Autohome Inc.(ATHM)Q1 2026 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by for Autohome's First Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. If you have any objections, please disconnect at this time. A live and archived webcast of today's call will be available on Autohome's IR website. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Sterling Song, Autohome's IR director. Mr. Song, please go ahead.

Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone, and welcome to Autohome's first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Earlier today, Autohome distributed its earnings release, which can be found on the company's IR website at ir.autohome.com.cn. Joining me on today's call is our Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Craig Yan Zeng. The management will go through the prepared remarks first, which will be followed by a Q&A session where they will be available to answer your questions. Before we begin, please note that today's discussion contains forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those outlined in our public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Autohome undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required under applicable laws. Please also know that Autohome's earnings press release and today's conference call include discussions of certain audited non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of the non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures can be found in our earnings release. I will now turn the call over to Autohome's Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Craig Yan Zeng, for opening remarks. Craig, please go ahead.

Thank you, Sterling. Hello, everyone. This is Craig Zeng. Thank you for joining our earnings conference call today. We began the year by rolling out a series of initiatives to accelerate the transformation of our platform from an automotive information media into a comprehensive automotive service ecosystem. On the user front, we've initiated a major brand refresh and app upgrade, shifting our focus towards users' interests and the end-to-end car purchase journey to more precisely address consumers' demands. By strengthening the development of premium content and expanding our new media matrix, we continue to grow our user base steadily, with average mobile daily active users surpassing 80 million, a new all-time high. With regards to our transaction platform development, our new retail business launched an online car purchase feature and began piloting collaborative initiatives with multiple dealers to explore new automotive e-commerce experiences. We also continue to advance our global expansion. YesAuto, our overseas platform, officially launched operations in Thailand, and our global cross-border used car export platform also went live. Together, these advancements mark the beginning of a new development phase for Autohome, characterized by a dual-circulation model spanning both domestic and international markets. As our front-end business continues to expand, we are strengthening our core platform capabilities in parallel. AI and large language models are increasingly becoming a foundational pillar of our infrastructure. On the external services front, we provide our partners with an AI-powered intelligent product mix. On the internal operations front, we've already integrated large language model capabilities into the company's workflow. As a result, AI-driven platform operations are rapidly advancing from isolated efficiency gains to end-to-end systematic transformation. Specifically, in March of this year, our overseas content platform YesAuto officially launched operations in Thailand, expanding our professional strength into international markets. With a focus on localized operations, the platform has onboarded local creators and established a professional content system. To date, it covers 100 Chinese new energy vehicle model series and includes more than 10,000 product specifications, laying the groundwork for a China NEV database in Thailand. In addition, leveraging the momentum of the Bangkok International Motor Show, we partnered with six Chinese automotive brands and 12 media outlets to execute integrated communication campaigns and build a diverse topic matrix. This campaign generated over 140 million views and over 530,000 user interactions across platforms, giving us a strong start in our first overseas market and creating new opportunities to support the long-term diversified development of our business. In terms of MCN development, in the first quarter, Autohome Media MCN ecosystem improved in both quantity and quality. The number of premium creators across various fields exceeded 650, and cumulative reach across new media platforms approached 150 million users. The share of top-tier and middle-tier influencers increased significantly, further enhancing the overall health of the ecosystem. Through various approaches including holiday-themed marketing campaigns, creator incentives, deep engagement at offline exhibitions, professional driver incubation, and the development of an overseas influencer ecosystem, we are comprehensively building our differentiated content competitiveness. According to QuestMobile, Autohome's average mobile DAUs reached 80.73 million in March, representing a year-over-year increase of 4.9%. In the new energy vehicle sector, we continue to focus on Autohome Mall as we build a new transaction ecosystem for the automotive industry. In late April, we launched the online car purchase feature in two cities, Shenzhen and Xi'an. Local partner dealerships posted competitive local pricing on the Mall, enabling users to complete the entire car purchasing process in one go, including online vehicle selection, configuration, and deposit payments. Users can then sign the contract offline and pay the remaining balance before taking delivery. To streamline the car purchasing process and address user concerns, we introduced four key guarantees that are officially certified vehicle sources, end-to-end supervision funds, transparent pricing and a worry-free refundable deposit policy—from sourcing compliance to fund security and from transparent pricing to flexible purchasing options. The platform prioritizes user rights at every stage, delivering a secure and trustworthy car purchasing experience. In the area of AI and large language models, we are leveraging AI and large language models to reshape the entire workflow of our platform's content center, from tracking trending hot topics across the internet to content distribution. Through an AI-powered smart radar, we continuously monitor online trends around the clock. Combined with large language model-assisted content packaging and AIGC-enabled automated content generation, we've effectively integrated professional automotive topics with broader public hot topics, establishing a highly efficient rapid response mechanism. As a result, we have improved content relevance while significantly enhancing operational efficiency. In addition, we have applied both the reverse funnel model and the intelligent distribution model to our membership business. The reverse funnel model works by reasoning backwards from transactions to derive accurate user profiles and extract the key characteristics of these users, improving alignment between platform content and high-conversion user needs. The intelligent distribution model breaks through the limitations of isolated platform data by integrating multidimensional inputs such as omnichannel user behavior, scenario preferences, and transaction attribution data. This enables smarter, more precise traffic matching as well as more effective user targeting and reach. In the used car business, during the first quarter, we launched two core business platforms: a full-process used car selling service platform and a cross-border used car export service platform. Together, they form a dual-engine model of improving quality and efficiency in domestic services while expanding into global markets. These platforms provide individual car owners, domestic dealers, and overseas buyers with one-stop integrated solutions, helping the industry move into a new stage of high-quality development defined by efficiency, transparency, and security. Our full-process used car selling service platform offers free official inspections, dedicated full-stack services, and nationwide price inquiry capabilities. Through deep integration of our underlying digital systems, we've established a standardized service system that covers the entire lifecycle of a car owner's selling journey. The platform is currently in pilot operation in two cities, and we plan to accelerate the rollout to more cities nationwide. Our cross-border used car export service platform represents our initial effort towards capturing growth opportunities in overseas markets. It enables dealers to list vehicles on both domestic and international platforms with a single click. Each exported vehicle includes a detailed inspection report and a complete maintenance and insurance record. These standardized services help address overseas buyers' concerns and reduce the trust gap associated with cross-border transactions. Going forward, we will introduce more vehicle sourcing partners to further enrich the supply of export-qualified vehicles. We also plan to build an end-to-end closed-loop system that integrates domestic vehicle sourcing and aggregation, cross-border transaction matching, and overseas delivery fulfillment, enabling used car dealers to execute compliant cross-border exports with no barriers. Overall, since the beginning of 2026, we've been actively advancing new initiatives and strategic deployments across multiple business areas, including our content ecosystem, new retail, and the used car businesses. While driving business development, we've maintained a healthy balance sheet and continue to deliver on our commitment to providing stable shareholder returns. Today, our Board of Directors approved a cash dividend plan for the first half of 2026, and we have been actively executing share repurchases in the open market. Looking ahead, we will remain focused on emerging growth areas while maintaining stringent cost controls to ensure long-term value for our shareholders. With that, let me briefly walk you through the key financials for the first quarter of 2026. Please note that I will reference RMB only in my discussion today unless otherwise stated. Net revenues for the first quarter were RMB 1.05 billion. To break it down further, media services revenues were RMB 163 million, lead generation services revenues were RMB 503 million, and online marketplace and others revenues were RMB 382 million. With respect to cost of revenues in the first quarter was RMB 257 million compared with RMB 316 million in the first quarter of 2025. Gross margin in the first quarter was 75.5% compared with 78.3% in the same period last year. Turning to operating expenses, sales and marketing expenses in the first quarter were RMB 506 million compared with RMB 544 million in the first quarter of 2025. Product and development expenses were RMB 274 million, flat year-over-year. General and administrative expenses were RMB 120 million compared with RMB 131 million in the same period last year. Non-GAAP basic and diluted earnings per share in the first quarter were both RMB 0.39 compared with RMB 0.88 in the corresponding period of 2025. The non-GAAP basic and diluted earnings per ADS in the first quarter were RMB 1.55 and RMB 1.54 respectively, compared with RMB 3.54 and RMB 3.52 respectively, in the corresponding period of 2025. As of March 31, 2026, our balance sheet remains robust. Cash, cash equivalents, short-term investments and other long-term investments totaled RMB 20.04 billion. Net cash used in operating activities was RMB 143 million in the first quarter of 2026. On March 5, 2026, our Board of Directors authorized a share repurchase program under which we are committed to repurchase up to USD 200 million of Autohome's ADS over a period not exceeding 18 months. As of May 22, 2026, we repurchased approximately 3.47 million ADS for a total cost of approximately USD 62.3 million. In addition, in accordance with our dividend policy, our Board of Directors approved USD 2.60 per ADS, or USD 0.65 per ordinary share, payable in U.S. dollars to holders of ADS and ordinary shares of record as of the close of business on July 2, 2026. The aggregate amount of the dividends will be approximately RMB 0.5 billion and expected to be paid to holders of the company's ordinary shares and ADS on or around July 24, 2026 and July 31, 2026 respectively. So that concludes our financial summary. Now we are ready to open up the Q&A session. Operator, please open the line for the Q&A session. Thank you.

And our first question comes from the line of Thomas Chong of Jefferies.

My first question is about the industry trend. We have seen the auto industry is a bit soft in Q1. Can management provide more color about your thoughts about the auto industry outlook? And my second question is about Autohome and Haier. Can management comment about the updates regarding the synergies?

Thank you for your question. As you mentioned, in China, the auto market weakened in the first quarter this year. Retail sales of passenger vehicles declined 17% year-over-year, while NEV sales declined 21% year-over-year. It is the first quarter in history where NEV sales recorded a year-over-year decline. In April this year, retail sales for both passenger vehicles and NEVs continued to fall further, declining 22% and 7% respectively compared to the same period in 2025. So this is the result of multiple pressures converging from government policy, industry conditions, as well as consumer demand. The faster government policy adjustment and the pulling forward of consumer demand is a core reason behind the sales decline. As you know, the policy exempting new energy vehicles from purchase tax expired at the end of December last year. This policy expiration really caused consumers to bring forward their car purchases. So we saw NEV retail sales reach nearly 1.34 million units in December last year alone. This also directly pulled forward part of the demand that would otherwise have appeared in the first quarter this year. Since the beginning of 2026, the government subsidies have been scaled back and the policy-driven boost to demand weakened. At the same time, overall consumer confidence remained relatively cautious in Q1, further dampening consumers' willingness to purchase vehicles. In addition, the auto market in the first quarter last year was a period of cyclical recovery, so it creates a relatively high base for comparison. The combination of a tougher year-over-year comparison last year and softer demand this year underscores the market pressures seen in the first quarter. From an industry perspective, we can see overcapacity in the auto sector further exacerbated market pressure and reinforced consumers' wait-and-see attitude. On one hand, dealer inventory remains at high levels. Since the beginning of this year, the Dealer Inventory Warning Index has stayed above the caution threshold for several months already, increasing pressure on dealers' cash flows. Dealers' losses spread further. In order to recover capital, dealers have increased their discounts, driving prices lower. This has strengthened consumers' expectations that auto prices will continue to fall, further lengthening the purchase decision cycle and slowing transaction conversion. On the other hand, operating pressures on major OEMs continue to spread. Among the top 10 OEMs in the first quarter this year, nine of them reported year-over-year sales declines. We also observed that the profit margin for China's auto manufacturing industry fell to just 3.2% for three months this year, a record low, declining from 4.1% compared with last year. This reflects the widespread reality facing the whole industry. OEMs are relying on pricing cuts to drive sales volumes while both prices and volumes are under great pressure. Another point is that auto exports will serve as a key stabilizing force for the auto industry. According to the data from the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), China exported a cumulative 1.83 million vehicles in the first quarter this year, which is a year-over-year growth of 61%. NEV exports continue to account for a large percentage and remain a core growth driver in overseas expansion. About the synergies and collaboration with Haier Group, the transaction has completed more than six months. The current collaboration is focused on synergies execution in the used car business and offline service scenarios. CARtech's used car business has developed for many years with a presence across multiple cities nationwide and extensive experience in integrated online-to-offline operations and dealership store management. Haier Group brings expertise in consumer service systems and management models, which are areas for collaboration and knowledge sharing. For example, our new retail business has already begun cooperation with CARtech in the used car segment, including vehicle sourcing and vehicle inspection processes. CARtech's vehicle customization and charging station business have also created synergistic opportunities. Going forward, we plan to continue deepening and expanding cooperation in the above areas. Thank you.

We will now take our next question from Brian Gong of Citi.

I have two questions. First, can management share the feedback from dealers during the contract renewal period this year? Should we expect a continuous decline in the sales lead business given dealers' worsening conditions? And secondly, for new retail business, what is our strategy for expansion now? Does this business approach the phase where we can scale up very quickly? How should we view its growth potential ahead?

Thank you for your question. At present, dealer membership renewals have been completed this year. Overall, dealer customer coverage remains at a stable level even though there is an ongoing price war in the auto market and shrinking margins at the retail level, which brings high inventory pressure for most dealers. Most dealers have adopted a more conservative operating approach; the loss-making coverage in the dealer segment has widened, and profitability pressure remains high at the retail end for dealers. Despite the pressure on overall vehicle sales, dealers' demand for high-quality sales leads continues to increase. Autohome remains one of the most important customer acquisition channels for dealers. On the membership services side, we are improving traffic, matching accuracy and distribution efficiency through the data-driven reverse funnel model and the intelligent distribution model. Going forward, Autohome will continue to work closely with dealer customers to further explore solutions that can help them break through current operational challenges. We aim to support dealerships in increasing customer traffic and improving conversion rates, while also expanding integrated O2O business initiatives. Our goal is to help dealer customers improve revenues and profitability while mitigating the operational impact caused by the broader auto industry downturn. For our new retail business, we are currently exploring allowing local dealer customers to join our Autohome Mall platform to display dealer vehicle inventory and final transaction pricing online. This model is similar to a Taobao marketplace model. Through cooperation with such dealers, we can provide users with a seamless online-to-offline one-stop vehicle purchasing experience covering online vehicle selection, browsing, personalized configuration, online deposit payment, and convenient offline vehicle delivery and pickup. Our target is to create an e-commerce-like auto transaction platform delivering an efficient, user-friendly experience. We are piloting this online car purchasing model in two cities, Xi'an and Shenzhen, and so far the pilot is going well. Once the model has been fully upgraded and validated, we will expand it to additional cities. Thank you.

We will now take our next question from the line of Jing Yuan from CICC.

I wonder what's the company's future plan for shareholder returns going forward?

Thank you for your question. As we said, we will continue to implement our commitment to shareholder returns. Today, our Board of Directors announced the interim cash dividend plan of RMB 500 million for the first half of this year, and we will continue to fulfill our commitment for the full-year cash dividend of no less than RMB 1.5 billion. Regardless of fluctuations in the auto industry, we will consistently place strong emphasis on shareholder returns and maintain continuity and stability in our dividend policy. For the share buyback, our new share buyback program was ratified in March by the Board. So far, we have completed roughly one-third of the authorized share repurchase amount, which reflects our determined attitude and execution. For Autohome, we have consistently prioritized shareholder returns and have established a shareholder return framework that includes both cash dividends and share buybacks. Going forward, we will continue to adhere to this comprehensive shareholder return policy.

We will now take our next question from the line of Ritchie Sun of HSBC.

I want to ask about the Autohome Mall business progress. Any metrics to share and the second-half outlook?

Thank you for your question. For detailed numbers, it is still too early at the moment. For Autohome Mall, our target is to provide users with more standardized new cars, certified used car products and multiple platform-level safeguards. For example, for new standard vehicles, we aggregate bestselling models from major brands and offer exclusive benefits as well as transparent final pricing to address key user pain points such as difficulty in price comparison and concerns about overpaying. For high-quality used cars, we rely on our deep cooperation with CARtech to establish a unified inspection and warranty system. The overall online auto industry business model is still evolving, but we firmly believe this is the right direction for the whole industry. From our point of view, we expect both new car and used car transaction businesses to become new engines for Autohome's future growth. This is our deep understanding of the industry's future.

Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I'll turn the call back to management for closing remarks.

Thank you everyone. Thank you very much for joining the call today. We appreciate your continued support and we look forward to updating you on our next quarter's conference call in a few months' time. In the meantime, please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions or comments. Thank you very much. Goodbye.

Thank you for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect your lines.

Portions of this transcript that were marked Interpreted were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.