<div id="readability-page-1">Chinese short-video company Kuaishou Technology beat estimates with 33.7 billion yuan (US$5 billion) in revenue in the first quarter, driven by the rapid commercialisation of its flagship artificial intelligence video generator, Kling AI. Overall revenue grew 3.4 per cent, but Kling’s revenue surged more than 300 per cent to 650 million yuan in the period, the company said on Wednesday. “AI technologies continued to provide the momentum for our content prosperity, business growth and organisational efficiency improvement,” Kuaishou said, adding that Kling had claimed the top position in the App Store across 42 markets, including Brazil and Germany. Kuaishou, whose main business is in short video, where it competes with ByteDance’s TikTok and Douyin, has described Kling as the source of its “second growth curve”. The company reported a profit of 3.4 billion yuan for the quarter, up 26 per cent from a year earlier, beating estimates of 3 billion yuan. Shares of Hong Kong-listed Kuaishou dropped 1.1 per cent to HK$45.30 on Wednesday before it announced its earnings. Kuaishou was in talks with potential investors, including Tencent Holdings, to raise US$2 billion to spin off Kling, according to a report by Chinese technology news outlet The LatePost earlier this month, citing anonymous sources. The AI unit currently had an annual recurring revenue (ARR) run rate of roughly US$500 million in March, Kuaishou said on Wednesday. Kling has been making progress in terms of monetisation, as its ARR reached US$300 million in January, and the company expected the service’s revenue to “more than double” in 2026, said co-founder and CEO Cheng Yixiao on an earnings call in March. The company was planning an initial public offering for Kling in 2027, according to another report earlier this month by The Information, citing anonymous sources. In response to the reports, Kuaishou said that it was “assessing a proposal to restructure” Kling that could involve external funding. Designed to rival OpenAI’s Sora and Google DeepMind’s Veo, Kling AI quickly climbed the global rankings after its debut in June 2024. Earlier this year, consultancy Artificial Analysis ranked it as the world’s top model for image-to-video generation and second in the text-to-video category. However, the landscape of AI video generation has evolved quickly over the past few months, with the rapid rise of ByteDance’s Seedance and Alibaba Group Holding’s HappyHorse – as well as the abrupt exit of Sora. Seedance 2.0 currently tops the text-to-video ranking on Artificial Analysis, followed by HappyHorse 1.0. Kling 3.0 currently ranks third. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post. </div>

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<p>Kuaishou Technology reported a revenue of 33.7 billion yuan (US$5 billion) in Q1, surpassing estimates, driven by a 300% surge in revenue from its AI video tool, Kling. The company’s profit rose 26% to 3.4 billion yuan. Kuaishou is in talks to raise US$2 billion to spin off Kling, which has an ARR run rate of US$500 million. An IPO for Kling is planned for 2027. Despite strong performance, Kuaishou's shares fell 1.1% before the earnings announcement.</p>

- Kuaishou Technology reported 33.7 billion yuan (US$5 billion) in Q1 revenue, driven significantly by its AI video generator, Kling, which saw a revenue increase of over 300% to 650 million yuan.  
- The company experienced a profit of 3.4 billion yuan, exceeding estimates, while discussions for raising US$2 billion to spin off Kling are ongoing.  
- Kling has positioned itself as a competitor to major AI models and is expected to double its revenue by 2026, with plans for an IPO in 2027.

Kuaishou beats estimates as Kling AI video tool’s revenue jumps 300%