Image Source: Visual China

July 14, Beijing (TMTPost) – Beijing Kingsoft Office’s CEO Zhang Qingyuan said on Weibo that the company will completely suspend its advertising business operation at the end of 2023.

“We have been decreasing advertisements in recent years. Our PC client barely has advertisements now. Many advertisements that users see are not actually from us. Some third-party companies would display advertisement pop-ups to users when their software detects the launch of WPS,” Zhang said. “We plan to completely suspend the advertising business next year.”

In 2021, Beijing Kingsoft Office achieved revenues of 3.28 billion yuan, registering year-on-year growth of 45.07%. Net profit attributable to shareholders was 1.041 billion yuan, representing a year-on-year increase of 18.57%.

Subscription of software service for work contributed revenues of 1.465 billion yuan, accounting for 44.4% of the total income and registering year-on-year growth of 44.2%. Revenues from advertising and others was only 406 million yuan, down 3.01% year-on-year and accounting for only 14% of the total revenues.

The company said that it continued to adjust its strategy and followed the principle of prioritizing user experience. The number and frequency of the display of advertisement had been decreased. The company’s user base continued to grow and its business operation overseas overcame impact coming from the pandemic.

It remains uncertain whether the suspension of the company’s advertising business would bring more users to the company’s WPS.

Beijing Kingsoft Office has been in controversy recently because users reported that the company’s work software WPS remotely locked users’ files. The company has denied the accusation.

Kingsoft Corporation is a Chinese software company based in Beijing. Kingsoft operates four subsidiaries: Seasun for video game development, Cheetah Mobile for mobile internet apps, Kingsoft Cloud for cloud storage platforms, and WPS for office software, including WPS Office. It also produced security software known as Kingsoft Security. The company also engages in the game industry.