, it has developed student-centered learning profiles, increased teaching effectiveness, tailored instruction to individual learning needs, and shifted away from rote learning methods. These widespread applications have markedly enhanced teaching quality in these regions. In the same period, intelligent grading technology has been successfully applied in paper grading for college entrance exams across 14 provinces and cities. In 2024, the application of this technology in paper grading extended to cover college entrance exams in one additional province and 3 cities, along with the middle school exams in 3 more prefecture-level cities. Now, it covers college entrance exams in 25 provincial regions and middle school exams in 111 cities, enhancing the accuracy and efficiency of grading. 1.2 Enhancing product value in school scenarios In the classroom, the “Three New” teaching reform is deepening with an extensive roll-out of personalized and innovative teaching methods. In response, iFLYTEK has upgraded and integrated its previously separate and independent smart classroom and smart window products into a unified, green, safe, and intelligent “classroom product system”. This integration has led to the creation of a new brand of intelligent equipment that consolidates high-quality teaching resources and tools across various scenarios. This comprehensive digital and intelligent system is designed to better cater to the primary teaching environments, continuously enhancing the quality of education and creating sustained value for users. In the field of intelligent equipment, the launch of iFLYTEK Spark 4.0 has redefined classroom screens via the Spark Smart Blackboard. This technology incorporates multi-modal understanding and recommendation, fully natural interaction, virtual assistant learning, and intelligent recording and sharing, four key features that transform traditional blackboards into AI teaching assistants. In the realm of lesson preparation and delivery, the Spark Teacher Assistant has expanded its capabilities in subjects like mathematics, English, and Chinese, introducing new real-time recording and classroom analysis tools that now serve nearly ten thousand teachers. Data indicates a 56% increase in the efficiency of resource retrieval and presentation creation, with a satisfaction rate exceeding 85%. Moreover, the latest generation of smart classrooms, which connect large screens to students’ mobile devices, enhances teaching efficiency and effectiveness through an integrated teaching and evaluation system. This system supports the innovation of teaching methods and improves overall teaching quality. Regarding schooling data services, in response to the ongoing implementation of the “Double Reduction” policy, the increasing demands of exam management, and the broader context of digital education, iFLYTEK has upgraded and integrated its digital teaching products, which were originally designed for independent use in exams and homework support. This integration has resulted in the creation of a comprehensive and efficient “schooling data service system”. This system extends across all school-related scenarios, both inside and outside of the school environment, benefiting a variety of educational roles including administrators, teachers, and students. It delivers continual value by reducing workload and meeting the personalized educational needs of students. In the area of teaching management, iFLYTEK's “resource and supervision management” platform helps to optimize the design and distribution of teaching resources for balance and efficiency. In examinations and homework management, iFLYTEK's “precise exam and digital homework” system dramatically reduces the time taken to design an exam paper from 2 hours to under 10 minutes. Additionally, the newly introduced iFLYTEK Spark Smart Grader cuts down grading time for all subjects and question types from 90 minutes to just 5 minutes. This system enables a teacher to scan, grade, and analyze an entire class's papers within 10 minutes, reducing the workload significantly. It improves the adaptability of educational content by about 30%, delivering personalized homework tailored to individual learning needs and reducing ineffective practices. In the area of after-school service, empowered by iFLYTEK Spark, a course platform provides a wealth of quality course resources and content for teachers and students, greatly reducing the burden of teachers in lesson preparation. Additionally, the “Inquisitive Classroom” module, which integrates cognitive big model of iFLYTEK Spark and digital virtual person technology, can respond instantly to every child's curiosity in class and after class, effectively alleviating the contradiction between the limited knowledge reserve of front-line teachers and the infinite curiosity of students, encouraging students to dare to ask questions, be good at asking questions. The “Inquisitive Classroom” boasts an effective answer rate of over 98%. To date, after-school services have covered over 13,000 schools in more than 460 districts and counties nationwide, gradually narrowing the urban-rural gap, promoting balanced regional development, and driving the paradigm shift from traditional knowledge teaching to cultivating students' capabilities and comprehensive qualities. At the same time, in alignment with the national initiative to pursue education, technology, and talent development goals at the same time, iFLYTEK has introduced a comprehensive science education solution to integrate science education in basic schooling. This solution includes high-quality course resources, AI teaching tools, project-based inquiry systems, digital inquiry environments, and expansive social classrooms that bridge home, school, and community. Additionally, it focuses on building a culture of science and technology among educators. These support teachers in delivering effective science lessons, enhance students' science and technology literacy, and inspire children to pursue their dreams of becoming scientists by instilling a passion for science in their hearts. In response to the national initiative to enhance digital education and universal digital literacy, iFLYTEK has introduced a technology curriculum solution centered around experimental teaching and guided by curriculum standards. This solution utilizes the cognitive big model capabilities of iFLYTEK Spark to address the challenges in teaching, learning, and evaluating information technology subjects. It significantly enhances the efficiency of teachers' preparation for experimental teaching, cutting down preparation time from 4 hours to just 30 minutes. This not only boosts student engagement but also nurtures future talent equipped with digital literacy and innovative skills, aligning with national educational goals. 1.3 Promoting AI self-learning aids for students Since its launch, iFLYTEK’s AI Learning Machine has been a leader in its market segment, introducing a personalized and effective learning method, and consistently maintaining the highest Net Promoter Score (NPS) in the industry. Amidst fierce competition, the market share and brand recognition of iFLYTEK’s AI Learning Machine have continuously grown. With the release of the upgraded iFLYTEK Spark V4.0, the smart learning machine now features an enhanced AI-based 1-on-1 tutoring function, pioneering a new interactive mode that encourages children to think and ask questions proactively. In line with the 2022 curriculum standards, which emphasize respecting individuality and autonomous learning, iFLYTEK has partnered with renowned national institutions to develop high-quality learning content closely aligned with these standards, including AI-enhanced courses in Chinese writing, intensive reading, cognitive development, and elementary mathematics, bringing （未完）  |