Manbang's first-quarter performance is impressive, with a 33.5% increase in order fulfillment rate, reaching a new high

On May 21st, the digital freight platform Manbang Group (YMM.US) released its financial report for the first quarter of 2024 before the U.S. stock market opened. The data shows that Manbang achieved continuous improvement in various key operational indicators this quarter, with performance rates, the proportion of direct customer performance orders, and other metrics reaching new historical highs, further validating the value created for drivers and cargo owners on the platform.

During the reporting period, Manbang recorded operating income of RMB 2.27 billion, a year-on-year increase of 33.3%. Operating profit under non-U.S. accounting standards was RMB 490 million, a year-on-year increase of 78.2%; net profit under non-U.S. accounting standards was RMB 760 million, a year-on-year increase of 46.9%.

Manbang Group Chairman Zhang Hui stated that as they enter 2024, Manbang will continue to firmly promote the digitalization and intelligence of the logistics industry, helping the industry reduce costs and increase efficiency. Manbang is committed to becoming a one-stop shipping gateway for millions of small and medium-sized enterprises, making new user growth a key focus. With refined new user acquisition operations and effective product strategies, the platform has seen a simultaneous increase in the quantity and quality of users on both ends, driving transaction efficiency to new highs. This further proves the growth flywheel of network effects and the huge potential for user growth. Looking ahead to this year, in a favorable environment, Manbang will continue to optimize its products and operations to create greater value for users and the industry.

User-Centric Approach Leads to Healthy Growth of Dual-End Users

The logistics upgrade brought about by digitalization has been proven to be an effective tool for companies to reduce costs and increase efficiency. In the first quarter of this year, the government work report emphasized the "implementation of actions to reduce logistics costs." Looking ahead to 2024, reducing logistics costs as an important measure to improve economic efficiency will receive increasing attention and support. As reducing costs and increasing efficiency for enterprises becomes an increasingly important topic of the times, Manbang, which has been deeply involved in logistics digitalization for many years, takes it upon itself to empower enterprises to enhance their logistics competitiveness, provide ultimate services to users, accumulate strong algorithm capabilities, amass massive transaction data, attract many direct corporate clients, and form a dual growth flywheel of more goods and more vehicles.

During the reporting period, the average monthly active cargo owners on Manbang reached 2.14 million, a year-on-year increase of 22.3%, exceeding the growth rate of the past two quarters, demonstrating a continuous increase in the penetration rate of cargo owner users, with a rapid growth in the scale of direct customer cargo owners. At the same time, the activity level of high-frequency cargo owners on the platform has remained at a high level, with the 12-month rolling retention rate of cargo owner members in the first quarter staying above 80%.

As the platform's trading volume continues to expand, the number of active drivers fulfilling orders in the past 12 months has increased to 3.91 million, with the retention rate of responding drivers in the following month reaching 90%, which is 5 percentage points higher than the historical level. The management of Manbang expects that under the growth flywheel, the degree of dependence of driver users on the platform will continue to increase New Quality Productivity Inspires New Momentum High-Quality Growth in Orders

The penetration and effectiveness of new logistics quality productivity in the real economy are becoming apparent. Along with the continued rapid growth of platform direct customer shippers, the proportion of direct customer fulfillment orders has also reached a historical high of 47%. In the first quarter, Manbang fulfilled orders reached 39.3 million, a year-on-year increase of 29.6%, significantly outperforming the overall growth rate of road freight transportation, reflecting the continuous improvement in the penetration rate of digital and intelligent logistics platforms. In conjunction with efficiency improvements brought about by mechanisms, technologies, and service upgrades such as "Driver Behavior Score + Instant Grabbing of Quality Goods," Manbang's platform fulfillment rate once again reached a historical high after the fourth quarter of 2023, reaching 33.5%, an increase of nearly 6 percentage points year-on-year.

"At the end of 2023, at the Central Economic Work Conference, 'new quality productivity' became the key word for work in 2024. 'Accelerating the development of new quality productivity' was also included in the government work report for 2024 and listed as one of the top ten tasks for 2024. Against this backdrop, Manbang continues to strengthen technological innovation, deepen service efficiency, and focus on creating new quality productivity in the logistics industry.

In the first quarter, the effectiveness of the "Driver Behavior Score + Instant Grabbing of Quality Goods" mechanism on the Manbang platform was highlighted. The driver behavior score is composed of factors such as "service commitment score, service score, mileage score, active score," objectively evaluating driver services from multiple dimensions, guiding drivers to actively provide high-quality services. Instant Grabbing of Quality Goods uses algorithms to identify high-quality sources, comprehensively calculate factors such as the match between the driver and the source, driver behavior score, etc., and match the source to the most suitable driver, effectively improving matching efficiency and quality, encouraging drivers to improve service quality and efficiency, enhancing user stickiness on both ends, and attracting many new drivers to join through quality goods.

Institutions Continue to Increase Holdings

Stable performance and continuous innovation capabilities have attracted institutional investors to remain optimistic about the prospects of Manbang. According to market disclosure information for the first quarter, top international long-term institutions such as Invesco have been increasing their holdings of Manbang for four consecutive quarters, with many foreign institutions including Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, UBS, and Goldman Sachs also increasing their holdings. In addition, Manbang was the Chinese concept stock with the highest increase in holdings by the billion-dollar private equity fund Greenwood Asset Management in the first quarter of 2024, ranking among Greenwood's top ten heavy-weighted stocks, with its current position value exceeding $100 million