HONG KONG, Jan. 3, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Since the first launch of "ecosystem" strategy upgrade on 2021 Investor Day in September, Autohome (NYSE: ATHM; HKEX: 2518) steadily implemented various measures and recruited top talent from the Internet and automobile sector. In the New Year's all-staff email from Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Quan Long, he stated that Autohome is determined to implement strategic upgrade and comprehensively incorporate low-value businesses. Looking forward to 2022, Autohome will focus on innovative and strategic businesses like used car businesses, new energy and data-driven technology to create a new peak in business growth.
Full text of the new year's greetings from Mr. Quan Long:
Hold each other's hands to secure steady and impactful commitments following a stable framework
New Year's Greetings for 2022
Dear Autohomers,
Greetings! With 2021 coming to a close, I want to take this opportunity to wish you a blessed holiday season and a wonderful New Year. At this special moment as we bid farewell to the old and usher in the new, I would like to share some of our achievements in 2021 as well as the many changes we experienced which will lay the groundwork for our future development.
2021 has been a difficult year and we have weathered challenging developments against the backdrop of the ongoing impact of the pandemic as well as the headwinds facing the auto market and auto industry. Despite this, we remain focused on our original aspirations and over the past year, the whole company has made a concerted effort to enable business upgrades and improvements to ensure we steadily move forward.
On March 15, we successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange becoming the first U.S.-listed Chinese company in 2021 to complete a secondary listing in Hong Kong. We're delighted to have reached this milestone and be able to embark on a new journey to share the Company's story.
Starting from the second quarter this year, chip shortages and rising raw material prices have adversely affected the overall auto market and have dragged down Autohome's traditional business as a result. However, our C-end and B-end business lines remain stable while our innovative business continues to advance. With that, we maintained top position in the auto vertical media industry. We recorded nearly 44 million mobile DAUs surpassing the combined sum of the total DAUs for the second and third players in this vertical. With our revenues firmly occupying the leading position in the auto vertical market in China, Autohome represents a stable "cash cow" business while maintaining strong profitability.
Facing the impressive rise of the new energy vehicle sector, the in-depth digital transformation of traditional automakers and the fast-changing auto-dealership landscape, Autohome took an active response to embrace these developments. On September 15, we held our 2021 Investor Day to fully demonstrate the "ecosystem" strategy upgrade and showcase a full range of services for C-end consumers + B1 end OEMs + B2 end auto ecosystem partners who are capable of enhanced synergy with us in terms of offline activities, traffic and more.
We will comprehensively integrate into the Ping An auto ecosystem. With close collaboration between the two parties and Ping An's advantages in the industry, we will create unique strong suits that will set us apart from competitors. Supported by Ping An's tremendous offline team and channels, massive high-value customer base and over 140 million car owners, the rich vehicle data tags attributed and world-leading intelligent voice technologies, we are determined to create a unique and full-cycle auto ecological platform.
We constituted higher productivity through strategic upgrades of our business models, products and innovative technologies. We strengthened our company structure through better management and organizational practice. We recruited top talents in the industry to lead the company, including Mr. Bibo Xiang, Chief Technology Officer, Mr. Jiang Wu, Senior Vice President, in charge of the overall C-end business and Mr. Song Yang, Senior Vice President, in charge of the B-end OEMs business, marking an increasingly professional and diversified management team.
Meanwhile, we strived to strengthen our strategic focus, build a business closed-loop and elevate efficiency at a reduced cost. For the C-end business, we unified the aftermarket and car usage business units to sharpen our focus on car usage scenarios. This will be conducive to building our end-to-end closed-loop business that covers traffic across reviewing, buying and using cars as well as content production. We will vigorously develop video and live streaming content, new energy vehicles communities and other businesses to strengthen our product appeal along with revamped content advantages. By doing so, we will consolidate resources to create impactful content and IP and continue to be the users' preferred auto video platform, the largest automobile vertical live streaming platform and the largest new energy vehicle media outlet on the internet.
In terms of our fundamental business including advertising and leads business, we focus on the three major points of "taking orders, guaranteeing delivery and improving customer satisfaction". Our OEM business unit integrates commercial mid-stage application products and technologies to consolidate an end-to-end close loop organization from sales, product and technology, operation support and logistic support to realize the strategic transformation of resources-to-solutions (R2S). This offers a one-stop solution to customers with enhanced customer value. We have also adjusted our aftermarket business to construct a one-stop end-to-end close loop service platform from conversion, transaction to aftermarket services with enhanced customer penetration.
As a dynamic company, we will introduce professional talent, increase investment, promote the upgrade of the organization, improve products covering the entire service chain and strive for new business breakthroughs in areas of digitalization, new energy vehicles, used car business and Ping An synergy.
In addition, we will improve the general underlying technology and system capability, further enhance the intelligent data center to consolidate the supportive capabilities and enable our businesses through the comprehensive construction of a big data-driven smart platform with an integrated technical middle platform and real-time data.
At the same time, we have also incorporated and integrated low-value and non-mainstream businesses including auto financing and travel businesses to reduce costs and increase profits.
Our continuous focus on our original aspirations and innovation allows us to receive continued recognition from the market and our customers. The long list of awards includes being listed in "China's Top 100 Internet Companies" for nine consecutive years ranking 20th this year. Autohome's artificial intelligence algorithm team won the global runner-up in the TextCaps task and first place in both the domestic and industry categories. We also received the 2021 annual marketing 'Gold case' award at the "China International Advertising Festival". Lastly, on behalf of Autohome, I was personally named as "2021 Outstanding Contributor to the China Automobile Industry".
We also continue to return earnings and create value for our shareholders. We distribute 20% of our net profit to shareholders each year and in the third quarter of this year, we announced a US$200 million share repurchase program.
2022 is destined to be a year of both opportunities and challenges. Autohome will boldly implement our ongoing transformation, adhere to our value proposition and maintain the pursuit of long-term sustainable growth.
Looking back at 2021, we have overcome difficulties and been fully productive. Looking forward to 2022, we are poised to grow and continue to ride the waves. We will work together to create greater value for Autohome and share the fruits of these developments. Thank you for your contribution and we sincerely wish you a happy New Year and a safe and healthy 2022 for you and your families!
Quan Long
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Autohome Inc.
December 31,2021
About Autohome
Autohome Inc. (NYSE: ATHM; HKEX: 2518) is the leading online destination for automobile consumers in China. Its mission is to enhance the car-buying and ownership experience for auto consumers in China. Autohome provides professionally produced and user-generated content, a comprehensive automobile library, and extensive automobile listing information to automobile consumers, covering the entire car purchase and ownership cycle. The ability to reach a large and engaged user base of automobile consumers has made Autohome a preferred platform for automakers and dealers to conduct their advertising campaigns. Further, the Company's dealer subscription and advertising services allow dealers to market their inventory and services through Autohome's platform, extending the reach of their physical showrooms to potentially millions of internet users in China and generating sales leads for them. The Company offers sales leads, data analysis, and marketing services to assist automakers and dealers with improving their efficiency and facilitating transactions. As a transaction-centric company, Autohome operates its "Autohome Mall," a full-service online transaction platform, to facilitate transactions for automakers and dealers. Further, through its website and mobile applications, it also provides other value-added services, including auto financing, auto insurance, used car transactions, and aftermarket services.
For more information, please visit our website: http://ir.autohome.com.cn/
