Five AI+finance listed companies have released their first-half results. In 2026, the sector has shifted to an agentic AI phase, with competition pivoting from model capability to proprietary data, tool integration, scenario penetration, and sustained usage. Listed firms including Hithink RoyalFlush, Fortune Trend, Compass, and JF SMARTINVEST each demonstrate distinctive approaches and outcomes in their AI applications and performance metrics.

Among the five companies, JF SMARTINVEST recorded the steepest declines in both revenue and net profit for the first half, falling 38.57% and 96.26% respectively. Its net profit of RMB 0.32 billion was also the lowest in the group. Additionally, the company's indirect wholly-owned subsidiary, Shanghai Jiufang Cloud, was ordered by the Shanghai Securities Regulatory Bureau in February 2026 to rectify issues and suspend new client acquisition for three months — marking the second consecutive year of regulatory penalties.

Interestingly, JF SMARTINVEST saw paid users surge 353% year-on-year in the first half of 2026, yet revenue and profit declined substantially. This raises critical questions: Are the average order values from newly acquired paid users too low? Are customer acquisition costs excessive? Has the company's core competitive advantage fundamentally shifted? These issues remain unanswered by the company.

Revenue and Net Profit Declines Outpace Peers, Net Profit at Lowest Level

According to research from Soochow Securities, the competitive focus in AI+finance during the first half shifted to agentic capabilities, emphasizing professional data, tool invocation, scenario penetration, and sustained usage. Since 2024, financial AI has evolved from single-point capabilities like Q&A and summarization to agents capable of planning, tool use, and continuous task execution. The competitive landscape revolves around four participant categories: data owners (Hithink RoyalFlush/Wind/East Money) competing on MCP openness — with data barriers setting the floor and openness strategy defining the ceiling; scenario owners (Hithink RoyalFlush/JF SMARTINVEST/Fortune Trend/Compass) where scenario penetration depth determines user stickiness and hardware carriers serve as differentiation barriers; model owners (Doubao/DeepSeek/Tongyi/Zhipu) where general models don't replace vertical players but divert shallow C-end demand, with DeepSeek becoming the institutional deployment choice due to its open-source low-cost model; and platform owners (such as WorkBuddy) who are both the largest customers and the greatest threat to data providers, having already integrated three financial MCPs.

Among the five listed companies — Hithink RoyalFlush, Fortune Trend, Compass, JF SMARTINVEST, and East Money — East Money posted the highest first-half revenue at RMB 10.505 billion, while Fortune Trend recorded the lowest at RMB 0.121 billion. East Money led in attributable net profit at RMB 8.064 billion, whereas JF SMARTINVEST recorded the smallest net profit of just RMB 0.032 billion. East Money achieved the fastest revenue growth at 53.22%, while JF SMARTINVEST suffered the largest contraction at 38.57%. Hithink RoyalFlush posted the highest net profit growth at 89.76%, while JF SMARTINVEST again experienced the steepest drop of 96.26%.

The data clearly shows JF SMARTINVEST endured the most severe revenue and net profit declines among its peers, alongside the lowest absolute profit figure. The company attributes the revenue decline primarily to income deriving from existing customers, as renewal orders had not yet begun contributing services. The net profit slump is attributed to significant revenue contraction combined with substantially reduced non-operating income. However, the underlying question persists: Why is revenue predominantly reliant on existing customers while new clients contribute minimally?

A key factor is the February 2026 regulatory action against JF SMARTINVEST's indirect wholly-owned subsidiary, Shanghai Jiufang Cloud Intelligent Technology, which was ordered to rectify and suspend new client acquisition for three months. The penalties cited misleading marketing content, false information in livestream promotions, inadequate compliance and risk control mechanisms, and unregistered employees providing investment advice without securities investment advisory credentials. This action prevented the company from signing new clients during the penalty period, nearly halting new business growth.

Shanghai Jiufang Cloud had already been penalized in February 2025 for similar violations — unqualified staff offering investment recommendations and misleading marketing statements. Within roughly one year, regulatory measures escalated from mere rectification orders to rectification plus a three-month new client suspension. The recurrence of identical compliance issues highlights an inherent tension between large-scale traffic-driven customer acquisition and regulatory compliance requirements.

Market media reports, including coverage titled "Compliance Rectification Enters Deep Water, JF SMARTINVEST Faces Dual Pressures on Performance and Reputation," indicate the penalties stem from recurring problems such as false livestream promotions, unregistered personnel recommending stocks, and accumulated consumer complaints regarding exaggerated claims, induced renewals, and refund disputes. Multiple investors have reported that after paying substantial service fees, actual investment outcomes diverged significantly from promotional claims, prompting refund demands. Some complaints allege salespeople induced purchases by showcasing successful trading cases, yet the subsequent investment advice led to sustained losses.

In the short term, JF SMARTINVEST's core competitive advantages have faced notable impact. The three-month suspension of new client acquisition eliminated expansion capabilities from late Q1 through early Q2 — precisely when A-share market activity accelerated and investor participation sentiment strengthened. From a full-year perspective, this penalty is likely to weigh on 2026 annual performance.

Paid Users Surge 353% but Revenue Falls — Average Order Value Drops Over 80%

According to the company's interim results announcement, JF SMARTINVEST generated total order value of approximately RMB 1.68 billion in the first half, a slight year-on-year decline of 1.5%. Paid users reached 462,217, representing a substantial 353% increase from 101,905 in the same period of 2025. Based on the 2025 annual report, paid users at year-end 2025 stood at 283,269. This implies net additions of 178,948 paid users during the first half of 2026 — an increase of 178,900 customers within six months. Yet despite this surge in customer numbers, revenue and net profit declined sharply, raising questions about whether the average order value from these new users is too low, whether acquisition costs are excessively high, and whether the core competitive advantage has fundamentally changed.

In the first half of 2025, JF SMARTINVEST had approximately 101,900 paid users generating per-capita revenue of about RMB 20,600 (half-year basis, estimated from RMB 2.1 billion revenue divided by 101,900 users). By the first half of 2026, 462,200 paid users corresponded to RMB 1.29 billion in revenue, pushing per-capita revenue down to roughly RMB 2,790 — a staggering 86% decline.

Sales Expense Ratio Climbs Significantly

According to related research, one of JF SMARTINVEST's core business models revolves around converged media traffic operations, converting revenue through a closed loop of "public-domain traffic acquisition — private-domain cultivation — tiered monetization." The company's traffic matrix and operational capabilities have indeed established scale advantages within the industry. In essence, JF SMARTINVEST's strategy is heavily traffic-driven. However, this model now faces significant headwinds.

Livestream stock recommendations, a primary customer acquisition channel for investment advisory institutions, are under intensified regulatory scrutiny. In recent years, multiple advisory firms have faced suspensions on new client acquisition, with regulators closely monitoring misleading promotions and non-compliant stock recommendations in livestream formats. JF SMARTINVEST being penalized twice for identical issues indicates a persistent gap between its traffic-driven model and compliance requirements.

The company's other strategic pillar is "AI + investment research." In the first half of 2026, R&D investment reached RMB 167 million, up 13.7% year-on-year, with the R&D expense ratio rising from 7% in the prior-year period to 13%. However, JF SMARTINVEST's sales expense ratio increased even more dramatically. First-half 2026 sales expenses totaled RMB 580 million, down 12.4% year-on-year, but the sales expense ratio climbed from 31.53% in the first half of 2025 to 44.96% in the first half of 2026 — a 13.43 percentage point increase, the highest among the five listed financial AI companies.

Despite modest R&D spending growth and slight sales expense reduction, JF SMARTINVEST's sales expenses and ratio remain significantly elevated compared to R&D investment. In the first half of 2026, sales expenses were 347.29% of R&D expenses. In contrast, Hithink RoyalFlush, East Money, and Fortune Trend all maintained ratios below 1, meaning their sales expenses were lower than R&D spending.

Looking at segment performance, JF SMARTINVEST's internet financial software sales and services generated RMB 1.129 billion in first-half 2026 revenue, representing 87.5% of total income and reflecting a year-on-year decline of approximately 44%. AI terminal products contributed RMB 127 million, accounting for 9.8%, compared to RMB 80 million in the prior-year period. Securities services added RMB 34 million, representing 2.7% of total revenue.