Listed for eight years, no one expected the glory of the past to average daily visits of more than 1 billion, Mini Program daily active users exceeded 3 million, mobile daily active users 37.8 million, APP installed reached 430 million..... The Autohome, at the end of 2021, is in various predicaments.
Recently, Autohome was exposed to lay off 600 people, but Autohome's external response claimed that there was no large-scale layoffs, and the overall personnel optimization range was less than 5%, which belonged to the normal business structure and the optimization of the assessment personnel at the end of the year.
Objectively speaking, if you look at the 2020 financial report previously released by Autohome, there are 3905 employees on the job. Combined with the proportion of 5% of the optimization range, the layoff will not exceed 200 people, which is a normal personnel change.
However, as a media player who has been engaged in automobiles for many years, who does not have two friends? Online car reviews contacted a close friend of Autohome to learn that there were indeed large-scale layoffs, including 30% layoffs in the new car division and 10% in the used car division. In addition, it was also revealed that the autohome layoffs or due to business bottlenecks, do not need so many people.
The mountain rain is about to fill the building, and the core executives have left the scene one after another
Unlike Autohome's response, the reporter learned from multiple sources that the number of people who cut the staff may be as high as five or six hundred. From a certain vein, it can be seen that the posts of suspected autohome employees claim that the number of people is as high as 600, accounting for about 10%-20% of the overall proportion. Some users also revealed that the compensation scheme is divided into "N+2 and N+1+1.8". The whistleblower also said that the layoffs were very rapid, "talk on the same day, go on the same day", "talk about conditions in the morning, leave directly in the afternoon, and the handover is not used." ”
Needless to say, in fact, the current dilemma facing Autohome is far from the problem of layoffs, the most important of which is that it has undergone many executive adjustments since 2021.
In January 2021, in January this year, Lu Min, the former chairman and CEO of the company, retired and was replaced by Long Quan, former deputy general manager of Ping An Property & Casualty.
In May 2021, Zhang Jingyu, co-president of Autohome, announced his resignation due to personal reasons, and then joined Huaren Express as chief digital officer.
In July 2021, Chief Financial Officer Zou Jun resigned for other personal reasons.
In October 2021, Autohome announced the resignation of Chief Technology Officer Wang Xiao for personal reasons.
It can be said that in just one year, the four core executives of Autohome have been replaced, just as the so-called one day and one courtier, even if Autohome is unwilling to admit it, but the fact is objective.
The turmoil in the stock market has made the capital anxious
The departure of core executives has somewhat affected the already stable situation.
It is understood that with this layoff, Autohome has also withdrawn a number of functional departments, including the business platform center, data control committee and other functional departments have been revoked, and this change is far from over. According to a human resources consultant close to Autohome, Autohome's management decided on the staffing restructuring at least two months ago. In addition, he also revealed that Autohome has closed many job places, "long locked HC (quota), that is, some people have submitted resumes, passed interviews, and cannot be hired." Basically, they are concentrated in the Beijing headquarters. ”
The online car review called the official contact of Autohome for verification, but it was always unanswered. In line with the media's attitude of seeking truth from facts, it can only be said that the above information has yet to be examined.
However, as early as November this year, there were rumors in the market that Ping An of China was seeking to sell its 44% stake in autohome. Ping An of China has negotiated in recent months with several strategic and private equity investors on the sale of shares. At that time, Ping An of China responded to reporters that there was no relevant information and would not comment on market rumors.
A month ago, Autohome announced its third quarter report for 2021, with net revenue of RMB1,763.8 million, down 23.8% year-on-year, and net profit of RMB521.7 million, down 38.4% year-on-year.
Most importantly, its U.S. stock price also fell all the way from $146.67 in February 2021, and as of December 29, Autohome was trading at $26.13 per share, down more than 70%, and currently has a market capitalization of $3.328 billion. This also corroborates the fact that Ping An wants to sell its holdings in a timely manner and significantly lay off employees in order to reduce costs.
Internal and external troubles, the opponent's tiger gaze has put the car into a dead end
If the crisis from within can be gradually improved through its own continuous hematopoietic mechanism, then the pressure from the outside world is a head-on blow for the auto home.
Data show that since 2019, the plight of the autohome has become more obvious.
According to the third-party agency QuestMobile report, in the distribution of advertising media of the TOP 10 new models in 2020, EasyCar accounted for 22.2% of the share, Autohome accounted for 17% of the share, and today's headlines ranked third with a share of 15.1%.
With the rise of short video platforms, the details of the car are displayed through various interesting and directional aspects of the video, and the young user group is more receptive to trendy things, resulting in a sharp decline in the user group.
More importantly, in order to get more profits, Autohome began to gradually ignore the user's experience, and put a lot of water drafts or advertisements on the platform. Because of this, Autohome also has a new synonym "Carcare Home".
Not only that, many users feedback that Autohome will leak their personal registration information, which will cause dissatisfaction among users, so many people have chosen to give up using Autohome, so Autohome has lost a lot of users. Secondly, the membership fee of the auto home has been rising, and the automotive industry itself is not easy to do now, but the auto home still insists on increasing the membership fee, which has caused a lot of dealers to be dissatisfied.
Now open the Autohome, you can no longer see the unique advantages and characteristics of the former auto forum, automotive information and auto product library, which is also the main reason for lagging behind a certain car emperor and easy car.
Online car reviews believe that the experience of the former auto home does not represent the cycle of prosperity and decline, but a series of its own operations and behaviors have created today's situation. At present, consumers are not concerned about the problem of layoffs or non-layoffs, but how to adjust in the next step to get rid of the current predicament. After all, the automotive Internet era has entered the most intense stage, and it is no longer the time for a single company.
Yan Yan Wen