NEW ORIENTAL-S (09901) Q4 2026 Earnings Call Transcript

Good evening, and thank you for standing by for New Oriental's FY2026 Fourth Quarter Results Earnings Conference Call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After management's prepared remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. Today's conference is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. And I'd like to turn the meeting over to your host for today's conference, Ms. C.C. Zhao.

Thank you. Hello, everyone, and welcome to New Oriental's fourth fiscal quarter, 2026 earnings conference call. Our financial results for the period were released earlier today and are available on the company's website as well as on Newsware services. Today, Stephen Yang, executive president and chief financial officer, and I will share New Oriental's latest earnings results and business updates in detail with you. After that, Stephen and I will be available to answer your questions. Before we continue, please note that the discussion today will contain forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. As such, our results may be materially different from the view expressed today. A number of potential risks and uncertainties are outlined in our public filings with the SEC. New Oriental does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required under applicable law. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. In addition, a webcast of this conference call will be available on Nurento's investor relations website at investor.nurento.org. I will now first turn the call over to Mr. Young. Stephen, please go ahead.

Thank you, Sissi. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining us on the call. We're pleased to bring you another quarter of remarkable results with revenue and income growth that have once again exceeded expectations. Our performance this quarter reflects not only the continued strength of our core business, but also the outstanding contributions of East Dubai and our new creative ventures. Taken together, these assets have energized our strategic ambitions as we look ahead with confidence in the year to come. We are particularly pleased that, despite the economic headwinds and external challenges, our relentless efforts to deliver the very best to our customers are yielding strong results. In this quarter, total net revenue grew 23% year-of-year to $1,529.5 million. Non-GAAP operating income rose 34.7% to $110 million, while operating margins for both the quarter and the fiscal year, 2026, showed healthy increments. Both our core business and new initiatives continue to score meaningful attractions this quarter. Breaking it down, Oversea Test Drive business recorded a revenue increase of 6% year-over-year for the fourth quarter of 2016. Oversea Study Consulting business recorded a revenue increase of about 1% year-over-year for this quarter. Our Adults and University Students business recorded a revenue increase of 29% year-over-year for this quarter. Our non-dynamic children business have been rolled out to around 60 existing cities. Market penetration has signed steady growth, particularly across high-tier cities. The top 10 cities contributed around 60% of this business. Our intelligent learning system and device business that leveraged our teaching expertise and data analytics to provide adaptive learning solutions has been launched in around 60 cities. We're encouraged by the enhanced customer retention and scalability with the top 10 cities contributing over 50% of this business. In summary, our new educational business initiatives delivered a 25% year-over-year revenue increase in this quarter moving on to our integrates tourism related business encompassing study tours and research camp for k-12 is for k-12 and university students as well as cultural tours for middle-aged and senior travelers or culture travel Chinese study tour global study tour and camp education products continue to deliver meaningful value to customers through knowledge enrichment personal growth and deep cultural dimensions our students programs now operate in about 55 cities nationwide where the top 10 cities generates over 50% of the segmented revenue and our premium adult tourism offerings span around 30 provinces domestically and selects international destinations. We're also expanding into senior health and wellness tourism with an asset-led model, forging partnerships with over 45 wellness facilities across key destinations, including Hainan, Yunnan, and Guangxi. With our OMO teaching platform, we have continued to invest in revamping and upgrading the system. During this quarter, we invested $31.2 million to improve and maintain our OMO platform, which enables us to provide and interrupt high-quality instructions to students that cater to their individual learning needs. Beyond upgrading the OMO system, we continue to embed AI across our ecosystem, including driving product innovation and transforming our internal operations to enhance capabilities, improve efficiency, and provide greater support to our staff. In terms of the product innovation, we are proud to share that our preparatory AI-powered personalized learning platform has successfully completed its first phase of deployment, achieving meaningful sales with just 25 days of inauguration. Unlike a general proposed large language model, our AI platform is built on a highly specialized vertical learning system, supposedly designed to reflect the rooted assets of new rental. This encouraging initial performance is the validation of the platform's market traction and product market speed. We look forward to propelling the development of the AI-driven products and solutions to further broaden our operational excellence and market impact. Turning to the East Dubai's fiscal year 2026 performance, East Dubai remains firmly committed to the three high product standards. high safety standards, high product quality, and high cost performance while delivering attentive customer service for families. On the platform front, Istabai made a significant stride in its multi-platform live streaming strategy on Douyin, launching 11 new vertical live streaming accounts and extending its channel matrix to 18 channels in total. EastBuy also launched a suite of the innovative operational programs, including streamer recruitment campaigns and annual supplier summits that have proven effective to strengthen internal operational teams, deepen long-term strategic partnerships with suppliers, and it elevates the customer engagement. Charting a new course in fiscal year 2027, ESABI will accelerate its extension of its private labor portfolio across food and daily necessities, scale up product R&D, and quality control to uphold three high standards, and advance its act membership ecosystem. By leveraging New Orientals' extensive nationwide network, East Dubai will further expand its offline experience to engage a broader customer base, collectively optimizing operational efficiency. It's supplying chain network and laying a solid foundation for sustainable long-term Now, I would like to share the latest updates of an exciting new strategic initiative that we have been piloting since the last quarter. New Oriental Home, a platform designed to serve the entire family unit, from children to parents to seniors, through a full lifecycle, full spectrum approach. New Oriental Home assembled our education service. eased by offerings and cultural tourism products into one unified ecosystem in a single ad families can conveniently access manage and redeem service tailored to each member enable seamless cross category engagement and deeper household levels relationships the platform has demonstrates strong early attraction with scenario-based marketing and the integrated service anchoring solid user activation, retention, and acquisition. Notably, we have seen retention for grade 7 students increased by 10 basis points from summer to autumn to autumn this year. Customers find the earn and redeem experience rewarding and are engaged to explore broader range of offerings within our ecosystem thereby lowering our cost of spent on customer acquisition as well this integrated loyalty framework has been particularly effective as it's not only strength and retention but also transform customer engagement into actionable data enabling us to create incentives for customers and staffs. At the same time, the vibrant synergies new rental home generated across all business lines, including East Bay, combined with highly personalized offerings, have overall accelerated cross-selling, improved convention efficiency, and optimized overall operating costs. We have launched this pilot program in 69 cities as test-based, including Hangzhou, Suzhou, Xi'an, and Wuhan, with over 950,000 registered families by the end of this quarter. The platform has achieved cumulative activity participation rates of around 70%, and the latest campaign activation rate is 23%, significantly outperforming many public domain e-commerce platforms. These results affirm the high reach and precision advantage of our education-focused private domain ecosystem and we look forward to build on the promising momentum in the quarter ahead. Now I will turn the call over to Cece to share with you about the key financials. Cece, please go ahead.

Thank you Stephen. Let me now work you through the key financial highlights for the quarter. Operating cost and expenses for the quarter were $1,443.7 million, representing a 15.3% increase year-over-year. Cost of revenues increased by 25.9% year-over-year to $717.3 million. Setting and marketing expense increased by 23.9% year-over-year to $262.5 million dollars. GNA expenses for the quarter increased by 13.2 percent year-over-year to $463.9 million. Impairment of goodwill was nil compared to $60.3 million in the same period of the prior fiscal year. Total share-based compensation expenses, which were allocated to related operating costs and expenses decreased by 28.7% to $22.7 million in this quarter. Operating income was $85.8 million compared to an operating loss of $8.7 million in this prior year period. Non-gap income from operations for the quarter, excluding share-based compensation expenses, amortization of intangible assets resulting from business acquisition and impairment of goodwill was $110 million, representing a 34.7% increase year-over-year. Net income attributable to New Oriental for the quarter was $62.2 million, representing a 775.8% increase year-over-year. Basic and diluted net income per ADS attributable to New Oriental were $0.40 and $0.39, respectively. Non-GAAP net income attributable to New Oriental for the quarter was $87.8 million, representing a decrease of 10.5% year-over-year. Non-GAAP basic and diluted net income per ADS attributable to New Oriental were $0.56 and $0.55, respectively. Net cash inflow generated from operation for the fourth quarter of 2026 was approximately $518.7 million, and capital expenditure for the quarter were $99 million. Turning to the balance sheet, as of May 31, 2026, New Oriental had cash and cash equivalents of $1,821.2 million. In addition, the company had $1,366.8 million in term deposits and two thousand three hundred and seventy two point three million dollars in short-term investments orientals deferred revenue which represents cash collected upfront from customers and related revenue that will be recognized as the services or goods are delivered at the end of the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2026 was $2,242.9 million, an increase of 14.8% as compared to $1,954.5 million year-over-year. Now, I'll hand over to Stephen to go through our outlook and guidance.

Thank you, Sisi. The healthy results we have delivered in fiscal year 2026 have given us both the fuel and conviction to pursue resilience, sustainable growth, and ever-improving service in the year ahead. Approaching summer vacation, we're particularly confident in sustaining momentum for the coming first quarter of fiscal year 2027, with expectations that improving enrollment trends will drive an accelerated revenue growth, and the higher overall operational efficiency will bolster our optimism in growing our margins. We will continue to strategically expand capacity and talent, deepening our presence in markets with proven top and bottom line performance while maintaining regular resource allocation. Extension decisions will be carefully calibrated throughout the year, guided by the operational readiness and financial results. Alongside our pursuits of new creative initiatives, sustainable profitability, and cost discipline remain cornerstones of our business. In the coming quarter, we expect meaningful cost improvements to emerge from the restructuring of our overseas business, which will pave the way for the greater operational efficiency and a stronger margin profile in the new year. Looking ahead, we enter fiscal year 2027 with deep confidence in our core education business and new initiatives, driven by a genuine passion to create lasting value. We will continue to drive sustainable and healthy growth through product enhancement and quality improvement, while further optimizing cost structure and to enhance efficiency and profitability. Our focus remains on long-term value creation, offering investors a clearer view of our strategic trajectory and durable growth we're building for the future. Considering the positive momentum and cost management measures across our business line, We expect total net revenue for the group in the fiscal year 2027 to be in the range of $6,453.9 million to $6,680.3 million, representing a year-over-year increase in the range of 14% to 18%. These expectations reflect our current outlook based on the recent regulatory development and prevailing market conditions, both of which remain subject to change. Additionally, we announced a share repurchase program under which new rental is authorized to purchase to repurchase up to $300 million of its ADS or common shares over the subsequent As of July 28, 2026, yesterday, we had repurchased a total of approximately 51.5 million common shares, including common shares represented by ADS, for aggregate consideration of the approximately $274 million from the open market and the share repurchase program. We expect to roll out the share repurchase program for the remainder of the duration in accordance with its terms. Furthermore, to implement our three-year shareholder return plan adopted in July 2025 for fiscal year 2027, the board of the directors of the company has approved an ordinary cash dividend and a new share repurchase program with the total amount of the capital return for the fiscal year 2027 is expected to be approximately $500 million. I would like to go through details in the following. The aggregate amount of the cash dividend for the fiscal year 2027 is expected to be approximately $300 million to be paid in two installments in December 2026 and June 2027, respectively. Further details regarding the cash dividend program will be decided by the board of directors and announced by the company in due course. Pursuant to the share repurchase program for fiscal year 2027, the company may repurchase up to $200 million of its ADS or common shares over the subsequent 12 months following the board approval. the company's proposed repurchase may be made from time to time in open market at prevailing market price, in privately negotiated transactions in block trade, and or through other legally permissible means, depending on market conditions and in accordance with the applicable rules and regulations. The board of directors of the company will review the shared purchase program periodically and may authorize adjustments of term and size. The company expects to fund the repurchase out of its existing cash balance. To conclude, New Oriental is steadfastly committed to driving sustainable growth, promising exceptional value to our customers and shareholders, and generating long-term returns to our shareholders. We continue to collaborate closely with government authorities across province and municipalities in China, ensuring full compliance with the relevant policies and regulations, while adapting our operations responsibly to meet evolving requirements. This is the end of our fiscal year 2026 Q4 summary. At this point, I would like to open the floor for questions. Operator, please open the call for this.

Thank you. The question and answer session of this conference call will start in a moment. In order to be fair to all callers who wish to ask questions, we will take one question at a time from each caller. If you have more than one question, please request to join the question queue again after your first question has been addressed. To ask a question now, please press star 11 on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. A moment for our first question. We will now take our first question from the line of Elsie Sheng from CLSA. Please ask your question, Elsie.

Your line is open. thank you steven and sisa and congratulations on the very strong results and i think the guidance on the 2027 financial year is also higher than expectation so my question is uh can you help us break down the financial year 27 guidance into quarters especially the trend that you expect in the first quarter of the financial year 27 in terms of revenue and margin thank you okay thank you.

Yeah as you know I think our strategy in fiscal year 2026 is to enhance the product and service quality and I think we have seen the good result. You know the better quality drives the student retention rate up and the end of the Q4 marks another quarter of the solid result and so give the positive, given the positive momentum, I think, you know, including the healthy growth of our K-12 business and the recovery of the Easter pie, I think we are now in a more optimistic position regarding our business outlook in fiscal year 2027. So we give the guidance of the annual guidance in fiscal year 2020. I must mention that as always we're still conservative to give the annual guidance you know we do expect to beat our annual guidance in fiscal year 27 and and you know from this year we are making the change to give the guidance you know on annual basis I think it's more you know I think we believe this change better reflect our long-term strategic focus and encourage the investors to evaluate our business performance over a longer term rather than the quarter to quarter. And I believe you're still interested in the Q1 forecast. And I must say that we're quite confident in sustaining a momentum for the coming first quarter of fiscal year 2027. You saw our deferred revenue at the Q4 end was increased by roughly 15%. So I think that's a good sign of the coming quarter of the revenue growth. And we expect the improving summer enrollment trends that we have seen will drive accelerated revenue growth of the education business and the higher operational efficiency. And also I do believe the easter buy, the revenue will be accelerated in Q1. So easter buy will contribute more profits and revenue to the group. And so, repeat again, we're quite optimistic about the Q1 performance. Thank you. Thank you, it's very helpful. Revenue, yeah. Your question is about the margin as well. The margin, you know, we got the margin extension in Q4 in this quarter, even though we need some margin drag from the overseas related business and the one-off expenses roughly $10 to $50 million from our internal management restructuring in this quarter. But we're still getting group margin extension by 60 days to point up in this quarter. And as for the margin outlook for the next year, fiscal year 2027, I think we'll continue to focus on profitability across all business lines. We'll keep doing the cost control and we will improve the operational efficiency and to bring more operating leverage in the coming new year. So we expect the margin will be expanded in the coming new year. And the Q1 margin, Alok, I think we're quite confident on the margin expansion in the coming Q1.

Thank you, Stephen. Thank you. We will now take our next question from the line of Jenny Yuan from UBS.

Please ask your question jenny your line is open jenny your line is open please unmute and ask your question oh can you hear me yes you can please please thank you thank you steven for taking my question and congrats on the strong quality results um so my question regarding our like a revenue outlook specifically for our K-12 business. So after the acceleration in the fourth quarter, how should we project the revenue growth outlook for the upcoming first quarter and next fiscal year, 2007? Thank you.

Yeah, I think we had a strong year of the K-12 business growth in fiscal year 26. And, you know, as for the guidance of the K-12 business in the new year, I think, you know, we, you know, I would like to guide the K-12 business in total, you know, the K-9 and high school in total roughly will be expected to increase roughly close to 20 percent or around 20 percent year over year. And because, you know, I think this enrollment growth trend is good, and also I think the Q1 revenue growth will be stronger. So this is my guidance of the K-12 business. And don't forget, I think the K-12 business will bring us the higher margin in the coming new year. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Thank you. We will now take our next question. And the next question comes from Alice Tsai from Citi. Please go ahead, Alice. Your line is open.

Thank you. Thank you for taking my question. Good evening, management team. Congratulations on the solid and strong result. My question is about the capacity expansion in FY27 because you've talked about discipline, capacity expansion in FY26, and that's been part of the margin story. So wondering what's the plan for FY27 and where is the utilization running now? And also I have another question about the compliance because we've seen some reports about inspection at individual learning centers. Wondering if there is any risk we should be aware of?

Okay. Yeah, thank you, Alice. You know, in fiscal year 26, we added 13% new capacity in total. I think, you know, it's based on the, you know, the expansion control. And we, I think we did well in the last year. And in the coming new year, we plan to open 10% to 15% new capacity. I think most of the new openings will be in the, you know, performance with the top performance of the bottom line and top line in the last year. I think, you know, we're happy to see the student retention rate improvement, which will drive the utilization rate up in the existing learning centers. And I think we are quite optimistic on the OMO or some online business development. And so that means we don't need to open too many learning centers in the coming new year. So in one word, I think the top angles in the coming new year will be higher than the learning center expansion. So, it will drive the average utilization rate up again in the coming new year. Oh, your second question is about the regulation. I think, yeah, anyway, I think the, you know, obey the rules, you know, the policy requirements. I think it's fine because in the last four or five years, we passed all the requirements of the government. I think going forward, my personal view is on the regulation side, I think for me, it's neutral to positive on the regulatory environment. thank you thanks very helpful thank you we will now take our next question and our next question comes from timothy chow from goldman sachs please go ahead timothy your line is open sure uh thank you steven thank you thank you for taking my question and congrats on the very solid results uh i think my question is regarding the the overseas test president consulting business

Just wondering if you can give us an update on what you are seeing on the ground and what you have seen from the summer vacation period in terms of the overseas test prep growth and how do you think about the growth trajectory for this year for this specific segment. And I believe last year you did a segment merger or integration between the two separate business. Just wondering if you can give us some margin outlook for this business line. What was the operating margin or contribution margin for the overseas business related last year and what is your expectation for this year?

Thank you, Chen. You know, your question is about the overseas related business. I think, yeah, everybody knows, you know, due to the impact of the economic environment and the international situation, our overseas-related business meets some growth pressure in last year. But I think we have shown the resilience in last year. And we believe that we were taking, I think we were taking the market share as a fact, you know, as always. And so in the coming new year, we expect our overseas-related business will be slattish for low single-digit growth in the coming new year. And I think the Q1, roughly the Q1, I think we still believe that we can get some low single-digit growth of the overseas-related business. Yeah, we merged the Oversea Test Track business and the consultant business in Q3 last year. I think the reason that we put it together is to restructure the two different management team and to provide the customers one-stop service and to enhance the cost control, reduce some cost and expenses. And roughly, the margin of the overseas-related business last year is roughly 15%, roughly, last year.

Including both test prep and consulting.

Yeah, we put it together. And in the coming year, we believe the margin will be expanded for the overseas-related business because of the cost control, because of the merge of the restructuring, the new team. And so, yeah, I think we have done a lot of jobs, and we will keep doing the cost control in the coming new year. It will drive the margin up of the overseas releases in the coming new year.

Great. Thank you, Stephen. Thank you. We will now take our next question from the line of Lucy Yu from Bank of America Securities. Please go ahead. Lucy, your line is open. Hi, Stephen. I have a question on sales and marketing distribution. expense in the last quarter, it was up a bit, both on a Q on Q and a Y on Y basis.

Could you elaborate why is that, and how should we think about the selling distribution expense in FY27, especially we have the oriental home in place? Thank you.

I think Q4, you know, the East Dubai spent a little bit more money on the marketing, but, you know, it drives the revenue, you know, grows up a lot. And so in the coming new year, I do believe the selling marketing expenses as the percentage of the revenue for the whole group will be down. So it will drive the margin up in the coming new year. Lucy.

Thank you. Maybe one more.

So for the fourth quarter non-GAAP operating margin expansion, If we excluding East Bay, how about the rest of the education? Is it like flattish or expand as well?

If we take out the East Bay's contribution of the Q4, the margin contribution from the East Bay, you know, I think the, our education business margin, you know, roughly flattish. But don't forget, we take the one-off expenses of the restructuring merge of the overseas related business in Q4. So roughly, we record $10 to $15 million as the one-off expenses in Q4. So if you add it back, the margin is up of the core business. Lucy.

And that's it. Very clear.

Thank you.

Thank you. We will now take our next question from the line of DS Kim from JPMorgan. Please go ahead, DS. Your line is open.

Thank you. Hello, sir. Thanks for another strong bid and rate. I think this is now third time in a row. I have very quick two questions, if okay. First, we just mentioned about that cost optimization initiative, and can I ask if this is already done behind us, or shall we expect, I don't know, like $5 million, $10 million, or some more of this one-off in the first quarter, and more importantly, can we try to quantify roughly how much fixed-cost savings can we enjoy in 2027 from this? And I have one small follow-up.

Thank you, D.S. You know, your question is about the cost control. You know, we started to do the cost control since March last year. And I think we did a great job in the whole year, fiscal year 26. You know, roughly we saved $100 million, roughly, in fiscal year So now, we are closely to the end of the phase one, cost control phase one. So we're stepping into the phase two. As I said, in the cost control phase two, we will do more like the restructuring of the management teams to do more cost control. And we will use more AI to save the staff cost for extra. So I think in the coming new year, we expect the cost control can save more amount than that of last year. So this is our target. Thank you, Dias.

Thank you. Thank you, sir. That's very helpful. Second, a small question. Can I ask, I saw we spent $250 million CAPEX capital expenditure last year, and can I check if we have a budget for 2027?

The CAPEX, yeah, last year, roughly $250 million.

In the coming new year, roughly $250 to $300 million, you know, as the new capacity or some you know uh the capex on the on the learning pad model or on these and others so roughly 250 to 300 yeah got it thank you just just on that um i mean not to nitpick on this but last year i think our new opening like absolute number of stores were down 40 from a year ago i think we opened like 170 stores, the year before it was like 20670, yet CAPEX was flat, and this coming year, CAPEX to go up, is that the delta, the gap, because of East Buy? Can I understand that way? Or if you could comment on that, is it related to a new initiative of the East Buy offline store, or anything else I'm missing?

So each device, the offline store, you know, the capital is very tiny, it's, you know, very, very, very small in number. And I think the, yeah, as I said, last year, we opened, you know, 13% new capacity in terms of the square meters. And the coming new year, we plan to open 10 to 15% new capacity. and we believe the new capacity growth or the new capacity numbers will be lower than the top-line growth. So that means it will drive the utilization rate up. And your question about the CapEx, yeah, we're building up the new headquarters in Chongqing and it costs a little bit more money. So the CapEx in the new year will be a little bit more higher than that of Latvia.

That makes a lot of sense, sir. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

Thank you. We will now go to our next question. And our next question comes from Yikun Zheng from Citix. Please go ahead, Yikun. Your line is open.

Good evening, Stephen and sisters. Thank you for taking my question. And congrats on the strong results. My question is about the competition. Well, last year, the competition in summer season is quite strong. So how do you think of the competition for this summer? And considering the impacts of the decline population and the competition, can we have a three-year outlook for the K2TL business?

The competition. I think in this summer, I think the competition is less than that of last year. I remember last year's summer, the competition situation. And this year, I think it's better. And so that's why we can give the Q1 guidance in a higher revenue acceleration in the coming Q1. And so the Q12 business in the coming Q1 and even the whole new year will be accelerated a little bit than that of last year. And as for the population, I think, yeah, it's an issue. But I think, you know, the parents will choose the education company for their kids will be more carefully. And I think the parents love to give their kids the best education in the coming, you know, like the three or five years. And so that means the big players will take more market share from the market. So this is, you know, in my opinion, based on the current estimation.

Thank you, Stephen.

That's helpful.

Thank you. As a reminder, before we take our next question, to ask a question now, please press star 11 on your telephone keypad. We will now take our next question, and the next question comes from Jing Yuan from CICC. Please ask your question, Jing. Your line is open.

Good evening, management. Thank you for taking my question. My question is about the AI adoption, like with the rapid development of AI technology and could management share how the company is leveraging AI in its teaching and learning process? And do you see AI primarily as a tool to transform the teaching model or like a way to improve operational efficiency?

Yeah, actually, as for the AI, you know, we have been devoting a lot of efforts and resources into implementing the AI technology into education sector. And, you know, in total for three aspects, one is that for all the existing educational products, we are implementing AI technology to enhance the product quality and also enhance the students' learning experience. For example, we embedded AI new functions into our learning device business, and also even in class, we use the AI tools to help students to improve the teaching and learning efficiency and the learning experience. And also after school, they can use the AI new tools to enhance the learning efficiency. So all these are depreciating us much more than before, more depreciating from all the other competitors because we have enough capital and also we have the technology and also the teaching knowledge to use the AI technology and make our products better. So this is one aspect. And the other thing is that we're using AI is even more exciting is that we are paletting a lot of new AI, new products. It's not only products, but as we announced this quarter that we have a new platform launched recently and, you know, to use the AI technology and also using our teaching and learning experience and all the teaching and learning settings that we have all of these combined together to come up with some new solution. So it's based on the, to help students how to learn and how to use our teaching knowledge and using all the new AI tools to have some new products. So this is something that we are paletting and still in early stage, but we believe that the platform will be more and more better in the future. And also we have a series of new products coming. So that's some exciting ones. And also, third thing that we're doing is using the AI technology to improve the working efficiency so that we can save more labor costs for all functions, like all the teachers and also our teacher assistants, and for all aspects of their working process, we can use AI tools to help them to improve the efficiency so that we don't need to hire as much as new staff, as many as new staff as before so that they can handle more work than before. So the HR costs can be saved more and efficiency can be improved. And also functional supporting staff as well. So that's all the things that we're using AI to do. And I think in total, we are more differentiating and have more advantage than other competitors in terms of using AI. Yeah, so we have the good solution and also can have the AI technology used more and more, better and better in the education sector. Yeah.

Thank you. That's very comprehensive. Thank you for your questions. We are now approaching the end of the conference call. I'll now turn the call over to New Oriental's Executive President and CFO Stephen Young for his closing remarks.

Again, thank you for joining us today. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me or any of our investor relations representatives. Thank you very much.

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect your lines.