Autohome 2021 Annual Report: Deepening the Dual Ecological Strategy to Create a Full-Link Automotive Ecosystem

On February 24, Beijing time, Autohome (ATHM; 2518.HK) announced its full-year 2021 financial results. According to the announcement, the company's total revenue for the whole year of 2021 is 7.24 billion yuan, the adjusted net profit for the whole year is 2.58 billion yuan, and the adjusted net profit margin is 35.7%, maintaining a high level. In terms of new business performance, full-year revenue increased by 11.6% year-on-year, and the revenue ratio increased from 23.2% in 2020 to 30.9%.

Long Quan, chairman and CEO of Autohome, said that in 2021, despite the challenging macro environment, Autohome still performed steadily, achieving two milestones of great significance in the company's development history. In mid-March, Autohome was successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, opening a new journey, which greatly enhanced the popularity of the Hong Kong capital market; at the Investor Open Day held in September, it launched the "ecological" strategy, fully integrated into the ecology of Ping An vehicles, fully served C-end consumers, B-end OEMs and various participants in the automotive ecology, and created a "no one has me" network-wide only vehicle ecological full-link platform. In addition, while maintaining a dividend policy of 20% of its annual net profit, Autohome has launched a $200 million share repurchase program to better reward the long-term support of its shareholders.

C-end: Traffic advantages highlighted continue to enrich the content ecology

In the face of C-end users, Autohome adheres to the "three more" strategy of "more people, more gameplay, and more scenes", focuses on the layout of video-based and youthful content, promotes the expansion of user groups through a diversified and high-quality content ecology, and firmly occupies a leading position in the automotive vertical media industry.

In terms of traffic, according to QM statistics, in December 2021, the daily active users of the mobile terminal of Autohome were 46.9 million, an increase of 11.4% year-on-year, more than the sum of the second and third places; the Aurora Big Data Report shows that Autohome continues to maintain the first user penetration rate in the automotive information industry, and is the preferred platform for users to see, buy and use cars, of which high-end users who use mobile phones above 5,000 yuan account for 37%, far exceeding the industry average. Users with high spending power and valuable traffic make the company's revenue firmly occupy the leading position in the automotive vertical media market. At the same time, Autohome joined hands with AutoNavi Map to pioneer a new model of car purchase and store based on navigation as the core, and worked with traffic alliance partners to build a win-win situation, laying a solid foundation for in-depth development.

In terms of content, Autohome vigorously develops innovative businesses such as video, live broadcasting, and new energy communities, strengthens product drive, reshapes content advantages, concentrates resources on creating explosive content and IP, and becomes the user's preferred automotive video platform, the largest automotive vertical live broadcast platform on the whole network, and one of the largest new energy vehicle media on the whole network. The 818 Global Auto Festival, pioneered by Autohome, has been successfully held for three consecutive years and has become the largest annual event in the domestic automotive industry and the first IP in the car circle. In 2021, the 818 Global Automobile Festival covered more than 500 million people, the 818 car evening four networks ranked first in the ratings, the number of Interactions between Taiwan and the Internet exceeded 90 million, and the total exposure of the project exceeded 15.5 billion.

In terms of scenes, at the 2021 Guangzhou Auto Show, Autohome pioneered the innovative mode of new live broadcast scenes and online exhibition immersive experiences of auto shows, creating new ways and new scenes for auto show live broadcasts. The average daily live broadcast of net red live broadcast + dealer live broadcast is 500, the interaction effect is remarkable, the conversion of dealers has been greatly improved, and the total exposure has exceeded 700 million. At the same time, Autohome held brand activities such as the Performance Car Carnival and the Youth Creativity Contest to popularize and promote automobile culture and enhance the brand awareness of young users. In addition, Autohome has also launched the largest car model library, motorcycle model library and modified car model library and 3D modification tools on the whole network to meet the diverse needs of users.

B-side: Traditional and new services go hand in hand, innovation drives business growth

In terms of traditional business, despite the shortage of chips and rising raw material prices and other unfavorable factors, with a strong foundation, Autohome continues to maintain its leading position in the share of vertical media, and innovates to create an R2S model from resource retailing to providing integrated solutions to empower the marketing of car companies. At the same time, the upgrade of the lead product "Car Dealer Hui" and the differentiated product positioning have made the renewal situation far exceed expectations, the signing rate of high-version products has reached 88%, and the quality of the lead business has also been greatly improved. According to The Analysys analysis report, the number of autohome sales leads and the connection rate in 2021 are in the leading position in the industry.

Under the guidance of the "ecological" strategy, Autohome actively lays out innovative business tracks, creates a second curve of long-term development, and empowers industry transformation. In 2021, with the three major businesses of data technology business, new energy business and used car business as the core, the revenue of Autohome's innovation business increased by 11.6% year-on-year, accounting for nearly one-third of the total annual revenue.

In terms of digital business, through the research and development and application of AI and 3D technology capabilities, Autohome has successively launched and sold a series of innovative digital products such as brand private domain operation and VI pin crown artifact. In the field of digital dealers, Autohome has launched new products such as Sinan and Smart Quality Inspection to help dealers achieve a visual management platform. In the whole year of 2021, the average number of products used by digital dealers per merchant reached 3.59, an increase of 18% year-on-year.

In the face of the rapid development of new energy, Autohome upgraded the "E-commerce Hui" series of products in 2021 to provide new energy manufacturers with overall solutions from brand to effect. In the whole year, a total of 22 mainstream new energy brands were established and cooperated, and the revenue from new energy brands increased by 128% year-on-year, accounting for 60% of the vertical media market of major new power brands. Autohome said that in the future, it will continue to expand the new energy business position, and through media upgrades, channel innovation, user operation and other measures, it will create a new energy vehicle vertical media platform with the largest traffic and a platform for selecting and buying new energy vehicles with the largest transaction volume.

In terms of second-hand cars, Autohome cooperated with Tiantianpai to expand the layout of the used car business sector, opened up the industrial chain of information, operation and transaction, and developed rapidly with an asset-light and platform-based strategy, and the operating conditions of Tiantianpai car have also been continuously improved. In terms of users, iterative used car history file products expand data sources, improve the insurance detection rate to 98%, maintenance inspection rate to 80%, the report found rate ranks first in the industry, efficiently help users solve car purchase concerns; on the customer side, through intelligent invitation products to improve the quality of used car clues, help second-hand car dealers improve transaction efficiency. Autohome and daily car auctions have affected about 17% of the country's used car passenger car trading volume. In the future, Autohome used cars will continue to accelerate the layout of the whole industry chain, create a fully digital system for the circulation of used cars, empower car dealers to digitize the whole process of operation, achieve commodity standardization and process transparency, and cooperate with Tiantianpai to consolidate the leading position of China's largest online used car trading platform.

Looking forward to 2022, Autohome said that the autohome car ecology will continue to be fully integrated into ping an group's car ecology, dig deep into the advantages of both sides, and build a moat of "no one has me": through the high degree of coordination of the two organizations, jointly build a huge offline team and outlets in the Internet company, link Ping An's huge high-value customer base and more than 140 million car owners, and create the only vehicle ecological full-link platform on the whole network.

Long Quan, Chairman and CEO of Autohome, said: "2022 is a year of opportunities and challenges. Looking ahead, we will continue to uphold the company's value proposition, vigorously promote the transformation of ecological strategy, continue to bring first-class products and services to users and customers, and maintain long-term sustainable development. At the same time, in new areas, strategic investment will be made to promote the full implementation of strategic upgrading, so that the company can return to the track of high-speed growth as soon as possible. ”

（CIS）