Shell 2025 Revenue Growth 1%, Peng Yongdong: AI is a New Element for Industry Upgrade

In the past, real estate transactions were more straightforward decisions, but now they resemble a very cautious family asset restructuring. However, residents’ demand for a better living environment remains stable, and consumers’ need for safe, reliable, and transparent services has never changed. This means that the underlying logic of the housing sector is also changing, and industry competition will shift toward focusing on professional services and efficiency.

Industry intelligence expert “Finance Doodle” has learned that on March 16, KE Holdings (BEKE.US, 02423.HK) announced its 2025 annual and fourth-quarter earnings report.

In 2025, the company’s full-year net revenue was 94.6 billion RMB, a 1.2% increase year-over-year; net profit was 2.991 billion RMB, down 26.7% year-over-year; adjusted net profit was 5.017 billion RMB, down 30.4%.

In the fourth quarter of 2025, the company’s net revenue was 22.2 billion RMB, down 28.7% year-over-year; net profit was 82 million RMB, and adjusted net profit was 517 million RMB, down 61.5% year-over-year.

Peng Yongdong, Chairman and CEO of KE Holdings, stated during the conference call that consumer transaction behaviors are changing. Real estate transaction information is becoming more abundant, but decision-making is also becoming more complex. The transaction cycle for both buyers and sellers is lengthening, and the trial-and-error cost of decision-making is increasing.

In the past, the company focused more on the number of stores, property listings coverage, and shopping district scale. In the future, it will pay more attention to transaction certainty, matching accuracy, and improving unit economics.

Based on this, the company will first upgrade transaction services to full-process decision-making services, enhancing professionalism and certainty. It will also allocate resources based on data and AI capabilities, embedding AI into service processes to build diversified capabilities in the large housing sector.

“We believe that the rise of AI is a new factor in this industry upgrade. Real estate transactions are not standardized commodity trades; they involve both rational calculations and a large amount of emotional judgment. This requires data support as well as real offline experiences.”

He explained that in the past, the industry did not structure the rational part well nor place the emotional part in the most valuable position. Sometimes, emotional judgment was used where rational judgment should have been applied. The intertwining of these two aspects led to efficiency losses.

“So, we believe AI can make the rational part extremely rational, while further amplifying the value of the emotional part. In this industry, machines can process data, but true interpretation and trust often require human input. Therefore, AI cannot be ignored, and humans are irreplaceable.”

To this end, KE Holdings has adopted a human-AI collaboration strategy. AI is embedded in core operational scenarios, such as in real estate transactions, where AI transaction assistants help agents automatically generate marketing materials and simulate real transaction scenarios to enhance their professionalism. Going forward, AI will serve as a co-pilot throughout the customer lifecycle, in service and demand recognition, helping agents encapsulate their expertise for better generalization and reuse.

In 2025, the company implemented a series of efficiency improvement measures aimed at optimizing the unit economics model and cost structure. The profit margin contribution from new homes increased by 0.2 percentage points year-over-year, and the profit margin from existing homes rebounded in the fourth quarter. The profitability of home renovation, furniture, and rental services continued to improve, with significant reductions in operational losses and full-year profitability.