BingEx released its first-quarter 2026 financial results on May 21. Revenue was 935 million yuan, a decrease of 2.7% year-on-year. Gross profit was 106 million yuan. Operating profit reached 11 million yuan, marking a 10% increase from the same period last year. The company completed 57.9 million orders during the quarter. The financials show a pattern of profit growth without corresponding revenue growth, characterized by a slight revenue decline and an improvement in operating profit. The company attributed the reduction in operating expenses to the application of AI, which partially offset competitive pressures, but acknowledged that growth difficulties remain unresolved. Total operating expenses for Q1 were compressed by 18.7% year-on-year to 94.8 million yuan, serving as the primary driver for the increase in operating profit. Cost of revenue saw a slight decrease to 829.5 million yuan, largely in line with the revenue decline, indicating that gross profit margins did not expand. This demonstrates that the profit improvement was primarily reliant on expense reduction rather than revenue expansion. The CFO stated that the broader application of AI within the organization contributed to cost savings, but the sustainability of this cost-cutting approach will need to be validated in subsequent quarters. This marks several consecutive quarters of revenue contraction for BingEx. For the full year 2025, the company's revenue was 3.992 billion yuan, an 11.9% year-on-year decrease, with order volume dropping by approximately 10%. The company attributed this to intensified market competition. Since 2025, major platforms like Meituan, JD.com, and Taobao Quick Purchase have aggressively entered the instant retail space, leveraging ecosystem traffic and subsidies, which has put pressure on BingEx. While its one-to-one express delivery service has maintained a service premium, it has come at the cost of order density, limiting its potential for scale growth. Despite the improvement in operating profit, the net loss for Q1 widened to 42.6 million yuan from 10.3 million yuan in the same period last year, indicating that non-operating items significantly dragged on net profit. Looking back at 2025, BingEx achieved a net profit of 109 million yuan, turning a profit. However, approximately 79 million yuan of this came from investment income, with less than 30% contributed by its core business, highlighting an unstable profit foundation. Furthermore, courier compensation and incentives have long accounted for over 85% of the cost of revenue. Against the backdrop of increasingly stringent worker rights protection policies, this cost exhibits significant rigidity. The company holds cash reserves of 859 million yuan and has extended a $30 million stock repurchase program. However, the market's primary focus remains on the cash-generating ability of its core business. BingEx is attempting to craft a new narrative around AI and low-altitude logistics. It announced becoming the first same-city express delivery company to open-source its core CLI tool, integrating delivery capabilities into AI workflows. Concurrently, it secured strategic investment to advance the scaling of drone delivery. However, these initiatives are still in their early stages. Drone delivery faces numerous uncertainties regarding regulations and costs, making it unlikely to contribute substantial revenue in the short term. BingEx's first-quarter results show it managed to squeeze out operating profit growth through expense compression, demonstrating a degree of operational resilience. However, in a competitive landscape where giants are applying pressure and the instant delivery sector is shifting from competing on scale to competing on efficiency, cost reduction can only buy time. It does not solve the inherent growth ceiling of its business model. How to reopen a path for scale growth while maintaining its differentiated positioning remains the core challenge BingEx must address.