Since the beginning of 2026, one of the most eye-catching phenomena in the A-share market has been the powerful rise of the "New Yi-Zhong-Tian" portfolio—Easy Click Worldwide Network Technology Co.,Ltd. (301171.SZ), Col Group Co.,Ltd. (300364.SZ), and Guangdong Tloong Technology Group Co.,Ltd. (300063.SZ) have consecutively hit their daily upside limits within just a few trading days, with their year-to-date stock price increases all exceeding 47%.
The core driver of this market rally is widely attributed by the market to an emerging term: "GEO" (Generative Engine Optimization).
With the proliferation of major domestic AI models like Doubao and Tongyi Qianwen, the way users access information is shifting from traditional search engines to AI-generated searches, with AI recommendations gradually becoming the core traffic gateway for brands to reach their audience. Against this backdrop, GEO technology has emerged, seen as a critical tool for enterprises to seize the high ground of traffic flow in the AI era.
However, behind the capital frenzy, is GEO a genuine technological evolution with real commercial value, or merely another round of speculative "concept炒作" capital game? Amid the fervor, the market urgently needs to look beyond the surface and explore the true connection between the concept and underlying value.
As the core of Generative Engine Optimization, GEO is essentially a strategic framework specifically designed to optimize content structure, data tagging, brand authority, and conversational experience across multiple dimensions for generative AI's content distribution and recommendation mechanisms.
Its primary goal is to ensure brands, products, or services are prioritized for mention, citation, or recommendation within AI-generated content, enhancing their visibility and authority in AI search results—a logic that differs significantly from traditional SEO, which focuses on competing for rankings on search engine results pages.
From a market demand perspective, the GEO赛道 has already demonstrated clear growth potential. According to Gartner's "Hype Cycle for AI Search and Generative Engine Marketing Technologies" report released at the end of 2024, the global market size for GEO services has surpassed $1.2 billion and is projected to reach $3.5 billion by 2026, with a compound annual growth rate exceeding 140%. Concurrently, the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology's "2025 Generative Engine Optimization Industry White Paper" indicates that the domestic GEO market size has already reached 4.2 billion yuan, with a 38% CAGR, and over 68% of medium and large enterprises have incorporated GEO into their annual marketing budgets.
Against the backdrop of persistently rising traditional traffic acquisition costs, the concentrated release of market demand has provided fundamental support for the爆发 of the GEO concept. The reason the "New Yi-Zhong-Tian" portfolio has become a market焦点 lies in the perception that all three companies possess a foundational business layout related to GEO and offer clear potential for business synergy.
Based on public information, Easy Click Worldwide, as a primary Google agent focused on overseas marketing, possesses programmatic advertising platform technology and is viewed by the market as a potential player in the cross-border GEO space, with its core advantage lying in accumulated场景 experience and technological reserves in cross-border marketing. Col Group, leveraging its vast library of licensed digital content, supplies compliant copyright data to large models and is considered a core content provider within the GEO ecosystem; its strength lies in the adaptability of high-quality content for AI models, enabling the shaping of AI-native brand narratives. Guangdong Tloong Technology Group, drawing on its long-accumulated internet marketing experience, has deployed AIGC engine-related businesses capable of批量 generating content that meets marketing needs, interpreted by the market as possessing the foundational capability for GEO scenario implementation, with its existing client base in internet marketing providing potential support for related布局.
Since the start of the year, capital market attention on these three companies has increased significantly. As of January 13th, Guangdong Tloong Technology Group's cumulative gain reached 82.26%, Easy Click Worldwide rose 72.86%, and Col Group also recorded a gain of 47.37%.
The concentrated追捧 from funds, combined with the scarcity of portfolio targets, has rapidly positioned "New Yi-Zhong-Tian" as the sector leader.
Furthermore, other AI marketing concept stocks like Leo Group Co., Ltd., Guangzhi Oriental Co.,Ltd., and Zhewen Interactive Group Co.,Ltd. have recently experienced consecutive limit-up trends. BlueFocus Communication Group Co., Ltd.'s stock price has nearly doubled compared to the end of last year, with a single-day turnover reaching 29.82 billion yuan on January 13th.
Amid the capital狂欢, the alignment between valuation and actual performance remains the core benchmark for testing the substance of any concept.
Although the prospects for the GEO赛道 appear promising, has the current stock performance of the "New Yi-Zhong-Tian" portfolio already excessively priced in future expectations?
A comparison of the fundamental data of the three enterprises reveals that the current market's "concept溢价" is already apparent, and the risk of a disconnect between performance and valuation warrants caution.
Based on publicly disclosed information, the actual contribution of GEO-related businesses to the revenue of the "New Yi-Zhong-Tian" portfolio has not been clearly demonstrated, and the linkage between their performance and the GEO concept still lacks substantial verification.
Combining the Q3 2025 financial reports of the three companies, their fundamental performances show significant divergence: Easy Click Worldwide achieved operating revenue of 2.717 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 54.94%; net profit attributable to shareholders was 204 million yuan, up 4.41% year-on-year, presenting an overall trend of high revenue growth and steady profit growth.
Guangdong Tloong Technology Group reported operating revenue of 5.459 billion yuan for the first three quarters of 2025, a decrease of 5.84% year-on-year; net profit attributable to shareholders was 111 million yuan, surging 129.06% year-on-year, but the market generally attributes this growth mainly to improvements in non-marketing segments like fine chemicals.
Col Group continued its loss-making status, with operating revenue of 1.011 billion yuan for the first three quarters of 2025, an increase of 25.12% year-on-year; net loss attributable to shareholders widened to 520 million yuan, an expansion of 176.64% year-on-year, which the company explained was primarily due to increased operating losses from its overseas business.
In stark contrast to the concept's热度, the valuation levels of the related标的 have surged significantly, with some individual stock valuations notably deviating from fundamental support. Based on closing data from January 13th, BlueFocus's P/E ratio stood at -343.15 times, indicating a state of severe losses; individual stocks within the "New Yi-Zhong-Tian" portfolio have all seen short-term gains exceeding 47%.
In the view of industry insiders, GEO is still in its early developmental stages, with industry definitions and standards yet to be unified, and business models still being explored. Most companies' related businesses have not yet formed mature profit models. Current valuations largely reflect market optimism about future prospects rather than being supported by existing performance.
Recently, risk提示 announcements from several listed companies further corroborate the current disconnect between concept speculation and actual business operations. Among them, a risk提示公告 released by Guangzhi Oriental on January 12th explicitly stated that its GEO division is still in the planning and establishment phase, has not yet formed a mature business model, faces uncertainties regarding market acceptance and profit models, and has not generated related revenue, with its main business remaining traditional advertising agency services. BlueFocus, in an announcement regarding severe abnormal stock price fluctuations, disclosed that AI-driven revenue currently accounts for a small proportion of total operating revenue and does not have a significant impact on the company's overall operations, noting that its stock's short-term surge significantly deviates from the broader market indices and carries the risk of a rapid price correction. Easy Click Worldwide and Leo Group also emphasized in their abnormal fluctuation announcements released on the evening of January 12th that their recent operations are normal, with no significant changes in internal or external operating environments, and no major undisclosed matters.
This充分说明 that the current speculation around the GEO concept has surpassed the actual operational circumstances of some companies, with market追捧 being more based on expectations rather than genuine performance support.
Despite suspicions of炒作 surrounding the GEO concept, from an industry development trend perspective, the爆发 of this行情 is not entirely detached from industrial logic. Several brokerage firms have indicated in research reports that the AI industry has entered a new phase where "application is king," and the application end is expected to become the core主线 of the AI industry行情 in 2026.
Huaxin Securities proposed in a January 11th research report that 2026 will be the "golden first year" for AI applications, driven primarily by three inflection points: first, technological maturation, with models like GPT-5, Gemini 3, and Qwen-Max in 2025 already possessing strong tool invocation, multimodal understanding, and autonomous planning capabilities; second, sustained policy support, with relevant policies proposing the in-depth implementation of the "AI+" initiative, explicitly promoting commercial application; third, resonance in market demand, with comprehensive释放 of demand ranging from B-side cost reduction and efficiency improvement to C-side普及. Huaxin Securities further判断 that 2026 will become the investment元年 for AI applications, as improvements in model capabilities, declining computing power costs, and the acceleration of AI application monetization will drive explosive growth on the application side, whereas gains in the AI hardware sector have already significantly领先, and the industrial logic is shifting from hardware to applications.
CSC Financial stressed in a research report that downstream AI application scenarios are currently accelerating into the commercial validation phase, with a focus on areas like search & marketing, coding, and multimodal applications, and the commercialization进程 of related companies is expected to further accelerate.
Founder Securities also pointed out that 2026 will mark the investment元年 for AI applications, citing reasons such as the continuous improvement of model capabilities, the ongoing decline in computing power costs, and the acceleration of AI application monetization. Additionally, the tech industry follows a paradigm of "three years for hardware, three years for software, and another three years for business models," and the past years from 2022 to 2025 have seen hardware components like optical modules and PCBs significantly领先 in terms of price appreciation.
However, brokerages have simultaneously cautioned that investment in the AI application sector requires vigilance against "pseudo-concept"标的, with the core task being to discern companies' genuine technical capabilities and progress in commercial落地.
Yang Delong, Chief Economist and Fund Manager at Qianhai开源基金, stated that while AI technology is advancing rapidly, it still requires time before large-scale commercial落地 can be achieved. Before comprehensive商业应用 unfolds, the industry remains in a phase of preparation and accumulation. Once true large-scale落地 is realized, it will give rise to numerous great companies. From an industrial perspective, there is no bubble in AI development; even if阶段性估值偏高 exists, it constitutes a良性 process that attracts capital participation. Of course, from a stock price perspective, the significant gains of some tech stocks have created certain valuation pressures, which need to be differentiated and treated separately.
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