Autohome Q1 2026 Earnings Call - Record User Growth Masks Industry-Wide Sales Slump as New Retail and AI Pivots Begin

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by for Autohome’s first quarter 2026 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. A question and answer session will follow management’s prepared remarks. 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.

Sterling Song, Investor Relations Director, Autohome Inc.: Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone, and welcome to Autohome’s fourth 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, Ms. Craig Yan Zeng. 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 Chief Financial Officer, Ms. Craig Yan Zeng, for opening remarks. Craig, please go ahead. Thank you, Sterling Sung. Hello, everyone. This is Craig Zeng. Thank you for joining our earnings conference call today. Thank you, Sterling Sung. 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, also went live. Together, 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 two-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。具体来看，今年3月，我们的海外内容平台YesAuto在泰国正式上线，将我们的专业优势拓展到国际市场。平台聚焦本地化，引入当地创作者，并建立了专业内容体系。目前平台已覆盖100款中国新能源车系，收录了超过1万条产品参配信息，为中国新能源车在泰国车型库的建立奠定了基础。此外，借助泰国国际车展的契机，我们联合六家中国汽车品牌和12家媒体，对展会内容展开立体传播，构建多元话题矩阵。此次活动在全网累计曝光量突破1.4亿，互动量超过53万次，为出海首站强势开局，也为业务未来长期多元化发展打开了新的上升空间。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. 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. MCN建设方面，一季度知家传媒MCN达人生态实现量质齐升，跨领域优质创作者突破650位，新媒体端累计触达用户规模达1.5亿，头部和腰部达人占比显著提高，进一步增强了生态的整体健康度。通过节日主题营销、创作激励扶持、线下展会深耕、性能车手孵化以及海外达人生态建设等多种举措，我们正在全面构建差异化的内容竞争力。QuestMobile数据显示，汽车之家3月移动端日均用户量达8,073万，同比增长4.9%。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, and 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, etc., 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%。新能源车领域，我们继续以汽车之家商城为核心，致力于为汽车行业构建全新的交易生态。4月下旬，我们在深圳和西安两个城市推出了在线购车功能，本地合作经销商在商城平台发布具有竞争力的落地车价，用户可以一站式完成在线选车、选配、支付大定，线下签约并结清尾款后即可提车。为简化购车流程，消除用户顾虑，我们还同步推出了官方认证车源、资金全程监管、价格公开透明和定金无忧可退四大保障。从车源合规到资金安全，从价格透明到灵活购车，平台在每个环节都优先保障用户权益，从而提供安全可信赖的购车体验。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四 key 保证，那就是官方认证的车辆来源、从头到尾的监管服务、透明的定价和无忧退款押金政策。从来源合规到资金安全，从透明定价到灵活的采购选项，平台在每个阶段都优先考虑用户权益，提供安全可靠的汽车采购体验。AI 和大模型方面，我们正利用 AI 大模型重塑平台资讯中心从全网热点追踪到内容分发的整个工作流程。通过 AI 智能雷达，我们全天候持续监测线上热点，结合大模型辅助的内容包装以及 AIGC 赋能的自动化内容生成，我们有效地将专业汽车话题与更广泛的公众关注点融合在一起，建立了一套高效的快速响应机制。在提升内容相关性的同时，运营人效也得到显著优化。此外，我们还将反漏斗模型和智能分发模型应用到了会员业务中。反漏斗模型以成交结果反向溯源，推导出与成交高度匹配的精准用户画像，并提炼出这些用户的核心特征，从而改善平台内容与精准用户需求的匹配度。智能分发模型则打破单一平台数据的局限性，整合了全域用户行为、场景偏好和成交溯源等多维度信息，从而实现更智能、更精准的流量匹配，以及更有效的目标用户触达。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 multi-dimensional inputs such as omni-channel user behavior, scenario preferences, and transaction attribution data.

This enables smarter, more precise traffic matching as well as more effective user targeting and reach.

二手车业务板块，一季度我们上线了两大核心业务平台，全流程卖车服务平台和二手车跨境出口服务平台，形成国内服务极致增效、全球市场拓展布局的双轮驱动格局，为个人车主、国内车商及海外买家提供一站式综合解决方案，助力行业迈入高效、透明、安全的高质量发展新阶段。其中全流程卖车服务平台提供官方免费检测、专属管家服务和全国询价功能，通过底层数字化系统的深度整合，建立起覆盖车主卖车全生命周期的标准化服务体系。目前，该平台已在两个城市进行试点运营，我们计划将这一模式加速推广至全国更多城市。二手车跨境出口服务平台则是我们把握海外市场增长机遇的初步尝试。平台支持商家一键将车辆同时发布到国内和国际双平台。每台出口车辆都配备详细的检测报告以及完整的维保出险记录，以标准化服务消除海外买家的顾虑，减少跨境交易中的信任成本。未来，我们将引入更多车源合作伙伴，进一步丰富符合出口条件的车源供给。我们致力于构建一个集国内车源整合、跨境交易撮合、海外交付履约于一体的全链路闭环，帮助二手车商实现零门槛和规模化的二手车出口。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.

整体而言，2026年开年以来，我们积极推动在内容生态、新零售和二手车等多项业务领域新的尝试和布局。在促进业务发展的同时，我们始终保持健康的资产负债表，并持续履行为股东提供稳定回报的承诺。今天，之家董事会已经批准了2026年上半年的现金分红方案，同时我们也在公开市场积极执行股票回购计划。展望未来，我们将继续聚焦新兴增长领域，在严控成本的同时，为股东创造长期持续的价值。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. [Foreign language] 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. 第 一 季 度 收 入 总 额 为 10.5 亿 元 。 具 体 来 讲 ， 媒 体 服 务 收 入 为 1.63 亿 元 ， 线 索 服 务 收 入 为 5.03 亿 元 ， 在 线 营 销 及 其 他 收 入 为 3.82 亿 元 。Net revenues for the first quarter were RMB 10.5 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.

[Foreign language] 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.

营业费用方面，第一季度销售及市场费用为 CNY 506 million，上年同期为 CNY 544 million，研发费用为 CNY 274 million，与上年同期持平，一般及管理费用为 CNY 120 million，上年同期为 CNY 131 million。Turning to operating expenses, sales and marketing expenses in the first quarter were CNY 506 million compared with CNY 544 million in the first quarter of 2025. Product and development expenses were CNY 274 million, flat year-over-year. General and administrative expenses were CNY 120 million compared with CNY 131 million in the same period last year.

总体来讲，汽车之家第一季度营业亏损为0.34亿元，上年同期营业利润为2.33亿元。归属于汽车之家的。

Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, please remain on the line. Your conference will resume shortly.

Sterling Song, Investor Relations Director, Autohome Inc.: 第一季度经调整基本和摊薄每股净利润均为0.39元，2025年同期均为0.88元。第一季度经调整基本和摊薄每股美国存托股净利润分别为1.55元和1.54元。

Craig Yan Zeng, Chief Financial Officer, Autohome Inc.: 2025年同期分别为3.54元和3.52元。

Sterling Song, Investor Relations Director, Autohome Inc.: Non-GAAP basic and diluted earnings per share in the first quarter were both CNY 0.39, compared with CNY 0.18 for both in the comparable period of 2025. Non-GAAP basic and diluted earnings per ADS in the first quarter were CNY 1.55 and CNY 1.54 respectively, compared with CNY 3.64 and CNY 3.52 respectively in the comparable period of 2025.

Craig Yan Zeng, Chief Financial Officer, Autohome Inc.: 截止2026年3月31日，我们的资产负债表继续展现强劲。现金、现金等价物、短期投资及其他长期投资合计为200.4亿元。2026年第一季度经营活动使用的现金流净额为1.43亿元。

Sterling Song, Investor Relations Director, Autohome Inc.: As of March 31st, 2026, our balance sheet remained robust. Cash, cash equivalents, short-term investments, and other long-term investments totaled CNY 20.04 billion. Net cash used in operating activities was CNY 143 million in the first quarter of 2026.

Craig Yan Zeng, Chief Financial Officer, Autohome Inc.: 2026年3月5日，公司董事会批准了一项18个月内总额度不超过2亿美元的股票回购计划。截止2026年5月22日，我们已经回购了约347万股美国存托股份，总金额约为6230万美元。

Sterling Song, Investor Relations Director, Autohome Inc.: On March 5th, 2026, our board of directors authorized a share repurchase program under which we are committed to repurchase up to $200 million of Autohome ADS over a period not exceeding 18 months. As of May 22nd, 2026, We repurchased approximately 3.47 million ADS for a total cost of approximately $62.3 million.

Craig Yan Zeng, Chief Financial Officer, Autohome Inc.: 此外，根据公司的股息政策，董事会今天已批准派发每股美国存托股0.66美元，或每股普通股0.1650美元的现金分红，将以美元支付给2026年7月2日休市后登记在册的美国存托股及普通股持有人。分红总金额约为人民币5亿元，预计将分别支付给公司的普通股及美国存托股持有人。

Sterling Song, Investor Relations Director, Autohome Inc.: In addition, in accordance with our dividend policy, our board of directors approved a per ADS or $0.65 for ordinary share payable in US dollars to holders of ADS and ordinary shares of record as of the close of business on July 2nd, 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 24th, 2026 and July 31st, 2026 respectively.

Craig Yan Zeng, Chief Financial Officer, Autohome Inc.: 以上是公司的财务数据汇总。下面我们开始问答环节。

Sterling Song, Investor Relations Director, Autohome Inc.: That concludes our financial summaries. Now we are ready to open up the Q&A session. Operator, please open the line for the Q&A session. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Our first question comes from the line of Thomas Chong of Jefferies. Please ask your question Thomas, your line is open.

Thomas Chong, Analyst, Jefferies: 晚上好，谢谢管理层介绍。我的提问，我第一个问题是关于我们最近看到一季度的话，汽车行业的走势是比较弱，想问公司管理层怎么看今年中国车市的发展？第二个问题是关于极佳还有Haier战略的协同会体现在哪些方面？谢谢。

Sterling Song, Investor Relations Director, Autohome Inc.: Good evening. Thanks management for taking my question. My first question is about the industry trend. We have seen auto industry is a bit soft in Q1. Can management provide more color about your thoughts about the auto industry outlook? My second question is about Autohome and Haier. Can management comment about the updates regarding the synergies? Thank you.

Craig Yan Zeng, Chief Financial Officer, Autohome Inc.: 谢谢你的提问。就像您说的，国内一季度的车市是比较弱的，乘用车的整体销量同比下滑了17%，新能源在其中下滑了21%。这可能也是新能源汽车单独统计的时候，销量首次出现同比下滑，而且下滑了21%。那4月份的话，据我们了解，乘用车的零售和新能源车还是持续的下降，分别下降了22%和7%。这个也是政策、行业、消费端多重压力叠加的一个结果。

Sterling Song, Investor Relations Director, Autohome Inc.: 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 the past, the first time. In April this year, retail sales for both passenger vehicles and NEVs both continued to fall further, declining 22% and 7% respectively compared to the same period in 2025. This is the result of multiple pressures converging from government policy, industry conditions, as well as consumer demand.

Craig Yan Zeng, Chief Financial Officer, Autohome Inc.: 政策端的阶段性调整，透支了一些需求，这个确实也是销量下滑的一个核心诱因。大家知道新能源的免征购置税的政策12月底到期，所以这样的话，就让很多的消费者的购车的需求会前置。我们看到2025年12月，新能源销售量单月是134万辆，这是历史最高了。这当然也就透支了2026年一季度的一些需求。

Sterling Song, Investor Relations Director, Autohome Inc.: The faster government policy adjustment and the pulling forward of consumer demand, it’s the core reason, main reason behind the sales decline. As you know, the policy exempting the new energy vehicle from purchase tax expired at the end of December last year. This policy expiration really caused consumers to bring forward their car purchases. We saw NEV retail sales reach nearly 1.34 million units in December last year alone. This is a record high in history. This also directly puts forward part of the demand that would otherwise have appeared in the first quarter this year.

Craig Yan Zeng, Chief Financial Officer, Autohome Inc.: 今年政策的国补退坡，政策的驱动肯定是减弱了，然后叠加一季度整体的宏观的信心还是偏谨慎的，消费者的购车意愿也受到了一定的压制。同时，对比去年一季度的时候，车市还是一个阶段性的回暖，基数也相对比较高。所以这两个一增一减，也显得今年的这个一季度的市场的销售的数字相对比较低迷。

Sterling Song, Investor Relations Director, Autohome Inc.: Since the beginning of 2026, as you know, the government subsidies have been scaled back. The policy-driven boost to demand weakened. At the same time, the overall consumer confidence still remains relatively cautious in Q1. This further dampens 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. It formed the primary backdrop for the short-term decline in auto sales.

Craig Yan Zeng, Chief Financial Officer, Autohome Inc.: 从行业端来看，产能过剩依然还是放大了市场的压力，对消费者来讲也会去观望价格的变化。一方面，经销商的库存还是高企的。今年以来，库存的预警指数已经连续处在警戒的水平之上了。这也是经销商的资金链非常紧张，亏损面加大。为了加快销售、回笼资金，经销商也提高了折扣，使终端销售价格持续下降。这种越等越便宜的预期，也会让客户的决策和成交的周期拉长。

Sterling Song, Investor Relations Director, Autohome Inc.: From an industry perspective, we can see the overcapacity in the auto sector further exacerbated the market pressure and reinforced consumers’ wait and see attitude. On one hand, dealer inventory still remain at high level. Since the beginning of this year, the dealer inventory warning index has stayed above the caution threshold for several months already. It increased the pressure on dealers’ cash flows. The dealers’ losses spread further. In order to recover capital, dealers have increased their discounts. This drives the prices lower. In this way, it has strengthened our consumers’ expectations that the auto prices will continue to fall down. It’s further lessening the purchasing decision cycle and slowing the transaction conversion.

Craig Yan Zeng, Chief Financial Officer, Autohome Inc.: 另一方面，就是OEM的经营压力也持续地传导。一季度前十家车企中九家的销量都是同比下跌的。我们也看到汽车制造业的销售利润在前三个月就3.2%，也是历史最低的。2025年这个数字是4.1%。这也就又是一个现实，汽车行业普遍是以价换量，结果是量价双跌这么一个挑战。

Sterling Song, Investor Relations Director, Autohome Inc.: On the other hand, operating pressures on major OEMs also 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 the China auto manufacturing industry fell to just 3.2% for three months this year. This is a record low in history, and it is further declining from 4.1% compared with last year. This really reflects the widespread reality facing the whole industry. The OEMs are relying on pricing cuts to drive sales volumes, while both prices and volumes are simultaneously under great pressure.

Craig Yan Zeng, Chief Financial Officer, Autohome Inc.: 另一方面，汽车出口将来会是整个汽车行业的一个重要组成部分。乘联会数据显示，一季度中国汽车的累计出口是183万辆，同比增长61%。新能源车还是占了比较大的比重，这也就是出海的一个核心的动力。

Sterling Song, Investor Relations Director, Autohome Inc.: Another point is that, in the future export, auto exports will serve as a key stabilizing force for the auto industry. According to the data from CPCA, China Passenger Car Association, China exported a cumulative 1.83 million vehicles in the first quarter this year, which is a year-over-year growth of 61%. EV exports continue to account for a large percentage, significantly a high share. It remains as the core growth driver in overseas expansion.

Craig Yan Zeng, Chief Financial Officer, Autohome Inc.: 关于海尔和之家的协同，因为现在我们从交易完成到现在就是半年多的时间。目前主要还是在二手车和线下场景方面做得比较多一点。

Sterling Song, Investor Relations Director, Autohome Inc.: About the synergies and collaboration with Haier Group, the transaction has completed more than six months. The current collaboration is still focused on synergies execution in the used car business and offline services scenario, etc.

Craig Yan Zeng, Chief Financial Officer, Autohome Inc.: 卡泰驰旗下的二手车业务也发展了多年了，在全国多个城市都有布局，具备线上线下一体化运营和门店的管理经验。

Sterling Song, Investor Relations Director, Autohome Inc.: For CARtech, its used car business has been developing for so many years with a presence across multiple cities nationwide in China, and it has extensive experience in integrated online to offline operations and dealership store management, et cetera.

Craig Yan Zeng, Chief Financial Officer, Autohome Inc.: 海尔集团也在消费者的服务体系、管理模式等多方面具备丰富的经验，这些都是我们可以协同和借鉴的。

Sterling Song, Investor Relations Director, Autohome Inc.: For Haier Group, it also brings us expertise in consumer service systems and management models, which are all areas for collaboration and knowledge sharing for us.

Craig Yan Zeng, Chief Financial Officer, Autohome Inc.: 现在我们的新零售业务已经在二手车领域和卡泰驰展开比较深入的合作，包括车源供应、车辆检测环节等等。卡泰驰车辆的改装定制和充电桩服务也和之家形成协同效应。后续我们继续会深化和拓展在这些领域的合作。

Sterling Song, Investor Relations Director, Autohome Inc.: For example, our new retail business has already begun cooperation with CARtech in the used car segment, including the vehicle sourcing and vehicle inspection processes. CARtech’s vehicle customization and the charging port, charging station business have also created synergistic opportunities with that. Going forward in the future, we plan to continue deepening and expanding cooperation in the above areas. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. We will now take our next question from Brian Gong of Citi. Please ask your question, Brian. Your line is open.

Brian Gong, Analyst, Citi: 好的，谢谢管理层接受我提问。我这块有两个问题，第一个是关于销售线索的。能否分享一下今年经销商续约的时候，他们的一个反馈？主要想看一下销售线索业务这块的下滑是否会持续。然后另外一个是我们新零售的拓展，现在是怎么思考的？这个业务的模式是否已经达到了可以快速复制的阶段？后续该怎么看它的增长动能？然后我很快翻译一下。

Sterling Song, Investor Relations Director, Autohome Inc.: Thanks management for taking my questions. I have two questions. First is that, can management share the feedback from dealers during the contract renewal period this year? Should we expect continuous decline on sales lead business given dealers worsening conditions? Secondly, for new retail business, what is our strategies for expansion now? Does this business approaches the phase that we can scale up very quickly? How should we view its growth potentials ahead? Thank you.

Craig Yan Zeng, Chief Financial Officer, Autohome Inc.: 好，谢谢。第一个问题就是关于经销商续约。今年的经销商的会员续约已经完成了，经销商客户的覆盖还是保持在一个比较稳定的水平。在车市价格战持续，终端毛利压力比较大，库存也高企的这种情况下，经销商对于整体的经营还是比较保守。因为利润压力也大，所以普遍也收紧了一些营销的预算，控制了获客成本，这个也是预期中的。

Sterling Song, Investor Relations Director, Autohome Inc.: Thank you for your question. At present, for the dealer membership renewal, this has been completed this year. Overall, the dealer customer coverage still remains at a stable level even though there is ongoing price wars in the auto market and there are shrinking margins at the retail level. It really brings a lot of high inventory pressure for most of the dealers. For most of the dealers, they adopted a more conservative operating approach, and the loss-making coverage in the dealer segment has widened, and the profitability pressure still remains at a high level in the retail end for the dealers.

Craig Yan Zeng, Chief Financial Officer, Autohome Inc.: 虽然销量的压力越大，其实经销商对于优质线索的需求其实也是越高的。之家也是经销商最重要的获客渠道之一。那会员业务上我们也提升通过数据驱动的反漏斗模型和智能分发模型，提高匹配的精准度和分发效果。

Sterling Song, Investor Relations Director, Autohome Inc.: Despite there is a pressure on the overall vehicle sales, for dealers, their demand for high-quality sales leads still continue to increase. Autohome still remains one of the most important customer acquisition channels for dealer customers. On the membership services side, we are improving the traffic matching accuracy and distribution efficiency through the data-driven reverse funnel model and the intelligent distribution model.

Craig Yan Zeng, Chief Financial Officer, Autohome Inc.: 未来，之家会继续跟经销商一起探索经营提升的方案，帮门店提升客流和成交的转化，拓展线上线下的联动业务，帮助经销商提升盈利，尽可能降低行业下行带来的经营的冲击。

Sterling Song, Investor Relations Director, Autohome Inc.: Going forward, Autohome will continue to work closely with the dealer customers to further explore solutions which can help them to break through the current operation challenges for the dealer customers. We aim to support dealerships in increasing the customer traffic and improving the conversion rate, while also trying to expand the integrated O2O business initiative. Our goal is to help dealer customers improve their revenues and profitability while mitigating as much as possible the operational impact caused by the broader auto industry downturn.

Craig Yan Zeng, Chief Financial Officer, Autohome Inc.: 关于新零售是这样的，我们还是在一个探索的阶段。现在是想法让经销商，地方的经销商入驻这个商城平台，把他们的车源和落地价格展示在商城上，就类似有点淘宝的这个样子。那通过这些经销商联动，我们能够为用户提供线上线下一站式的便捷购车服务，涵盖在线选车、个性化配置选择、在线支付、大定以及线下轻松提车等全流程环节，为用户提供一个电商体验的购车交易平台。目前我们在西安和深圳两个城市的这个业务模式在跑，效果还可以。跑通之后呢，可能在更多的城市会去推广复制。

Sterling Song, Investor Relations Director, Autohome Inc.: For our new retail business, we are still currently exploring to reach allowing local dealer customers to join our network, which is the Autohome Mall platform, and display dealer vehicle inventory and the final transaction pricing online. This model is just quite similar to Taobao marketplace model. Through cooperation with such dealers, we are able to provide users with a seamless O2O online-to-offline one-stop vehicle purchasing experience, which can cover the entire process from the online vehicle selection, browsing, personalized configuration, to online deposit payment, and to millions offline vehicle delivery and pickup. Our target is to create an e-commerce like auto transaction platform, which can deliver an efficient, user-friendly experience for our customers. At present, we are piloting this model, online car purchasing model in two cities, Xi’an and Shenzhen, so far so good. Once this model has been fully upgraded and validated, we will further expand it into other additional cities. Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. We will now take our next question from the line of Jing Yuan from CICC. Please ask your question. Jing, your line is open.

Jing Yuan, Analyst, CICC: 感谢管理层接受我的提问，我这边想了解一下我们后续关于股东回报的计划是如何安排的。

Sterling Song, Investor Relations Director, Autohome Inc.: Thanks for management taking my question. I wonder what’s the company’s future plan for shareholder returns going forward. Thanks.

Craig Yan Zeng, Chief Financial Officer, Autohome Inc.: 谢谢。分红我们持续会为股东提供回报。我们刚刚公布了上半年分红的5亿人民币的安排，继续兑现全年分红不低于15亿人民币的这个承诺。无论行业周期怎么波动，我们始终重视股东回报，保持分红政策的连续性和稳定性。

Sterling Song, Investor Relations Director, Autohome Inc.: Thank you for your question. As we said, we will continue to implement our commitment for 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 the fluctuations in the auto industry, we will consistently place strong emphasis on the shareholder returns, and we will maintain continuity and stability in our dividend policy.

Craig Yan Zeng, Chief Financial Officer, Autohome Inc.: 回购方面，我们从3月份董事会授权回购之后，这三个月的时间，我们已经完成了回购计划的总额度的差不多1/3。执行得还是比较顺利。

Sterling Song, Investor Relations Director, Autohome Inc.: For the share buyback, our new share buyback program was ratified in March by the board. Until today it’s almost three months. So far, we have completed roughly one third of the authorized share repurchase amount. It really reflects our determined attitude and execution.

Craig Yan Zeng, Chief Financial Officer, Autohome Inc.: 重视投资者回报也是这家董事会一贯的政策，所以基于这种持续分红常态化的回购，也是我们现在的策略。

Sterling Song, Investor Relations Director, Autohome Inc.: You know, we have for Autohome, we have been consistently prioritized shareholder returns and we established our shareholder return framework, including the cash dividend plus the share buyback. Going forward, we will continue to adhere to our comprehensive shareholder return policy in the future. Thank you.

Operator: We will now take our next question from the line of Ritchie Sun of HSBC. Please go ahead. Ritchie, your line is open.

Ritchie Sun, Analyst, HSBC: [Foreign language] Thank you management for taking my question. I want to ask about the Autohome Mall business progress. Any metrics to share and the second half outlook? Thank you.

Craig Yan Zeng, Chief Financial Officer, Autohome Inc.: 可能具体的数字还是少了一点。我们也希望我们的商城能够多一点的探索。目前商城能够给用户提供新车标品、二手车产品和多重的平台保障。对于新车标品，我们聚合主流品牌的热销车型，提供专属权益和透明的价格，透明的落地价格，解决用户比价难、拍马贵的这个核心痛点。对于精品二手车，我们依托与卡泰驰的深度合作，建立统一检测质保体系。

Sterling Song, Investor Relations Director, Autohome Inc.: Thank you for your question. For detailed numbers, it is still too early at the moment. For our Autohome Mall, our target is try to provide our users with more standardized new cars, certified used car products and multiple platform level safeguards. For example, for the new standard vehicles, we aggregate the best-value models from major brands and offer exclusive benefits as well as other transparent final pricing. It can address key user pain points such as the difficulty in the price comparison and customer concerns about overpaying. For the high quality used cars, we can rely on our deep cooperation with CARtech to establish a unified inspection and warranty system.

Craig Yan Zeng, Chief Financial Officer, Autohome Inc.: 车的线上化的整个过程，相对来说模式还是不是很清楚，但是我们坚信这是一个未来的方向。无论是新车还是二手车的交易，我们认为都会走向线上化，而且会成为未来推动之家发展的一个新的动力。

Sterling Song, Investor Relations Director, Autohome Inc.: For the online auto industry, the overall business model is still not very clear, but we firmly trust that this is the right direction for the whole industry. From our point of view, we do expect that both the new car and the used car transaction business will become a new engine for Autohome’s future growth. This is our deep understanding for the future of the industry. Thank you.

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

Craig Yan Zeng, Chief Financial Officer, Autohome Inc.: 感谢大家参加今天的会议，期待在下次业绩电话会上能再与大家交流公司的最新发展。如果您有任何问题或建议，欢迎随时与我们联系。谢谢。

Sterling Song, Investor Relations Director, Autohome Inc.: 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.

Operator: Thank you for your participation in today’s conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect your line.