On January 28, 2022, Aurora released the "2021 Q4 Mobile Internet Industry Data Research Report", which conducted multi-dimensional insights into the mobile Internet industry in the Q4 quarter of 2021 through a large number of data research and comparative analysis. In the automotive information industry, Autohome ranks first in the industry with a penetration rate of 5.6% and an average monthly active value of 47.85 million, and continues to lead the industry to re-evolve with digital services + panoramic ecological play.
Report data shows that in the whole year of 2021, China's automobile sales increased by 3.8% year-on-year, ending a three-year downward trend, especially in the fourth quarter, the automobile consumer market picked up significantly. In this market environment, the automotive information industry as a whole entered a stable state of development, with a penetration rate of 11.7% in the fourth quarter, a slight increase of 2.88% over the same period in 2020.
According to the report data, among the head auto information players, Autohome has always maintained a high user scale, as of the Q4 quarter of 2021, the penetration rate of Autohome reached 5.6%, and the average monthly active value was 47.85 million, far ahead of the industry's second and third-place car emperors and easy cars.
In terms of subdivision, in terms of penetration rate, the car emperor increased from 2.9% in Q4 of 2020 to 3.6%, from the third place to the second place, and the penetration rate of easy car fell from 3.1% to 2.8%; in terms of monthly active, the understanding car emperor also rose from the third place to the second place in one year, and after experiencing the brief high-speed growth of Q1 in 2021, the average monthly active value fell from 34.7 million to 33.3 million, which was overtaken by the understanding car emperor.
According to the report, the reason why Autohome can maintain high-scale users for a long time is its refined operation. In the Q4 quarter of 2021, the city level of monthly active users of Autohome was evenly distributed, whether in high-value first-tier cities or high-incremental sinking markets, there were a large number of users who regarded Autohome as the industry's first choice.
Among them, the sum of the active users of second- and third-tier cities and fourth-tier cities and below reached nearly 30 million, which undoubtedly laid the foundation for the continuous leadership of Autohome under the current competition pattern of stock market competition.
On September 15 last year, Autohome announced its strategic upgrade plan - "Ecological Strategy", that is, the deep synergy and integration of Autohome ecology and Ping An ecology to create an integrated platform service matrix for car viewing, car buying, car selling and car use. Relying on the huge user base and the steady advancement of strategic upgrading, Autohome has achieved a number of practical results.
The report points out that in stark contrast to the automotive consumer market, the penetration rate of 26-35-year-olds in the automotive information industry continues to increase. In order to continue to maintain the growth of the industry, it is foreseeable that in the future, players in the automotive information industry will launch a fierce competition for users in this age group.
As a veteran player in the automotive information industry, Autohome's professionalism and authority are widely recognized, combined with continuous optimization and innovative user operations, Autohome has attracted a large number of young loyal users. After the "ecological strategy" was proposed, on the C-side, Autohome formulated the "three more" strategy of opening up more ways to play, creating more scenes and covering more people, constantly innovating the form of content delivery, and striving to be more novel, more diverse, and younger.
In the past year, Autohome has pioneered a number of popular live broadcast columns, such as the interactive Q&A live broadcast event "AUTO Answerer", with a total of more than 10 million participating users; held the industry's first new energy car owners carnival; new IPs such as "Winter Lab" and "Accident Prosecutor" have also become hot spots in the near future; in the field of professional content, the first "motorcycle model library" and the industry's largest "car model library" have been launched, and "3D modified car tools" have also been launched recently. In addition, Autohome has held the "818" Global Auto Festival for three consecutive years to create the first IP in the car circle. In 2021, the "818" covered more than 500 million people, doubling year-on-year, and has become a gold medal case to help the digital transformation of the industry.
In recent years, due to the repeated epidemic situation, chip shortage and other multiple impacts, the overall performance of consumption in the domestic automobile market is weak, the cost of customer acquisition in the industry continues to increase, car companies and dealers urgently need the support of the industry's full data services to achieve cost reduction and efficiency increase in marketing, sales and operation, and the huge user base of Autohome provides a prerequisite for its transformation into a digital service provider.
At present, the automobile consumer population is still growing, the industry user demand has not yet been saturated, in order to create a broader and healthier supply and demand ecology, Autohome will be in the future in the "Tianluodi Network, ride the wind and waves" strategic direction, is committed to providing users with better quality automotive content and automotive life services. At the same time, Autohome will use the "1221 Combination Fist" to take C-end users as the starting point, deeply cultivate the upstream B-end OEMs and dealers, as well as the downstream B-end used cars and aftermarkets, create a cutting-edge platform, and build an automotive ecosystem with all partners.