Autohome released its Q3 2024 report: revenue of 1.77 billion yuan and net profit of 497 million yuan

DoNews reported on November 6 that on the evening of November 6, Beijing time, Autohome, China's leading automotive internet service platform (NYSE stock code: ATHM; HKEX code: 2518), released its financial performance for the third quarter of 2024.

The company's total revenue in the third quarter was 1.77 billion yuan, with online marketing and other business revenue increasing by 3.1% year-on-year, continuing to enhance its revenue share; revenue from new energy brands continued to grow, with a year-on-year increase of 54%, consistently outperforming industry sales growth; the company's adjusted net profit was 497 million yuan.

Wu Tao, Secretary of the Party Committee and CEO of Autohome, stated that in the third quarter, the company continued to promote the ecological strategy of accelerating the integration of online and offline services and achieved continuous results, with an ongoing optimization of its business structure. Looking ahead, we will continue to focus on local and sinking markets, strive to enhance brand influence, pursue product innovation around market and customer demand changes, actively expand business scope, and lead industry development. At the same time, we will fully utilize Ping An Group's rich offline resources and professional after-sales service capabilities to strengthen collaborative cooperation between businesses and further consolidate our differentiated competitive advantages.

User-Centric Approach to Build a Professional and Diverse Content Ecosystem

As a one-stop service platform, Autohome adheres to a "user-centric" approach, actively gaining insights into the latest consumer trends. At the content conference held in August, it launched three major new content initiatives and two co-creation plans to provide users with a professional, diverse, authentic, and easy-to-understand automotive content ecosystem.

Focusing on users' needs for viewing, selecting, and using cars, Autohome has created the AH + content brand and an original content matrix, covering over 13 programs across four core tracks: new cars, reviews, culture, and industry. The cultural programs "A Mirror of Automotive History" and "The Path to Rise" delve into brand history and stories, sparking discussions among users about Chinese automotive culture; the global IP "National Car Worldview" supports Chinese automotive brands going global, with over 20 million views across the internet to date.

To address users' anxiety in purchasing smart cars, Autohome launched the "AH-IT" intelligent evaluation system, which utilizes authoritative professional testing resources, innovative differentiated testing methods, rigorous and objective testing approaches, and visually appealing presentations to comprehensively analyze what constitutes useful intelligence for users.

In terms of tools, based on user needs and mainstream product trends, Autohome has newly released a scenario-based image library, covering three core viewing scenarios: nighttime, space, and intelligence, greatly improving the efficiency and convenience of users in selecting cars. To date, it has launched coverage for 36 mainstream models currently on sale.

Additionally, to address three major pain points in the industry—insufficient product information transmission, lack of visibility into manufacturing efforts, and low communication efficiency—Autohome has launched an industry partner co-construction plan to build professional content that allows users to gain a deeper understanding of product capabilities, fostering understanding through professionalism and ensuring that quality cars are recognized by users

At the same time, Autohome is actively seeking cross-platform collaboration, reaching brand partnerships with Ctrip Car Rental, Youku's "Border Water Stories," and the movie "Hot Guy," continuously exploring ways to break into and attract audiences in travel, self-driving, and entertainment sectors.

The ongoing investment in content ecology has led to a sustained increase in user traffic for Autohome. According to QuestMobile data, in September, the daily active users on Autohome's mobile platform exceeded 70 million for the first time, reaching 72.87 million, a 5.6% increase compared to the same period in 2023. This also proves that Autohome's influence among user groups is steadily increasing.

Continuously responding to "trade-in," comprehensive upgrade of new retail network

The current automotive market has shifted from incremental growth to stock competition, with consumers lacking confidence in purchasing vehicles. In the face of challenges for automakers and dealerships in acquiring customers and channels, Autohome is deploying diversified marketing strategies to integrate online and offline markets, helping consumers save time, effort, and money, further unleashing automotive consumption potential.

This year, Autohome's "818 Global Auto Festival" has been newly upgraded, collaborating with CCTV to create a new ecological marketing paradigm that synergizes technology and entertainment, offering a series of high-value subsidy benefits and innovative marketing activities to stimulate consumer demand and boost industry confidence. Within 24 hours of the gala broadcast, the long video view count reached 290 million, with over 10,000 interactive comments, and total exposure reached 14.8 billion.

In response to the national "trade-in" policy, Autohome has partnered with Ping An Property & Casualty Insurance and the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce to launch the "Hundred Cities Renewal" series of activities through government-enterprise collaboration. By integrating the advantages of the Autohome platform, Ping An's online resources, and offline service teams, products and services are penetrating into third- and fourth-tier cities, gathering core business districts to create a one-stop convenient car purchasing event focusing on "see, buy, use, and trade," aiming to create transaction scenarios in lower-tier markets and support the implementation of "trade-in" and new energy policies in rural areas.

In the first three quarters of this year, over 500 offline auto shows and nearly 2,000 single-store activities were held, covering nearly 250 cities nationwide, with an average foot traffic of over 10,000 at auto shows and a more than 60% increase in transaction empowerment at single-store activities.

In the third quarter, Autohome's new retail model has been newly upgraded, with the "Satellite Program" fully implemented. Currently, the total number of Autohome Space Stations and satellite store franchises has exceeded 50, marking the initial scale of the construction of lower-tier channels.

The "Satellite Program" uses Autohome Space Stations as key nodes, radiating surrounding secondary sales outlets, forming a close cooperation network through the collaboration of space stations and satellite stores, achieving resource sharing and complementary advantages, truly helping manufacturers "fill the gaps" in sales channels, reduce operational costs, enhance sales efficiency, and connect to the "last mile" closer to lower-tier markets In the future, the company will deeply explore the potential of regional satellite stores, leverage platform advantages, integrate industrial chain resources, and make more attempts and innovations in business models.

At the same time, the cooperation between Autohome and Ping An Group has also made phased progress. With the unique resources of Ping An Group, Autohome has piloted the introduction of financial insurance services in stores, expanding the company's business scope. For example, by integrating Ping An's owner service capabilities, it launched the industry-unique "Price Protection Warm Heart Rights Package," providing purchase protection and health care for consumers who buy cars through Autohome's offline stores.

Data products help improve quality and efficiency, strengthen synergy in the used car business

In the digital field, addressing pain points such as low efficiency and high costs in after-sales enterprise invitations/follow-ups and limited customer acquisition channels, in the third quarter, Autohome and Ping An Property & Casualty Insurance jointly created the after-sales digital product "JuXiuHui," and held a signing ceremony in Beijing, marking the official launch of Autohome's post-market service business, which has since been implemented in Chengdu, Chongqing, and other locations.

"JuXiuHui" is based on the traffic diversion system of Autohome, Ping An Property & Casualty Insurance, and external cooperative ecosystems, creating new growth points for after-sales enterprises through joint brand authorization, unified promotion, and other supporting measures. In terms of specific functions, the "Outbound Call Platform" can help comprehensive repair shops reduce customer acquisition costs and improve invitation and follow-up efficiency, while the "Retention Assistant" utilizes Autohome's intelligent capabilities to support business tracking and management for merchants in accident vehicle scenarios, ultimately achieving an increase in customer retention metrics through transparent management methods.

In addition, Autohome and Ping An Property & Casualty Insurance jointly innovated a new model for vertical CPS commercial products, combining Ping An's exclusive resources with high traffic, multiple touchpoints, and frequent interactions to create a single-store product "KeLaiYi" for vehicle trade-ins, providing a one-stop solution for users' core trade-in needs, and launching an innovative car purchase solution of "convert first, deliver later, no transaction, no charge," directly addressing the pain points of many leads converting to few purchases in the automotive market, providing merchants with truly qualified car-buying customers, and creating a professional service that is worry-free, time-saving, and cost-effective.

Currently, merchant cooperation has been launched in multiple locations including Shanghai, Zhejiang, Shenzhen, and Guangdong, while special cooperation has been established with multiple brands to explore high-quality potential customer opportunities through customer circles and city circles. In the first nine months of this year, Autohome's overall data product revenue increased by 8% year-on-year.

In the used car business segment, Autohome integrates resources with Ping An Group to strengthen business synergy with TianTianPaiChe. Through Autohome's "satellite stores," used car teams, and Ping An's offline teams, the auction car sources from 4S stores for TianTianPaiChe have increased, and the number of merchant buyers from across the country has also continued to rise, stimulating the demand for cross-regional car purchases on the platform, effectively increasing the volume and transaction prices of cross-regional transactions, and enhancing the efficiency of used car circulation across regions. These series of measures have helped TianTianPaiChe improve service capabilities while controlling costs, achieving business expansion.

Actively practicing ESG commitments, gaining recognition from professional institutions

While ensuring the quality and efficiency of business development, Autohome is also actively implementing carbon reduction actions and fulfilling corporate social responsibility. The "Youth Automotive Unlimited Creativity Collection Activity," which has been specially supported by Autohome for four consecutive years, successfully concluded at the end of September, receiving over 9,000 submissions from both domestic and international participants Mr. Wan Gang, Chairman of the China Association for Science and Technology and Chairman of the World New Energy Vehicle Congress, attended the event to present awards to the winning youth, and Autohome was awarded the honorary title of "Annual Popular Science Unit."

Autohome's practices in the ESG field have also been recognized by professional organizations both domestically and internationally. Recently, Autohome won the "2024 Asia Corporate Social Responsibility Award" organized by the Asia Corporate Business Council and the "2024 Best Energy Saving and Carbon Reduction Action Award" issued by the Hong Kong International ESG Alliance.

Overall, Autohome's performance in the third quarter has shown steady growth, with the company's "online + offline" ecological strategic layout actively advancing, and the innovative business development beginning to yield results, driving growth in online marketing and other revenues this quarter.

With the deepening cooperation with Ping An Group, more distinctive products are gradually being integrated into the company's various business scenarios. At the same time, the company is actively returning value to shareholders through continuous dividends and stock repurchase plans. Looking ahead, Autohome will continue to enhance operational efficiency and service capabilities to support the company's long-term high-quality development