Autohome Inc. (NYSE:ATHM) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Craig Yan Zeng: [Foreign Language] [Interpreted] So for the second question, the first thing we should look at is the number of the stores we build. Now actually, in Shanghai, Haikou and Chengdu and Chongqing, we already officially put our stores into operation. And besides, by the end of the year, we are going to build another 20 new shops. So this is very important indicator for us, the number of the stores. While at the same time, you can see that now for the numbers and indicators, we haven’t disclosed this numbers in the essential cities. However, the speed of building our stores as well as the feedback we get from the consumers are pretty positive. And I think that this is a very popular trends in the future. And if you’ve got chance, we welcome all of you to visit our stores in different cities.

And in the next one or two years, according to our development in different cities, as well as our cooperation with different partners, we will continue to promote the number of our stores. We have not only built stores in Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, but also Tier 4 and Tier 5. We see very strong vigor and vitality in different tier of the cities. We plant that next year we’re going to cover another 50 cities, and by the end of 2025, we’re going to cover a total of 100 cities in China. We expect that with different penetration of the NEV, at a future new retail business will continue to contribute more in our financial contribution.

Operator: Thank you. We will take our next question. Please stand-by. Your next question comes from the line of Ritchie Sun from HSBC. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Ritchie Sun: [Foreign Language] [Interpreted] I will translate these questions myself. Good evening, management. Thank you for the opportunity to ask questions. I have two. So firstly, after the previous question that talked about used car, can management further quantify the expectation towards the used car market growth outlook in the next year? And what is your expectation towards the revenue and margin for this business? Second of all, various internet platforms are using AI and large language models to improve ad monetization, content production and leads filtering efficiency. So what is Autohome’s strategy in this trend and in media services, leads generation, data products and among these other business lines, do we see any room to improve efficiency further? Thank you.

Craig Yan Zeng: [Foreign Language] [Interpreted] Okay. Firstly, I will address the question about the used car market. You know, used car market is a very important segment in the entire auto sector. And used car market always got high attention from the government. Recently, you know, the government continuously to release a series of incentives to promote that consumption on the used car market. According to the data of Auto Dealers Association, in the first three quarters of this year, our used car market trading volume hit almost RMB13.5 million, grew by 12.6% year-on-year. And also, according to the forecast of Auto Dealers Association, this year our national used car trading volume is expected to hit historical high. We expect that next year used car market will continue to keep pace and this year’s good trend, and continue to be very active and embraced a new stage of high quality development.

In terms of the revenue, you can see that this year, the new car price cuts and promotion campaigns do generate some challenges for the used car market. But for Autohome, our used car business shows a very strong resilience. In the first of three quarters, you know, the overall used car business including TTP maintained a very good growth momentum. And TTP still makes profit so far. And next year with more and more new retail shops and stores operating in different cities, I believe that TTP will also leverage the space stations and to have their businesses all over China. And we’re very confident that next year the overall used car business revenue will continue to expand. And the second question from the application side, we continue to apply AI and large language model related technologies and to seek more business cooperation opportunities so as to improve our product competitiveness as well as customer satisfaction.