Fenbi Posts Multiple 'Rants' Mimicking Rivals with Low-Price Courses, H1 Net Loss Hits 184M Yuan

Fenbi (02469.HK) has sparked widespread discussion after publishing a series of candid social media posts in recent days.

According to reports from Red Star Capital Bureau, the company has been under significant financial strain in the first half of this year, slipping into a loss-making position while also seeing declines in both average monthly active users and employee numbers.

Fenbi Admits Low-Priced Courses Are a Strategy to "Cheat Money" at Interview Stage

Public information shows that Fenbi's core business is non-degree vocational education.

From September 16 to the evening of September 17, Fenbi published multiple posts on its official WeChat public account and Weibo. The company claimed it has long been a benchmark for the civil service exam training industry, but acknowledged that it has become bureaucratic, bloated, and inefficient in recent years. To address these issues, Fenbi said it plans to learn from competitors by launching similar low-priced products.

Taking its "Family Bucket" course series as an example, Fenbi stated that competitors sell similar courses for around 680 yuan, while Fenbi's price is only 299 yuan. "We set a lower price not because we want vicious competition, nor to show we have a conscience, but mainly because we're afraid we can't sell it... Since everyone likes cheap products, we'll make them cheap. We won't make money on the written exam, and we'll wait to cheat money at the interview stage," the company wrote.

On September 17, in a second post, Fenbi revealed that its newly launched course—modeled after a product from competitor ChaoGe Education—was priced at 1,380 yuan (cheaper than ChaoGe's version) and sold over 1,200 copies in a single day. The post also accused ChaoGe Education of lying by claiming the course was not profitable, estimating that ChaoGe had made around 3 million yuan in profit from it.

Later that evening, Fenbi published a third post, stating that it was the company that originally drove down training fees in the civil service exam industry. However, it claimed to have been criticized as "unscrupulous" in recent years, while a competitor spent 2 million yuan poaching its staff.

Fenbi added: "The reason we've been writing these critical posts one after another is that we've been bullied in public opinion for years and we've had enough. On top of that, we've been poorly managed, inefficiently run, and suffering heavy losses. Seeing competitors making money and poaching our teachers made us both anxious and angry, so we resorted to launching various low-priced products to vent our frustration... In fact, Fenbi's losses are not because the system courses aren't profitable, but mainly because of our own mistakes."

On September 18, Red Star Capital Bureau called the phone number listed for Beijing Fenbi Blue Sky Technology Co., Ltd. in business registration records. After the reporter stated their purpose, the call was immediately disconnected.

Net Loss of 184 Million Yuan in First Half of the Year

Behind the series of provocative posts lies Fenbi's deteriorating financial performance in recent years.

According to Fenbi's financial reports reviewed by Red Star Capital Bureau:

• Revenue in the first half of this year was 1.248 billion yuan, down 16.35% year-on-year.
• Net loss reached 184 million yuan, compared to a net profit of 227 million yuan in the same period last year.

By business segment, both training services and book sales saw revenue declines:

• Training services generated 1.069 billion yuan in the first half, down 17.5% from 1.295 billion yuan in the same period of 2025. Fenbi attributed this to a decline in the number of civil service exam positions offered in China and intensifying competition in the training industry.

The company's mention of staff poaching in its social media posts is also reflected in its financial reports.

As of June 30, Fenbi had 5,963 employees, including 2,154 full-time lecturers. By comparison, at the end of 2025, the company had 7,005 employees, including 2,870 full-time lecturers.

This means that in the first half of this year, over 1,000 employees left Fenbi, including 716 full-time lecturers.

Red Star Capital Bureau also noted a decline in average monthly active users. At the end of 2025, the figure stood at 9.1 million, but by June 30, it had fallen to 8.5 million.

The question remains: can a flurry of provocative social media posts pull Fenbi out of its loss-making quagmire?

(Source: Red Star Capital Bureau)