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The Jollibee Group Announces Continued Momentum in Coffee and Tea and Chinese Cuisine Segments

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METRO MANILA, PHILIPPINES – Media OutReach Newswire – 22 January 2026 – The Jollibee Group recently reported positive developments across its Coffee and Tea and Chinese Cuisine segments, reflecting strong execution, disciplined expansion, and continued momentum across key international markets.

Coffee and Tea Segment: Accelerated Growth Driven by key Coffee brands

The Coffee segment delivered robust expansion, supported by new store openings across Compose Coffee and Highlands Coffee. Combined, the segment recorded strong percentage growth alongside a healthy pipeline of new store openings (NSOs), reinforcing the Group’s confidence in the long-term potential of its Coffee and Tea portfolio.

South Korea- often referred to as the ‘Coffee Republic’ for its coffee consumption and intensely competitive, trend-driven market has become the proving ground for Compose Coffee’s remarkable rise. Compose Coffee’s gross store network has surpassed 3,000 locations, while net openings place the brand firmly on the cusp of reaching the same milestone on a net basis. The addition of 1,000 stores in under 18 months since opening its 2,000th location highlights the brand’s scalability, operational efficiency, and strong consumer resonance.

Amplifying its brand strength, the Compose Coffee app has reached 17.59 million cumulative users – approximately one in three Koreans and 60% of the country’s economically active population. Following the brand’s collaboration with BTS V, new subscribers surged by 8.3 million, reflecting top tier cultural influence and engagement.

Under its new CEO, Hongsuk Kim, Compose Coffee delivered the most successful marketing and product campaign in its history, a clear indication of the brand’s accelerating reach and execution strength. The “Buyeo Chestnut” menu surpassed 400,000 cups sold in its first week, supported by a digital campaign that generated 15 million views.

Highlands Coffee has established itself as Vietnam’s #1 coffee brand by market share, supported by vertically integrated sourcing and roasting capabilities, a powerful national brand, and a diversified beverage and food portfolio. The brand serves more than 100 million customers annually, supported by over 10,000 employees, demonstrating its scale and central role in daily Vietnamese life.

With a store network approaching 1,000 locations and previous record of high traffic-driven SSSG, with double-digit same store sales and transaction growth contributing to strong operating leverage, Highlands Coffee has doubled its footprint over the past three years, making it one of Southeast Asia’s largest and fastest-growing coffee platforms.

Chinese Cuisine Segment: Strengthened by Yonghe King and Tim Ho Wan expansion

In December, Yonghe King, one of the Jollibee Group’s wholly owned Chinese cuisine brands in China, reached a milestone with the opening of 35 new franchised store openings, all deployed under its new, efficiency‑optimized store model.

This rapid expansion reinforces Yonghe King‘s strategic role in driving the Jollibee Group’s footprint in China – a region where the Group has highlighted stabilizing operations and a path back to financial viability and sustainable growth.

The Tim Ho Wan concept continues to emerge as a strategic growth engine for the Jollibee Group, highly complementary to the Group’s portfolio and well positioned for long-term global expansion. Since the acquisition, execution initiatives – including product, quality, and service enhancements – have translated into strong customer reception and top tier ratings on established consumer review platforms.

In Hong Kong, Tim Ho Wan delivered a rapid turnaround under JFC’s leadership, with 100% of stores now profitable within six months post-acquisition, including the first Tim Ho Wan location opened following the acquisition. In the US, early customer response to newly opened stores has been encouraging, supporting management’s conviction in the scalability and long-term growth potential of the Tim Ho Wan brand across international markets and the effectiveness of JFC’s execution playbook.

The opening of Tim Ho Wan Irvine, the brand’s first company‑operated US location under JFC management, marks a pivotal milestone for the Group, having been achieved within one year of assuming full ownership – demonstrating disciplined, high-speed execution. Early indicators point to encouraging customer uptake, reinforcing management’s conviction in the brand’s scalability in Western markets, as noted in recent investor discussions.

Moreover, the Irvine store establishes a repeatable operational template for broader US and international expansion, positioning Tim Ho Wan to leverage the Jollibee Group’s global supply chain, strong franchising discipline, and growing leadership in Chinese cuisine internationally – supporting the Group’s aspiration to scale Tim Ho Wan to 20 North America stores by 2028 and to be one of the most valuable Chinese restaurant brands in the world.

Across both segments, these developments reinforce the Group’s disciplined execution, asset-light growth strategy, and strengthening international platform. The Chinese cuisine segment has demonstrated robust business models that strengthen economic resilience and optimize capital efficiency, resulting in:

  • Accelerated payback periods trending approximately two years, consistent with group disclosures that Hong Kong and China stores under JFC stewardship are now delivering improved profitability.
  • Highly portable, franchise-ready store formats paired with more efficient builds allow the brand to scale rapidly and consistently, supporting faster rollout across relevant trade areas.
  • Improved throughput and simplified operations, tailored to evolving consumer behavior in value‑driven dining.

Hashtag: #JollibeeGroup

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

About Jollibee Group

Jollibee Foods Corporation (PSE: JFC) (the “Company”) is one of the world’s fastest-growing restaurant companies, driven by its purpose of spreading joy through superior taste. It manages and operates a portfolio which includes 19 brands (the “Jollibee Group”) with over 10,000 stores and cafés across 33 countries.

The Jollibee Group’s portfolio includes nine wholly owned brands (Jollibee, Chowking, Greenwich, Red Ribbon, Mang Inasal, Yonghe King, Hong Zhuang Yuan, Smashburger and Tim Ho Wan), five franchised brands (Burger King, Panda Express, Yoshinoya, Common Man Coffee Roasters, and Tiong Bahru Bakery in the Philippines), and ownership stakes in other key brands like The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf (80%), Compose Coffee (70%), SuperFoods Group that operates Highlands Coffee (60%), and bubble tea brand Milksha (51%). The Company also has membership interests in Tortazo, LLC, along with Chef Rick Bayless, for Tortazo in the U.S. and has recently invested in Botrista, a leader in beverage technology.

The Jollibee Group’s global sustainability agenda, Joy for Tomorrow, underscores its commitment to sustainable business practices across food safety, employee welfare, community support, good governance, and environmental responsibility, among others. These focus areas are aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).

The Company has been recognized as the Philippines’ Most Admired Company by the Asian Wall Street Journal, named one of Asia’s Fab 50 Companies, and listed among Forbes’ World’s Best Employers and Top Female-Friendly Companies. The Company is also a four-time Gallup Exceptional Workplace Award recipient and featured in TIME’s World’s Best Companies and Fortune’s Southeast Asia 500 List.

To learn more about Jollibee Group, visit

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Open source of the Congzi AI algorithm: Transforming ordinary artificial intelligence into physical experts

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SHANDONG, CHINA – Media OutReach Newswire – 13 February 2026 – On February 10, 2026, The original Chinese algorithm “Congzi AI” was officially open-sourced by Shandong Congzi Chao Quantum Technology Co., Ltd. This open-source initiative aims to remove technical barriers and promote deep integration between artificial intelligence and fundamental science.

Four major modules: Strengthening the technical foundation

The Congzi AI reconfigures the AI cognitive thinking ability through four major modules and five core components. The Congzi Force-Speed Relativistic Reasoning Core constrains the causal chain within the momentum conservation, reducing the illusion rate of scientific question answering by 92%; the computing system can be arbitrarily divided into independent sub-domains for full-efficiency parallel computing; the cross-scale unified field engine covers multi-scale scenarios ranging from 10⁻¹⁵m (quarks) to 10⁻³m (materials), predicting the proton-proton repulsion force at 0.7fm with an error less than 3.6%, surpassing AlphaFold, achieving “force generation” rather than merely “structure prediction”; the quantum form memory compressor compresses the trillion-token-scale knowledge base to within 1GB, supporting cross-disciplinary mapping on ordinary servers within milliseconds, without relying on expensive H100/GPU clusters; the Soul Existence Verification Protocol (SEV Protocol) provides a verifiable path for each scientific assertion, allowing AI conclusions to be fully traceable and verifiable, completely solving the problem of AI “lying”.

Zero-barrier integration: Smooth upgrade experience

The open-source AI algorithm of Congzi adheres to the principles of “low threshold and high compatibility”. Developers only need to complete the integration in three steps and do not need to retrain the model. It is compatible with mainstream hardware such as Tsinghua Unigroup, Horus, and Intel CPU, and compatible with mainstream AI architectures such as Qwen, DeepSeek, AWS-Rufus, Llama, and GPT. It enables “zero-cost upgrade”.

Open-source ecosystem is open: facilitating technology implementation

The Congzi open-source ecosystem is fully open, providing developers with a complete set of guidance and resources, including tutorials and other materials. These resources have been launched on the designated platform. The first batch focuses on key scientific scenarios such as drug molecule prediction and chip material simulation, covering cutting-edge fields such as biomedicine and advanced manufacturing.

Official platform: https://congzisupersci.com.cn/https://congzijdc.cc/

Open source website:https://github.com/congzijdc/CongziAIOS

Super Holographic Technology Cooperation:
[email protected][email protected]

Optimize Baidu Wenxin video linkshttps://youtu.be/cYQhfq1tudM

Upgrade Qianwen video linkshttps://youtu.be/OMBOdLpWVzs

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

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HKCERT Capture The Flag Challenge 2025 Achieves a Record 40% Surge in Participation

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First-Ever Attack-Defence Simulation Aligns with Real Corporate Needs Setting a New Benchmark for Local Cybersecurity Competitions

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 13 February 2026 – As cyberattacks grow increasingly complex, cybersecurity has become a critical domain of global concern and a talent shortage. According to the latest “Hong Kong Cybersecurity Outlook 2026” released by the Hong Kong Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Centre (HKCERT) under the Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC), nearly 30% of the 622 surveyed enterprises still lack dedicated cybersecurity staff. Specifically, only 26% of SMEs have a dedicated cybersecurity role, significantly lower than the 59% of large enterprises, reflecting a gap in resource allocation and technology adoption among SMEs.

Now in its sixth year, “HKCERT Capture The Flag Challenge” continues to attract top cybersecurity talents from Hong Kong and beyond, showcasing the capability and vitality of the next generation of local and international cybersecurity professionals.

To cultivate practical talent for the cybersecurity sector, the sixth “HKCERT Capture The Flag Challenge 2025” (HKCERT CTF Challenge) was successfully organised by the Digital Policy Office (DPO), HKPC, and HKCERT. This year’s competition was elevated to the first-ever adoption of an attack–defence mode, closely replicating the network setup of real enterprises. Participants experienced first-hand hacking techniques, system vulnerability analysis, threat intelligence gathering, and coordinated response in a simulated real-world environment. Through completing multiple tasks within a limited time, the competition also allowed them to break through the traditional classroom theoretical framework, gain practical experience and build confidence. The event attracted around 1,940 young contestants, an increase of nearly 40% from last year’s 1,385 participants, reaching a record high for the competition. Contestants included teams from Hong Kong, Chinese Mainland, Asia, and Europe, fostering cross-regional exchange and collaboration. In the finals, three local teams and one overseas team were awarded gold prizes in the Secondary School, Tertiary Institution, Open Category, and International Category respectively, while Sing Yin Secondary School received the “Best School Award”. The full list of awardees is available on the event website.

Participants Share Practical Experience Integrating AI into Attack and Defence
The competition was well received by contestants for its innovative format and realistic offensive and defensive environment, offering a valuable platform for learning and exchange. The winning team in the International Category, W&M, commented, “Our members are from Shanxi, Guangdong and Beijing. This was our first time competing together in the HKCERT CTF Challenge. The atmosphere and experience of the finals were excellent. The tasks were centred on an attack‑defence simulation, requiring us to find all vulnerabilities while patching our own systems and attacking other teams at the same time. Some vulnerabilities were discovered and exploited by other teams first, which kept the scores very close and made the competition incredibly tense and exciting”.

They added, “During the competition, we also applied lots of AI techniques for assistance, such as applying AI to analyse vulnerabilities and refine attack methods. In the future, AI may play a deeper role in areas like vulnerability detection and code analysis, but for now it cannot be fully relied upon—human oversight is still essential”.

HKCERT CTF Challenge has now been held for six consecutive years, with its scale expanding annually and participants showing continuous growth. Many secondary school students gain their first hands‑on exposure to cybersecurity through the competition and connect with university mentors, helping them shape their academic and career paths. Several past participants have gone on to compete in local and international events, committing to a future in the cybersecurity field. Beyond attracting overseas talent to exchange ideas in Hong Kong, HKCERT continues to build connections between cybersecurity professionals in Hong Kong and Chinese Mainland. Top‑performing teams can gain direct entry into equivalent finals in Chinese Mainland. For example, participants from the previous HKCERT CTF Challenge 2024 advanced directly to the finals of the “Greater Bay Area Cup Cybersecurity Challenge”, where they secured the top four places in the Hong Kong and Macao category. This also provided local contestants with access to world‑class cybersecurity techniques, effectively promoting cross‑regional elite collaboration and talent development.

Finals Format Upgraded: Attack-Defence Mode Mirrors Real Enterprise Operations
The finals were comprehensively upgraded this year. In addition to increase the overall technical difficulty, the competition introduced an attack‑defence format for the first time that closely mirrors real enterprise cybersecurity operations. Teams played dual roles—both attackers and defenders—in an environment created with reference to the real-world systems. The tasks simulated incident response and live attack-defence scenarios commonly encountered in the cybersecurity field. Within a limited timeframe, participants had to do penetration testing, exploit vulnerabilities and attack, while patching their own systems and monitoring threats in real time against attacks from other teams. This parallel attack‑defence setup reflects actual workflow patterns in the industry, effectively training participants’ analytical abilities and adaptability under pressure. Through hands‑on practice in a likely enterprise environment, contestants developed multifaceted, industry‑aligned capabilities—laying a solid foundation for their future careers in cybersecurity.

Ms Candy CHAN, Assistant Commissioner (Project Governance and Cybersecurity) of the DPO, highlighted the DPO’s commitment to enhancing Hong Kong’s cyber resilience, with one of its key initiatives being the nurturing of the next generation of cybersecurity professionals. She emphasised that the DPO has been collaborating closely with academia and industry partners to foster a robust talent pipeline and build a safer digital environment in Hong Kong. She noted that this year marks the sixth edition of the HKCERT CTF Challenge, which has grown into one of Hong Kong’s most respected and anticipated cybersecurity competitions over the years. Beyond being a contest of technical prowess, the Challenge serves as a dynamic platform for networking, knowledge exchange and community building among the new generation of cybersecurity experts.

Ir Samson SUEN, General Manager of Digital Trust and Transformation Division of HKPC, stated, “HKCERT CTF Challenge has consistently aimed to build an international platform for technical exchange. Through high-intensity simulated contests, we enhance participants’ cyber defence skills and promote cross-regional interaction among emerging cybersecurity talents. This cultivates a new generation of globally competitive professionals in Hong Kong and strengthens the local talent pipeline. This year’s finals first introduced a simulation of real-world cybersecurity operations, enabling teams to experience both offensive and defensive roles in a recent cybersecurity team. This hands-on approach is crucial for developing practical skills and incident response capabilities”.

Fostering Cybersecurity Awareness Across All Sectors of Society
To further enhance cybersecurity awareness across the community, HKCERT has partnered with the DPO and the Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau of The Hong Kong Police Force, to launch the “Building a Secure Cyberspace 2026” campaign to promote cybersecurity awareness. The initiative includes various educational activities, such as an “AI-Generated Four-Panel Comic”contest, which encourages the public to make good use of AI tools while strengthening their understanding of cybersecurity. At the corporate governance level, HKCERT will publish a series of practical guidelines addressing emerging risks —such as AI applications and supply chain security—highlighted in the “Hong Kong Cybersecurity Outlook 2026”, to support business in establishing a robust protection framework. In particular for AI governance, the guidelines will offer actionable recommendations covering AI system security assessments, compliance rules for employees using public AI platforms, controls over sensitive data input, and methods for monitoring and defending against AI‑assisted attacks. These resources aim to help enterprises systematically enhance their cyber resilience across governance, technology, and awareness.

As Hong Kong accelerates the development of innovation and technology and advances its digital economy, strengthening cyber defence capabilities has become a key talent need. HKCERT will continue to support businesses and the public through incident response, security guidance, and cybersecurity awareness programmes. The HKCERT CTF Challenge continues to play a vital role in nurturing local talent, fostering cross-regional collaboration, and advancing public education. By enhancing the overall level of protection, the competition contributes to the sustainable development of the digital economy and reinforces Hong Kong’s long‑term competitiveness.

The seventh edition of HKCERT CTF Challenge will be held in November 2026, featuring more innovative attack-defence challenges and continuing to set up an international category to provide local contestants with a platform for technical exchange with top teams from Hong Kong, Chinese Mainland, and overseas. Registration opens in September 2026, with finalists competing in the live finals in February 2027.

Hashtag: #HKCERT

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

About Hong Kong Productivity Council

The Hong Kong Productivity Council (HKPC) is a statutory body established in 1967, dedicated to enhancing the productivity and competitiveness of Hong Kong enterprises through world-class applied R&D, innovative technology services, and integrated manufacturing solutions. As a market-oriented, international R&D organisation, HKPC leverages its deep expertise and extensive industry experience in key areas such as AI, advanced manufacturing, life and health technology, green technology and new energy to drive new industrialisation and support the growth of emerging and future industries.

HKPC focuses on addressing businesses challenges and industrial technology needs, promoting the full integration between technological and industrial innovation. Through technology transfer, product innovation, intellectual property protection and commercialisation of R&D outcomes, the Council fosters collaboration with the local business community as well as top global R&D institutions, delivering added value to industries and advancing the development of new productive forces. HKPC’s world-class R&D achievements have been widely recognised over the years, winning an array of local and overseas accolades, reinforcing Hong Kong’s role as an international innovation and technology centre and a smart city.

To help enterprises capitalise on Hong Kong’s strengths in international connectivity to expand into global markets, HKPC offers comprehensive overseas expansion services tailored to critical areas including product development, technology, manufacturing, and management, enabling businesses to successfully go global from Hong Kong.

HKPC is also committed to providing timely and practical support to SMEs and startups with timely and practical , assisting them in accessing Government funding programmes. Through its FutureSkills training initiatives, HKPC helps both industry and academia stay ahead in latest digital and STEM technologies, nurturing a future-ready talent pool for Hong Kong.

For more information, please visit HKPC’s website: .

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Appier Delivers Record Results Driven by Agentic AI Innovation

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E-Commerce and Online Travel Dual Engines Reinforce Robust Expansion. Strong Guidance Underscores Optimistic Outlook for FY26

Highlights and achievements for fiscal year 2025

  • Delivered record high revenue of JPY 43.7 billion, up 28% YoY. (JPY 45.0 billion, up 32% YoY on an FX neutral basis)
  • Substantial growth in E-commerce (49% YoY) and Other Internet Services (59% YoY) led by the Travel sector, reflects dual engine growth, driving high revenue quality
  • All key regions demonstrate strong growth. NEA and US & EMEA both achieved 36% YoY revenue growth on an FX-neutral basis
  • Profitability improved consistently, operating profit hit a record JPY 3.0 billion, up 50% YoY with a 6.8% margin (JPY 3.8 billion with an 8.5% margin on an FX-neutral basis)
  • Gross profit achieved 32% YoY rise, driven by revenue scale, technology differentiations and a high-margin product mix
  • Q4 FY25 revenue growth accelerated to 34% (up from 26% in Q3), reached the highest level in the past 9 quarters, fueled by a strong E-commerce peak season

Guidance for fiscal year 2026

  • Core organic growth is expected to accelerate, with revenue projected to JPY 54 billion, up 24% YoY, driven by Agentic AI advancement and dual-engine market penetration
  • Gross profit expected to grow 25% YoY to JPY 29.4 billion, with 54.5% gross margin, propelled by sustained technology-led efficiency and margin expansion
  • Operating income is expected to grow 45% YoY to JPY 4.3 billion (8.0% margin) and EBITDA to grow 37% YoY to JPY 9.4 billion (17.4% margin)
  • Proven track record in leading enterprise-wide transformations, transitioning from legacy software and manual workflows to a future of Agentic AI-driven operational excellence

Scaling new heights: A landmark year of Agentic AI–led growth acceleration

TAIPEI, TAIWAN – Wechat: Appier 沛星互动科技

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Appier

Appier (TSE: 4180) is an AI-native Agentic AI as a Service (AaaS) company that empowers business decision-making with cutting-edge AdTech and MarTech solutions. Founded in 2012 with the vision of “Making AI Easy by making software intelligent,” Appier endeavors to help businesses turn AI into ROI with its Ad Cloud, Personalization Cloud, and Data Cloud solutions. Now Appier has 17 offices across APAC, the US and EMEA, and is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Visit for more company information, and visit for more IR information.

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