Fenbi publishes multiple posts mimicking rivals with low-price courses, posts net loss of 184 mln yuan in H1

Red Star Capital Bureau – Fenbi (02469.HK) has sparked heated debate after publishing a series of "short essays" across its official channels. The company is facing significant performance pressure in the first half of this year, having fallen into a loss-making state, with declines in both average monthly active users and employee numbers.

Fenbi Releases Multiple "Short Essays" Consecutively

Fenbi's core business is providing non-degree vocational education and training services, offering comprehensive recruitment and qualification examination courses for adult learners pursuing careers in public service, public institutions, and other specialized industries.

From September 16 to the evening of September 17, Fenbi published several "short essays" on its official WeChat account and Weibo, including:

• "Salute to Excellent Peers"
• "Acknowledgments"
• "Who Has Conscience in the Civil Service Exam Training Industry?"

In these posts, Fenbi stated that it has long been a benchmark for the civil service exam industry. However, it acknowledged becoming bureaucratic, bloated, and inefficient in recent years. To address these issues, the company plans to learn from peers and launch similar low-priced products.

"Family Bucket" Course Pricing Controversy

Taking its "Family Bucket" course series as an example, Fenbi claimed that competitors sell similar courses for approximately 680 yuan, while Fenbi prices them at 299 yuan.

"We are cheaper not because we want malicious competition or to highlight our conscience, but mainly because we fear they won't sell... Since everyone likes cheap options, we'll just go cheap. The written exam phase won't make money; we'll 'scam' again during the interview stage."

Accusations Against Chao Ge Education

On September 17, in its second "short essay," Fenbi revealed that its newly launched course—modeled after Chao Ge Education's offerings—was sold for 1,380 yuan (cheaper than Chao Ge Education) and sold over 1,200 copies within one day. The essay alleged that Chao Ge Education lied when claiming the course was unprofitable, estimating that Chao Ge Education made a profit of around 3 million yuan from this course.

Third Essay: Industry Tensions and Talent Poaching

That same evening, Fenbi published a third "short essay," stating that while it had previously driven down training fees in the civil service exam industry, it has recently been criticized for lacking "conscience." The essay also claimed that some peer institutions spent 2 million yuan to poach talent from Fenbi.

Fenbi explained that its recent string of "short essays" involving disparaging competitors stemmed from years of being bullied in public opinion, leading to frustration. Combined with poor management, ineffective administration, and severe losses, seeing peers making profits and poaching teachers left Fenbi anxious and angry.

"In fact, Fenbi's losses are not because system classes are unprofitable, but primarily due to self-inflicted problems."

On September 18, Red Star Capital Bureau attempted to contact Beijing Fenbi Blue Sky Technology Co., Ltd. via the phone number disclosed through industrial and commercial channels. After the reporter stated their purpose, the other party hung up immediately.

Net Loss of 184 Million Yuan in the First Half

Behind the consecutive publication of "short essays" lies Fenbi's pressured performance in recent years.

According to financial reports reviewed by Red Star Capital Bureau:

| Metric | H1 2025 | H1 2024 | Change | |--------|---------|---------|--------| | Revenue | 1.248 billion yuan | — | -16.35% YoY | | Net profit/loss | -184 million yuan (loss) | +227 million yuan (profit) | — |

Segment Performance

Revenues from Fenbi's training services, book sales, and other businesses all declined:

• Training services revenue: 1.069 billion yuan, a 17.5% decrease from 1.295 billion yuan in the same period last year
• Fenbi attributed this primarily to a reduction in the number of positions offered in Chinese civil service exams and increasingly fierce competition in the training industry

Employee and User Decline

The issue of talent poaching mentioned in Fenbi's "short essays" is reflected in the financial report:

| Metric | As of June 30, 2025 | End of 2025 | Change | |--------|---------------------|-------------|--------| | Total employees | 5,963 | 7,005 | -1,042 | | Full-time instructors | 2,154 | 2,870 | -716 |

Additionally, Fenbi's average monthly active users declined from 9.1 million at the end of 2025 to 8.5 million as of June 30, 2025.

Can "Short Essays" Revive Fenbi's Performance?

The question remains: Can frequently publishing "short essays" pull Fenbi out of its loss-making quagmire and revive its pressured performance?

Red Star News Reporter Yang Peiwen Edited by Guo Zhuang | Reviewed by Ren Zhijiang

Special Statement: The above content (including any pictures or videos) was uploaded and posted by a user of NetEase Hao, a social media platform that only provides information storage services.