KANZHUN LIMITED - American Depository Shares (BZ)

How it makes money

Almost all revenue comes from employers, not from job seekers. Companies pay for online recruitment services on the platform — chiefly to post and promote jobs, to reach more candidates and to unlock contact with them — and the company counts as a "paid enterprise customer" any employer from which it recognised revenue in the period. In the fiscal 2025 filing the enterprise customer base is described in tiers by annual spend: small-sized accounts, mid-sized accounts and key accounts (employers contributing roughly RMB 50,000 or more a year). A small residual line comes from paid value-added services sold to job seekers themselves, and that line shrank in 2025 rather than growing.

Revenue by segment

The advantage, such as it is, is two-sided: employers go where the candidates are and candidates go where the jobs are, and BOSS Zhipin is the largest such pool in China. Scale also feeds the recommendation models, which the company says improve matching as usage grows. Two things keep this from looking durable. The platform itself warns that it faces significant competition from established players in adjacent industries and from technology-driven startups, and that its market share could suffer if it cannot compete effectively — network effects in recruitment are local and can be attacked job category by job category or city by city. And the economics rest on a Chinese VIE structure and on data and cybersecurity rules that the filing flags as complex and evolving, neither of which the company controls.

Recruitment spending is one of the first budget lines employers cut. Demand here tracks Chinese hiring: when companies expand headcount they buy more job slots and more candidate exposure, and when they freeze hiring the spend stops almost immediately — the company itself names an economic slowdown as something that lowers the hiring willingness and budget of its enterprise users. Two things soften the swing rather than remove it. The customer base is spread across a very large number of small and mid-sized employers, so no single sector's freeze decides the year; and turnover in blue-collar and service jobs generates hiring even in a flat economy, because positions have to be refilled whether or not the employer is growing.

Key risks

• Chinese hiring demand and the economy — The company states that a slowdown or adverse development in the Chinese or global economy, and geopolitical conflicts, may lower the hiring willingness and budgets of current and potential enterprise users, hurting demand for its services.
• Competition in online recruitment — Kanzhun describes China's online recruitment market as dynamic and competitive, with potential entry by established players from other industries and by new technology-driven startups; it says market share, financial condition and results could be materially harmed if it cannot compete effectively.
• Personal data and cybersecurity rules — The platform stores and processes data that includes sensitive personal information. The filing warns that concerns over its collection, improper use or disclosure could deter users, damage its reputation and create legal liability, and that data protection and cybersecurity laws in mainland China are complex and evolving; failure — or perceived failure — to comply could bring penalties and forced changes to business practices.
• Dependence on matching technology and on AI — The company says that if its technological capabilities fail to improve, the platform may not match job seekers with suitable employers, hurting user growth and retention. It separately flags that its use of artificial intelligence, including its proprietary large language model, carries technological, legal and regulatory risk.
• User misconduct on the platform — Users may engage in intentional or negligent misconduct or otherwise misuse the platform — a live issue for a service where strangers arrange to meet about work — which the company says may damage its brand image, reputation and results.
• VIE structure and doing business in China — Operations in China are conducted through contractual arrangements with a variable interest entity rather than direct equity ownership, and the filing lists risks over that structure, over PRC regulatory oversight and CSRC approvals, and over the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act and limits on PCAOB inspection.
• US–China tensions — The company warns that heightened tensions in international relations, particularly between the United States and China, including restrictions on trade and investment, could materially harm its business and the trading price of its shares and ADSs.

The filing does not disclose a top-customer concentration figure, and no statement that a single customer exceeded a given share of revenue was found. What the company does describe is the shape of the base: enterprise customers are grouped by annual spend into small-sized accounts, mid-sized accounts and key accounts, with key accounts defined as those contributing roughly RMB 50,000 or more a year — a threshold low enough that even the largest tier is made up of many thousands of employers rather than a handful of contracts.