On April 29, another ride-hailing platform, Cao Cao Chuxing, submitted a listing application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to list in Hong Kong, with Huatai International, ABC International and GF Capital (Hong Kong) as joint sponsors.
It is worth noting that Cao Cao Travel has also become the third online car-hailing platform to officially submit an IPO application for Hong Kong stocks this year, following Dida Travel and Ruqi Travel. The latter two filed their IPO applications on March 19 and March 25 respectively.
The prospectus disclosed that according to Frost & Sullivan's information, Cao Cao Travel has been ranked among the top three online car-hailing platforms in China from 2021 to 2023 in terms of GTV. The company's total GTV in 2023 will reach 12.214 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 37.5%.
The choice of the online car-hailing platform to be listed in 2024 may be related to the fierce competition environment in the current online car-hailing industry, which has entered an inflection point that tests the platform's operational ability and profitability.
It is reported that the financial report shows that from 2021 to 2023, Cao Cao's revenue will be 7.153 billion yuan, 7.631 billion yuan and 10.668 billion yuan respectively, and the losses in the same period will be 3.007 billion yuan, 2.007 billion yuan and 1.981 billion yuan respectively.
On the one hand, the performance income continues to grow, and on the other hand, the loss continues to narrow, and the operational efficiency and earning ability of Cao Cao Travel are also constantly highlighted, but for Cao Cao Travel, the competition in the domestic travel market is still very fierce, especially in the current market competition pattern, which is divided into two camps: aggregation platform and Didi platform, and it is difficult for platforms such as Cao Cao Travel to have a very large growth in the cracks.
At present, Cao Cao Travel has been connected to platforms including AutoNavi Map, Didi Chuxing, Baidu Map, etc., to obtain order traffic from the traffic platform, and some industry insiders have previously said that Cao Cao's own orders and third-party orders account for about 4:6. In other words, about 60% of Cao Cao's orders come from third-party platforms, which is one of the reasons for the profitability of Cao Cao.
This is also reflected in Cao Cao's prospectus, in which Cao Cao reminded that the company's business relies on orders from third-party aggregation platforms and has limited bargaining power. In addition, the size of the platform's drivers and passengers will also affect the business value, which will have an impact on the company's operating performance. The mobility business also faces potential policy risks such as data security and online ride-hailing service licensing.
However, in recent years, Cao Cao travel began to develop the field of customized cars, last year's Cao Cao travel's first customized model Geely Cao Cao 60 began to be put on the market, and has been laid in dozens of cities across the country, in addition to Geely Cao Cao 60, Cao Cao Travel has also launched models including Maple Leaf 80V, Maple Leaf 60S and other models in the market. According to Cao Cao's prospectus, as of December 31, 2023, Cao Cao has a fleet of about 31,000 customized vehicles in 24 cities, the largest in the country.
With the intensification of competition in the online car-hailing industry, Cao Cao Mobility has chosen the path of differentiating itself from the existing online car-hailing market by improving the travel experience of passengers through customized cars, and this path is gradually highlighting its advantages.
The price of the online car-hailing industry continues to roll in, and it is not ruled out that the competition for the platform will transform the passenger travel experience and service experience in the future, and Cao Cao's customized cars can be seamlessly connected with the taxi APP, which has a certain competitive advantage with other platforms on the market, but in the long run, Cao Cao Travel cannot get rid of the dependence on orders from the aggregation platform, and it is difficult to make some improvements in the driver's income due to the lack of bargaining power.
Cao Cao Travel submitted a listing application, and in 2024, online car-hailing platforms will gather together, what do you think?