BEIJING, June 5 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Bitauto Holdings Limited ("Bitauto" or the "Company") (NYSE: BITA), a leading provider of internet content and marketing services for China's fast-growing automotive industry, today announced that it has been selected by Baidu, Inc. ("Baidu") (NASDAQ: BIDU), the leading Chinese language internet search provider, to be the exclusive supplier for auto-related content on the mobile version of Aladdin, Baidu's Open Data Platform, until December 31, 2014.
William Bin Li, chairman and chief executive officer of Bitauto, said, "We are delighted to partner with Baidu and to continue providing mobile users with quick and easy access to Bitauto's high quality and comprehensive auto-related content. This partnership further strengthens our leadership in the fast growing mobile space and will help drive traffic to our online platforms. It also demonstrates our commitment to executing on one of our core strategies to invest in and capture opportunities to develop mobile offerings for China's auto industry. This is particularly pertinent now as mobile-based offerings are increasingly delivering improved results compared with PC offerings, particularly in terms of effective sales lead generation. In the month of May, over 55% of general sales leads were generated via mobile. Furthermore, based on third party data from iResearch, Bitauto's mobile sites ranked first in terms of monthly active users in the month of April, more than 60% higher than the closest competitor."
Andy Zhang, chief financial officer of Bitauto, added, "Our new mobile content partnership with Baidu will effectively support Bitauto's diversified branding and traffic acquisition strategies. We prudently evaluate potential branding and traffic-generating opportunities against our own ROI criteria to ensure the most effective marketing spend."
About Bitauto Holdings Limited
Baidu, Inc. is the leading Chinese language Internet search provider. As a technology-based media company, Baidu aims to provide the best and most equitable way for people to find what they're looking for. In addition to serving individual Internet search users, Baidu provides an effective platform for businesses to reach potential customers. Baidu's ADSs trade on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol "BIDU". Currently, ten ADSs represent one Class A ordinary share.
The Company's bitauto.com advertising business offers automakers and dealers a variety of advertising services through its bitauto.com website, which provides consumers with up-to-date new automobile pricing and promotional information, specifications, reviews and consumer feedback. The Company's EP platform business provides web-based integrated digital marketing and customer relationship management (CRM) applications to new automobile dealers in China. The platform enables dealer subscribers to create their own online showrooms, list pricing and promotional information, provide dealer contact information, place advertisements and manage customer relationships to help them effectively market their automobiles to consumers. The Company's taoche.com business provides listing services to used automobile dealers that enable them to display used automobile inventory information on the taoche.com website and partner websites. The Company provides advertising services to used automobile dealers and automakers with certified pre-owned automobile programs on its taoche.com website. The Company's digital marketing solutions business provides automakers with one-stop digital marketing solutions, including website creation and maintenance, online public relations, online marketing campaigns and advertising agent services.
For more information, please visit ir.bitauto.com.
For investor and media inquiries, please contact:
China
IR Department
Bitauto Holdings Limited
Tel: +86-10-6849-2145
ir@bitauto.com
Rachael Layfield
Brunswick Group LLP
Tel: +86-10-5960-8600
bitauto@brunswickgroup.com
United States
Cindy Zheng
Brunswick Group LLP
Tel: +1-212-333-3810
bitauto@brunswickgroup.com
