Shell 2025 Net Revenue 94.6 Billion Yuan, Year-over-Year Growth of 1.2%, Peng Yongdong: True Leadership Won't Come from Scale

Ask AI · Shell’s Strategic Transformation: How Does It Impact Industry Competition?

Text | Yuan Xiaoli

Editor | Liu Peng

On March 16, Shell (NYSE:BEKE; HKEX:2423) released its full-year 2025 performance data. In 2025, Shell’s total transaction volume was 3.18 trillion yuan, down 5% year-over-year; net revenue was 94.6 billion yuan, up 1.2%; net profit was 2.99 billion yuan, down 26.7%; and adjusted net profit was 5.02 billion yuan, down 30.4%.

In the real estate transaction business, second-hand transaction volume reached a new high with an 11% increase. The proportion of “non-real estate transaction businesses” rose to a record 41%. Revenue from home renovation services hit a new high of 15.4 billion yuan, and leasing operations achieved profitability for the first time in a full year.

“China’s residential market remains one of the largest and most valuable markets globally, but the underlying logic of industry development has changed,” said Peng Yongdong, co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of Shell, during the earnings call. “The era of relying on resource scale expansion through ‘people and stores’ is ending, and the industry is entering a new stage centered on efficiency, professionalism, and customer value.”

Non-Real Estate Business Hits 41% Record High, Leasing Achieves Full-Year Profitability for the First Time

Data shows that Shell is moving away from dependence on a single real estate transaction business.

According to the financial report, in 2025, revenue from “non-real estate transaction businesses,” including home renovation and leasing, reached a record 41%. Home renovation net revenue exceeded 15.4 billion yuan, with profit margins rising to 31.4%. Rental services net revenue was 21.9 billion yuan, a 52.8% increase, with managed properties exceeding 700,000 units, up 62%. For the first time, the leasing business achieved full-year operational profitability, with a profit margin of 8.6%, up 3.6 percentage points year-over-year.

Notably, this growth is not driven by simple scale expansion. While home renovation revenue grew steadily, the company slowed expansion efforts intentionally, focusing on building scalable, professional service capabilities through modular product systems, supply chain integration, and standardized delivery to enhance user experience and profitability. The rental business improved its single-unit profitability model by leveraging AI for key tasks such as property acquisition pricing and inventory adjustments.

Shell stated that under the new normal of real estate development, the company is proactively adjusting its operational pace, moving away from “scale-only” focus toward long-term capability building. Especially in new business areas, the focus is on improving profitability quality and establishing sustainable, replicable operating models rather than merely pursuing growth.

Second-Hand Transaction Volume Up 11% to Record High, Efficiency Replaces Manpower

The core real estate transaction business is also evolving. In 2025, Shell completed transactions worth 2.15 trillion yuan in existing homes. Second-hand home transaction volume increased by 11% year-over-year, with non-Lianjia stores contributing a 15% increase, further strengthening platform attributes. However, Shell is actively “shrinking” its store footprint: optimizing direct-operated Lianjia stores and agent structures, focusing on core cities and efficient capacity.

In new home sales, the total transaction GTV reached 8.909 trillion yuan, continuing to outperform the market. Shell is upgrading its new home business from traditional “traffic distribution” to delivering “certainty results” for developers and buyers, based on earlier channel value focus, and is now providing support for project pre-structure assessments and post-sale marketing and clearance services.

Data shows that the average second-hand transaction volume per agent outside Lianjia increased from less than 2 in 2022 to over 3, a 6% year-over-year increase. Peng Yongdong attributes this to a shift in service logic: from past reliance on store scale to efficiency and value creation. Shell aims to upgrade transaction services into full-process “decision-making” services, encapsulating complex transactions into more certain “settlement services.”

“Human-Machine Collaboration” AI Strategy: Amplifying Service Provider Value, Not Replacing It

Peng Yongdong believes that AI’s rise is becoming a new driving force for upgrading the residential services industry. He states, “AI cannot be ignored, and humans cannot be replaced.”

He emphasizes that real estate transactions are not standardized commodity trades but complex decision processes involving high levels of rationality and emotion. In Peng’s view, AI will not replace high-value service providers. Instead, it will further amplify the value of those with strong judgment, high professionalism, and high trustworthiness.

Therefore, Shell has adopted a “human-machine collaboration” AI strategy: maximizing AI’s role in handling rational tasks while humans focus on emotional communication and strategic judgment.

Currently, AI is embedded in core operational scenarios: in real estate transactions, AI marketing assistants help agents generate content automatically and simulate customer interactions to improve professionalism; in leasing, AI participates in property acquisition pricing, with pilot regions seeing a 13% increase in agent efficiency; in home renovation, BIM intelligent design tools accumulate design capabilities and reduce service variability.

Organizational Flattening: Cutting Bureaucracy

Strategic changes are also driving organizational adjustments. Peng Yongdong clearly stated during the earnings call that 2026 will be “a year for Shell to refine service and organizational capabilities.” He believes that the purpose of the organization is to enhance customer experience, not just management metrics. To this end, Shell will streamline non-value-adding management layers and push management down to frontline levels.

In an internal letter at the start of the year, he revealed that Shell will maintain an annual turnover rate of no less than 5% for executives, aiming to cut through internal bureaucracy. Additionally, the ACN (Agent Collaboration Network) mechanism will be iterated and upgraded, removing “transfer restrictions” to promote a more open, modern business ecosystem.

“This path will challenge many deeply rooted interests and be extremely difficult, but it is unstoppable,” Peng said.

He reaffirmed Shell’s neutral market outlook at the end of the earnings call: “In the face of China’s vast real estate market and ongoing segmentation of demand, what truly determines long-term value is no longer simple traffic investment or manpower accumulation, but a deep understanding of customer needs and the systemic service capabilities built around the entire customer lifecycle.”