STAR-listed Kingsoft Office posts profit growth, incorporating AI functions

STAR-listed Kingsoft Office, which offers WPS as a Chinese counterpart of Microsoft Office products, posted its net profit growth on Wednesday, with increased paid subscriptions.

The company, whose products reach 573 million monthly active devices globally, will increase investment on generative AI. It's a similar move following Microsoft's addition of AI in its office products covering Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

In 2022, Kingsoft Office posted net profit of 1.12 billion yuan (US$162.3 million), a 7.33 percent growth from a year ago. The revenue reached 3.89 billion yuan with a growth of 18.44 percent.

The paid subscription, from both individual and enterprise clients, jumped 43 percent, which makes it the company's major income source with a 71 percent contribution.

Next-generation tech

The company will "actively explore the next-generation human-computer interaction experience combining AIGC or generated AI and LLM or Large Language Model technologies."

The AI features cover intelligent assisted writing and typesetting, analysis of form data and one-click PPT generation, the STAR-listed company said.

Kingsoft Office is regarded as one of the Chinese tech giants able to develop ChatGPT-like tools and applications, and a potential competitor with Microsoft and OpenAI as ChatGPT's developer, especially in the office tool sector, industry officials said.

With Xiaomi's chief executive Lei Jun as a major investor, Kingsoft Office is now the third biggest company on the STAR-listed broad, with a market value of over 150 billion yuan by Wednesday.

By 2022, its products reached 573 million monthly active devices globally. Its WPS product is widely used in computers, tablets and smartphones in China.

In 2022, Kingsoft Office research spending grew 23 percent and accounted for 34 percent of the revenue, a high portion in the tech industry.