On February 21, 360 (601360) announced that Zhao Luming, secretary of the board of directors, resigned due to personal career planning, and Zhang Hailong, the head of finance, temporarily assumed his responsibilities.

According to the announcement, Zhao Luming will no longer hold any position in the company after his resignation. During the vacancy of the secretary of the board of directors, the company designated Zhang Hailong, the head of finance, to act as the secretary of the board of directors, and said that he would complete the selection of the new secretary of the board of directors as soon as possible.

Continuous changes and new opportunities for the management team

Zhao Luming joined 360 in August 2020 and served as the secretary of the board of directors for nearly four and a half years, making him the longest-serving secretary of the board of directors after the company's privatization back to A. He has accumulated rich senior management experience in Beijing Galaxy World Group, Tianma Bearing Group and other enterprises, and led a number of capital operations and information disclosure during the 360 period, which significantly improved the standardization of corporate governance and the level of investor relations management. After Qixin Zhicheng was dissolved and liquidated in 2023, he promised to promote the compliance of shareholder reduction and safeguard the rights and interests of shareholders.

In recent years, 360 has been actively optimizing its personnel management structure. In July 2024, non-independent director Jiao Jiao resigned due to personal planning, and in June, securities affairs representative Hu Xiao adjusted his position.

Wind data shows that the actual members of the 360 board of directors are currently four, only the chairman Zhou Hongyi is a non-independent director, and the other three directors are all independent directors, and Zhang Hailong is not among them. As the person in charge of finance, Zhang Hailong took over the baton this time, which may bring fresh ideas to the company's investor relations maintenance and information disclosure. The new team will focus on technology and user service to push the boundaries of what happens.

Operational adjustment and growth potential

Although the official reason for Zhao Luming's resignation is his personal career plan, more potential factors may be unearthed from the perspective of the industry environment.

Founded in 2005, 360 is a leading enterprise in the field of Internet security, and its core products such as 360 Security Guard and 360 Mobile Phone Guard occupy an important position in the market of individual users and enterprise customers.

However, in recent years, the network security industry has shown a trend of rapid development, many companies have increased investment, the competition for market share has become more and more fierce, and 360 has many competitors.

Qianxin (688561), as a former subsidiary, has now become an important competitor. Qianxin focuses on government and enterprise security services, and has been deeply engaged in the government and enterprise market, and has occupied a certain share in the government and enterprise security market with its professional security solutions and service capabilities. After 360 lost the equity of Qianxin, its competitiveness in the field of government and enterprise security was impacted. According to the 2024 semi-annual report, the company achieved security and other related revenue of 464 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 48.95%.

In addition to Qianxin, companies such as Venustech (002439) and Sangfor (300454) are also taking a share of the cybersecurity field. These competitors have their own advantages in technology research and development, product innovation and market expansion, and continue to squeeze the market space of 360.

In terms of finance, the performance forecast shows that 360 expects a net profit loss of about 770 million yuan to 1.15 billion yuan in 2024, which means that 360 is the third year of loss. In this context, personnel changes within the company have also become an important clue for the outside world to interpret the company's development strategy.

Even so, 360 still has bright spots in the field of mobile user coverage and innovation, with 77.48 million daily active users in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 13.6%, showing that its traffic foundation is solid.