(Yicai) May 28 -- Kuaishou Technology’s shares advanced after the Chinese short-video platform reported a double-digit increase in revenue for the first quarter of the year.

Kuaishou [HKG: 1024] finished almost 6 percent higher at HKD51.65 (USD6.59) a share in Hong Kong today, after earlier gaining by as much as 7.1 percent. The stock has climbed 35 percent so far this year.

Revenue increased 11 percent to CNY32.6 billion (USD4.5 billion) in the three months ended March 31 from a year earlier, with online marketing services and livestreaming contributing 55 percent and 30 percent, respectively, the Beijing-based firm’s earnings report showed yesterday. Gross profit rose 10 percent to CNY17.8 billion (USD2.5 billion).

“Despite a complex and dynamic global macroeconomic environment, we achieved solid financial performance by continuing to integrate artificial intelligence technology across our business," the company said.

“These intelligent upgrades strengthened both our content and business ecosystems, elevating experience for both users and content creators on our platform and improving operational efficiency for merchants and online marketing clients," it added.

The commercialisation of Kling AI, Kuaishou's AI video generator widely used in various industries such as advertising, education, and entertainment, accelerated in the quarter, logging quarterly revenue of over CNY150 million (USD20.8 million). Average daily advertising spending on AI-generated content marketing materials was around CNY30 million (USD4.2 million).

In April, Kuaishou launched Kling AI 2.0 globally. The new version, which maintains global leadership in motion quality, semantic responsiveness, and visual aesthetics, introduced the breakthrough concept of multi-model visual language.

"Looking ahead, we will stay focused on long-term technology investments and continue to advance our AI capabilities, both to sharpen the performance of our existing businesses and to open new avenues for growth," said Cheng Yixiao, co-founder, chairman, and chief executive.

Average daily active users on Kuaishou's app rose 3.6 percent from a year ago to 408 million, while average monthly active users inched up 2.1 percent to 711.7 million.

Kuaishou's overseas business continued to make steady progress, with revenue rising 33 percent to CNY1.3 billion (USD180.5 million).

"Through effective cost and expense control, our overseas business achieved quarterly operating profitability for the first time," the firm pointed out. "We further improved overseas customer acquisition efficiency by focusing targeted promotions on high-value demographics, which contributed to steady DAU growth in Brazil, one of our core international markets.”

Editor: Futura Costaglione