---
title: "Earnings | Kunlun Tech: All-in AI to Empower Core Businesses"
author: "Unique Research"
sourcePublication: "Unique Research (FFCAP English library)"
originalPublishedAt: "2023-06-15T19:30:00+08:00"
canonical: "https://ffcap.cn/en/research/20230615a08vn200"
source: "https://ffcap.cn/en/research/20230615a08vn200"
language: "en"
cnSourceUrl: "https://view.inews.qq.com/a/20230615A08VN200"
---

# Earnings | Kunlun Tech: All-in AI to Empower Core Businesses

_Unique Research · Insight / earnings analysis · June 15, 2023 · Full rewrite — not a stub_

Kunlun Tech (昆仑万维) FY**2022** (filed Feb 28, 2023): revenue **¥4.73B** (−2.3% YoY); attributable net profit **¥1.15B** (−25.5%); gross profit ¥3.73B, GM ~**78.8%** (slightly up); operating net profit **¥760M** (+74.0%); attributable operating NP ex-investment **¥640M** (+112%). Core ops healthy despite headline declines.

## 01 Company & segments

Founded 2008 as web-game developer/publisher; expanded mobile/client games, then social/news via M&A. 2020 platform push: acquired **Opera**, **Star Group** — audio social, metaverse, global traffic. Five blocks: Opera (info distribution), Star Group (voice social), Xianlai Mutual Entertainment (casual), Ark Games (mobile), tech equity investment / Kunlun Capital (TMT/SaaS/healthcare; newer energy sleeve).

**Opera:** AI-driven news/services browsers + feed + games across Europe/Africa/E/SE Asia; Q4’22 MAU **320M**; OPay growth in high-ARPU markets. **StarX / StarMaker:** karaoke + voice rooms; MAU once **20.73M** (+11%); MusicX Lab ships AI songs to 180+ A/V platforms; Oculus App Lab / SideQuest VR push. **Ark Games:** MMORPG/SLG etc. across 150+ countries. **Xianlai:** top-2 China local mahjong/Dou Dizhu; RPG-hybrid modes; livestream chess/cards.

## 02 AIGC roadmap

Post-period release: **Kunlun Tiangong** foundation model (QA, text/code gen, translation) — Monte Carlo tree search for safe 10k-char dialogues. StarX + ArkGames merged into **StarArk** to focus AIGC. Dec 2022 model suite: SkyPaint / SkyMusic / SkyText / SkyCode. SkyMusic chord accuracy **92.5%** vs prior SOTA 64.7%; 31 languages; partners across music/auto/games/edu/fashion/entertainment. MusicX Lab: ~20 AI songs on 180+ platforms.

Feb 2022: Alibaba Cloud compute-cluster partnership (LLM train, algo/arch co-design, pipeline, storage, TCO) to open AIGC for SMEs/devs. Constraint: ~200-card train cluster vs frontier; 2022 R&D ¥736M (15.54% of revenue) — gap vs leaders. Tiangong strong on semantics/logic; math still weak.

## 03 Performance

Revenue ~¥4.74B (−2.4%); attributable ~¥1.15–1.17B still industry-front. Core operating NP ex-invest ¥760M (+74%); some cuts show attributable operating NP ¥830M (+170%+). GM ~78.8% (+~7 ppt) on social ops upgrade. Mix: social entertainment 35%, ads 27%, search 20%, games 15%. Social entertainment GM >90% (+23 ppt). History: post-2017 Xianlai buy revenue ¥3.44B (+41.7%); 2020 Grindr disposal + Ark soft → ¥2.74B (−25.7%); 2021–22 Opera/StarX consolidation → ¥4.850B / ¥4.737B.

Geo: domestic ¥1.16B (22.5%); overseas ¥3.67B (**77.54%**). Overseas revenue +7.2% YoY; overseas GM 81.8% (+9.9 ppt); overseas social GM 87.1% (+35.2 ppt) on StarMaker monetization. **Opera 2022:** revenue **$330M** (+31.9%); attributable NP $15.035M (turnaround); adj. EBITDA $68.08M (+134.7%). Q4 MAU 324M; annualized ARPU $0.83→$1.2 (+42%) via high-ARPU geo focus.

Investment income path: 2019 ¥650M → 2020 ¥3.36B (Grindr ~98% sale; attributable NP ¥4.99B) → 2021 ¥1.67B → 2022 ¥140M — prudent exits + impairments drove headline NP down, not core ops. 2022 opex: sales ¥1.57B (+6.3%); R&D ¥690M (+15.8%); admin −17.4%; finance −90.9% (FX + debt repay).

## 04 Unique Research view

-   Aliyun base + higher R&D/compute are gating items for Tiangong commercialization at scale.
-   ~400M global MAU across Opera/StarX/Ark/Xianlai = rare China-origin traffic entry; product-matrix upgrades should compound.
-   Multi-modal monetization (search, ads, virtual goods, membership) + local product craft across geos.
-   Thesis: mix improvement + AI enablement → StarMaker/Opera keep lifting organic earnings if compute spend and matrix keep compounding.

_9 CN charts/images; attach on ingest. Author Xiaorui · Review Ski._

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On-site reading page: https://ffcap.cn/en/research/20230615a08vn200