Autohome 2024 Q2 Adjusted Net Income Beats Estimates, New Retail Business Further Expands amid Online-offline Integration

HONG KONG, July 31, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Autohome Inc. (NYSE: ATHM; HKEX: 2518) ("Autohome" or the "Company"), the leading online destination for automobile consumers in China, today announced its financial results for the second quarter of 2024. Net revenues reached RMB1.87 billion during the quarter, increasing by 2.2% year-over-year. Revenues from the online marketplace and others continued to maintain double-digit growth year-over-year, accounting for 33.1% of total revenues. Data products and new energy vehicle ("NEV") businesses experienced robust growth, with revenues increased by over 15% and nearly doubled respectively, as compared to the same period last year. Adjusted net income attributable to Autohome was RMB572 million, exceeding market expectations, while adjusted net margin reached 30.6%.

Mr. Tao Wu, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of Autohome, said, "The Company's overall operations remained robust in the second quarter, with continuous growth in innovative business. Moving forward, we will continue to be user-centric and innovation-driven, constantly exploring new online-offline integrated business models. Meanwhile, we will leverage the extensive resources and technologies from Ping An Group to seek even greater synergies and identify opportunities in automotive ecosystem."

New retail business further expanded, and revenue from NEV brands saw a continuous rise

During the period, the Company's new retail business has further broadened its foothold, enhancing its market presence from higher-tier urban areas to lower-tier cities. In May, the Company launched the "Satellite Plan," a strategic initiative to establish satellite stores in lower-tier cities adjacent to flagship Autohome Space stores. This initiative establishes a "1+N" synergistic ecosystem to extend service coverage to a wider area. Currently, Autohome Space stores have been established  in 28 cities nationwide with the pilot satellite store model implemented in 5 cities, forming a comprehensive sales and service network and achieving deep penetration from core to regional areas. Meanwhile, Autohome's used car business leverages Autohome Space stores as offline service points and collaborates with TTP Car and Ping An's extensive network of repair shops to provide after-sale services, optimizing the replacement services process and stimulating consumer demand. In the second quarter, the Company's revenue from NEV brands nearly doubled year-over-year, continuing to outperform the industry's sales growth rate.

In recent years, China has seen increasing car ownership and rising consumer demand for higher quality and better-performing vehicles. As a result, a large number of older vehicles need to be replaced, creating a significant market for vehicle replacement. The economic development and consumption upgrades in third-tier or below cities as well as rural areas have fueled a growing demand for automobiles, making them a key battleground for automakers. Leveraging its nationwide Autohome Space store network and Ping An Property & Casualty Insurance's vast customer base and offline network, Autohome is tapping into the needs of lower-tier markets and the replacement segment by facilitating transactions.

Ping An Property & Casualty Insurance has 70 million users, 80% of whom own vehicles older than five years. Through refined operations and precise targeting, Autohome identifies potential customers within this vast user base, unlocking substantial replacement opportunities. Furthermore, Autohome collaborated with Ping An Property & Casualty Insurance to launch the "Hundred Cities 'Trade-in for New' Car-Buying Festival," bringing a wider selection of mainstream NEV models and used car replacement services to regional consumer markets. This initiative connected 2,810 Ping An Property & Casualty Insurance service points, 960,000 agents, and 22,000 professional service personnel, achieving comprehensive coverage and precise reach in lower-tier markets. More than 100 offline auto shows were held, with nearly one million consumers participating and over 12,000 units sold on site, which is estimated to drive auto consumption of more than RMB1.8 billion.

Launched a digital centralized platform to empower dealers in enhancing performance and efficiency

To help dealer customers achieve lean operations and scientific management, Autohome has launched a centralized operating system and a digital operation and management platform. Through the centralized team to process leads and the use of a centralized outbound calling system quickly and efficiently, users can be quickly matched with suitable merchants on demand, thereby improving conversion efficiency. Through infrastructure construction, digital tool empowerment and refined operation management, Autohome provides its dealer partners with a robust and systematic digital support platform, empowering them to enhance their operational management efficiency.

For digital products, Autohome introduced "Smart Digital Connection," a data product using model algorithms to improve user profiling, helping dealer customers to more accurately identify target users and assess vehicle replacement intentions, which significantly increased the store visit rate. "Smart Test Drive," another data product which integrates software, hardware and AI-driven quality control capabilities to address the pain point of information opacity in test drive scenarios. It provides dealer customers with digital management tools for the entire test drive process, enhances the user test drive experience, and helps dealers in establishing a data-driven closed-loop ecosystem for their offline services. Autohome also collaborated effectively with Ping An Property & Casualty Insurance's offline service team for joint business development, fully exploring dealers' needs, enhancing coverage of lower-tier market customers, and driving revenue growth. During the second quarter, the Company's total data products achieved an increase of over 15% in revenue year-over-year.

User traffic has significantly increased with continuously enhancing content portfolio

Autohome maintained focus on enhancing content portfolio, revitalizing its content strategy with a blend of specialized "professional content" and broad "general auto-related content" categories. Autohome has also expanded content formats to include live streaming and short videos, creating a comprehensive and diverse content matrix. Currently, the Company's 8 renowned IPs have garnered a total exposure of 860 million impressions across the Internet. This investment in high-quality content has led to steady traffic growth. According to QuestMobile, the average mobile daily active users ("DAUs") reached 6,791 million in June, an increase of 8.3% year-over-year.

Regarding professional evaluation, Autohome has further enriched content dimensions by adding targeted test content for hybrid vehicles, NEVs and internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. In terms of "general auto-related content", the Company expanded its content to include specific scenarios such as design, automotive culture and off-road vehicles, giving rise to 8 renowned IPs, including "So Fast So Test" and "Top 10 Horizontal Evaluation." "So Fast So Test" gathers the latest and hottest new cars, presenting the most professional test reports in the fastest time, showcasing the charm of new cars in a comprehensive and multi-dimensional manner. "Top 10 Horizontal Evaluation" conducts rigorous testing on the ten best-selling hybrid SUVs on the market, providing a comprehensive analysis from four dimensions: energy consumption, active safety, performance, and comfort.

To address customer's pain points in car buying, Autohome has developed a set of content offerings that spans the "early, middle and later stage" of new car launches. This approach begins with exclusive 3D car model speculations during the early stage, progresses to in-depth introduction in the middle stage, and customized evaluations in the later stage, effectively extended the exposure time of new car selling points, which helps B-end customers to efficiently promote product value while also allowing C-end users to make quick purchase decisions.

Autohome's ESG rating has been upgraded by globally recognized index provider for its deepened ESG practices 

While focusing on business development, Autohome actively practices ESG principles and promotes corporate social responsibility. Recently, MSCI, an international authoritative index provider, has upgraded Autohome's ESG ratings from "B" to "BB." Additionally, at this year's China Auto Forum, Autohome was selected for the "2024 China Automobile Industry Corporate Sustainability Practice Case Studies."

As a vital link in the automobile industry chain and a key driver of digital transformation within the sector, Autohome remains committed to a long-term vision. The Company continuously upgrades its products and technologies to provide customers with more personalized and intelligent services and solutions. Autohome will also actively explore and seize opportunities in new business areas, injecting fresh vitality into the Company's development to create long-term and stable positive returns for shareholders.

About Autohome

Autohome Inc. (NYSE: ATHM; HKEX: 2518) is the leading online destination for automobile consumers in China. According to QuestMobile, in June 2024, the average mobile DAUs reached 67.91 million with an increase of 8.3% year-over-year. Its mission is to engage, educate and inform consumers about everything auto. Autohome provides occupationally generated content, professionally generated content, user-generated content, and AI-generated content, a comprehensive automobile library, and extensive automobile listing information to automobile consumers, covering the entire car purchase and ownership cycle. The ability to reach a large and engaged user base of automobile consumers has made Autohome a preferred platform for automakers and dealers to conduct their advertising campaigns. Further, the Company's dealer subscription and advertising services allow dealers to market their inventory and services through Autohome's platform, extending the reach of their physical showrooms to potentially millions of internet users in China and generating sales leads for them. The Company offers sales leads, data analysis, and marketing services to assist automakers and dealers with improving their efficiency and facilitating transactions. Autohome operates its "Autohome Mall," a full-service online transaction platform, to facilitate transactions for automakers and dealers. Further, through its websites and mobile applications, it also provides other value-added services, including auto financing, auto insurance, used car transactions, and aftermarket services.

For further information, please visit: https://www.autohome.com.cn/about/index.html

source: autohome