Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by for Autohome's fourth quarter and full year 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in the 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, you may disconnect at this time. A live and archive webcast of the earnings conference call will also be available on Autohome's IR website. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Mr. Sterling Song, Autohome IR Director. Mr. Song, please go ahead.
Thank you, operator. Thank you. Hello, everyone, and welcome to Autohome's fourth quarter and full year 2023 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 today on today's call are Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Tao Wu, and Chief Financial Officer, Mr.
Yan Zeng. Management will go through their prepared remarks, which will be followed by a Q&A session, where they, they will be available to answer all your questions. Before we continue, please note that the discussion today will contain forward-looking statements made under the Safe Harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. 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 doesn't undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements except as required under applicable law. Please also note that Autohome's earnings press release and this conference call include discussions of certain audited non-GAAP financial measures. A reconciliation of the non-GAAP measures for the most directly comparable GAAP measures can be found in our earnings release. I will now turn the call over to Autohome CEO, Mr.
Wu, for opening remarks. Please go ahead, Mr. Wu. [Foreign Language].
好的，谢谢宋凯。大家好，我是汽车之家CEO吴涛，感谢大家参加我们今天的电话会议。
Thank you, Sterling. Hello, everyone, this is Tao Wu, CEO of Autohome. Thank you for joining us in our earnings conference call today.
2023[Foreign Language].
提升超过了80%，占收比呢，也大幅提升至近18%。利润方面呢，全年归属于汽车之家的经调整的净利润人民币21.6亿元，经调整的净利润率呢，达到了30.1%。此外，我们已于年内呢完成了总额2亿美金的股票回购计划，并大幅提高了分红派息额度，切实地回馈了广大股东，进一步落实加大股东回报的承诺。
We delivered solid operational and financial results in 2023, with overall growth driven primarily by our new businesses. Total net revenues for the year grew by 3.5% year-over-year to CNY 7.18 billion. Revenues from the online marketplace and others business increased by 14.6% year-over-year and accounted for 30.6% of total revenue. Notably, we continue to see strong growth in revenues from data products and TTP, which each increased by more than 10% compared to 2022. We also saw robust growth in our NEV business, with revenues for the year increasing by over 80% year-over-year and accounting for nearly 18% of total revenue. Adjusted net income attributable to Autohome for the year was CNY 2.16 billion, with adjusted net margin of 30.1%. We also completed a $200 million share repurchase program and significantly increased the dividend payout to shareholders, demonstrating our commitment to generating returns for investors.
[Foreign Language].
In 2023, we made breakthroughs in the application of AI and large language models and innovated new business models. We launched new AI-driven data products, deployed large language models in various business scenarios, and combined model-based decision making with human expertise to enhance the service quality of our data products. We also made rapid progress in expanding our physical new retail presence, particularly in mid- to low-tier cities, where we see significant potential for growth as the NEV market evolves. Our Autohome Energy Space stores, as a strong offline channel to complement our online capabilities, are now present in 20 cities across the country, helping us build brand awareness among NEV users.
[Foreign language].
Autohome has always been at the forefront of digitalization and business innovation, proactively promoting and leading the digital transformation of the entire automotive industry in China. Looking ahead, we are committed to maintaining our leadership in these key areas and creating unique advantages through the following strategies. First, we accelerate the collaboration with Ping An Group and focus on creating a closed-loop ecosystem for car owners and leveraging Ping An's resources to enhance our service capabilities. Second, we will enhance the quality of our content and reinforce Autohome as the go-to brand for all things automotive, creating a strong and lasting brand image as the leading authority in this space. Third, we put users at the center of our efforts, providing convenient access to high quality, comprehensive services throughout the entire car ownership lifecycle.
Fourth, we will deepen our innovative business models, focusing on developing our Autohome Energy Space stores and TTP. We believe that by aggregating industry resources, leveraging Ping An's potential business opportunities and user resources, we can create a unique value proposition and establish a diverse and dynamic ecosystem that empowers our long-term growth.
[Foreign Language].
With that, I know, I will now turn the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Craig Zeng, for a closer look at our fourth quarter and full year 2023 operating and financial results.
[Foreign Language].
Thank you, Mr. Wu. Hello, everyone, I'm Craig Zeng, the CFO of Autohome.
2023[Foreign Language].
In 2023, we made user experience our core focus, creating a comprehensive system encompassing content, tools, and services to provide our users with high quality, convenience, and efficient auto consumption experiences.
[Foreign Language].
QuestMobile [Foreign Language].
In the fourth quarter, we launched NEV Breakthrough Plan, a comprehensive evaluation program that assesses NEV safety across the three dimensions: collision, battery, and intelligent driving. This program, which aims to address user concerns and accelerate the decision-making process, has received 325 million impressions and over 200 million views across the entire network. Additionally, we launched NEV Super Test, a program which carries out real-world evaluations of NEV performance over a period of two months. This initiative give us the opportunity to collaborate with other parties on developing a more consumer-centric vehicle evaluation system, promoting the overall NEV category, and helping automotive brands develop strong products with a better user experience. Looking ahead, we will maintain our focus on catering to the, to the evolving needs of users, so that we can create a rich and diverse content ecosystem that provides value and drives engagement.
We will also leverage a broad range of online channels to ensure that our high-quality content reaches the widest possible audience. According to QuestMobile, our mobile DAU increased by 25.4% year-over-year to reach 68.90 million last December, demonstrating the effectiveness of our content-based user growth strategy.
[Foreign Language].
Our NEV business has grown rapidly with the expansion of Autohome Energy Space to 20 cities across the country. We've upgraded our brand, technology, and store services to provide a high-quality consumer experience across regional auto markets in East, South, Southwest, and North China. We've also increased the number of Energy Space brand partners and expanded our offering of 3D holographic car models to include over 70 mainstream models. We remain optimistic about the potential of this new retail model, which is distinguished by its cross-brand and digital approach. Looking ahead to 2024, we plan to further expand our footprint by opening franchise stores in around 30 additional cities. By the end of this year, our NEV service ecosystem will have a presence in around 50 cities, allowing us to provide a comprehensive range of high-quality, one-stop automotive service experiences to consumers across the country.
For full year 2023, our revenue from NEV brands increased 81.6%, demonstrating the strength of our offerings in this area and our ability to outperform industry sales growth rates.
[Foreign Language].
We also made significant progress in our digitization efforts in 2023 as we applied AI technology and large language models across a wide range of our products and services. We launched products such as Cloud Smart Selection and Qi Xintong, which leverages our AI technology and big data capabilities to help dealers engage with high-value users and manage instant messages with users in different scenarios... We also introduce applications based on large language models such as AIGC and Operation Butler, helping our dealer customers reduce overall costs and increase efficiency.
In 2023, the average revenue for data products per dealer store and the average number of data products adopted by each dealer store both grew by over 20% compared to the prior year, as the number of dealer customers for data products continued to ramp up, driving a 38% year-over-year increase in dealer data revenue for the year. We expect our digital products to maintain their strong growth momentum, contributing to a more diversified revenue mix for Autohome.
[Foreign Language].
In terms of our used car business, we offer a wide range of products to help used car dealers manage their daily business operations more efficiently. For example, our one-stop platform for vehicle condition and price inquiries provides a convenient way for dealers to access relevant information and has received positive feedback. We've also launched a membership product specifically designed for used cars, providing dealers with a comprehensive information management platform. On the other hand, we have successfully expanded TTP's business through new retail stores. In 2023, TTP delivered a year-over-year revenue growth of over 10%.
[Foreign language].
In conclusion, we have steadily grown revenue while achieving a more optimal revenue mix and driving a significant increase in user traffic. Our new retail business is growing rapidly, and our overall business is making steady progress. Looking ahead, we will continue to invest in new models, technologies, and products and proactively explore opportunities that further for further business resource and user synergies with Ping An Group. Through these efforts, we aim to create new growth momentum and position ourselves for continued success in the future.
[Foreign Language].
Let me walk you through the key financials for the fourth quarter and full year 2023. Please note that, as with prior quarters, I will reference RMB only in my discussion today, unless otherwise stated.
[Foreign language]14.8%。
Net revenues for the fourth quarter were CNY 1.91 billion. Breaking down by segment, media services revenues were CNY 500 million, lead generation services revenue were CNY 841 million, and online marketplace and others revenues were CNY 569 million, up 14.8% year-over-year.
[Foreign Language] CNY 368 million，2022 [Foreign Language] CNY 370 million, [Foreign Language] 80.8%，2022 [Foreign Language]. 80.4%。
Moving on to cost. Cost of revenues in the fourth quarter was CNY 368 million, compared to CNY 371 million in Q4 2022. Gross margin in the fourth quarter was 80.8%, compared to 80.4% in Q4 2022.
[Foreign Language].
Turning to operating expenses. Sales and marketing expenses in the fourth quarter were CNY 730 million, compared to CNY 663 million in Q4 2022.
Product and development expenses were CNY 356 million, compared to CNY 330 million in Q4 2022.... Finally, general and administrative expenses were CNY 157 million, compared to CNY 103 million in Q4 2022. [Foreign Language]CNY 3.67 billion，2022[Foreign Language]CNY 5.13 billion. [Foreign Language]CNY 5.03 billion，2022[Foreign Language].CNY 6.69 billion。Overall, we delivered operating profits of CNY 367 million in the fourth quarter compared to CNY 513 million in the corresponding period of 2022.
Adjusted net income attributable to Autohome was CNY 503 million in the fourth quarter, compared to CNY 669 million in the corresponding period of 2022. [Foreign Language].Non-GAAP basic and diluted earnings per share in the fourth quarter were both CNY 1.04 compared to CNY 1.36 and CNY 1.35, respectively, in the corresponding period of 2022.
Non-GAAP basic and diluted earnings per ADS in the fourth quarter were 4.15 and 4.14, respectively, compared to 5.42 and 5.41, respectively, in the corresponding period of 2022. [Foreign Language] CNY 7.18 billion，[Foreign Language] 3.5%，[Foreign language] CNY 1.87 billion，[Foreign Language] CNY 3.11 billion，[Foreign Language] CNY 2.2 billion，[Foreign Language] 14.6% [Foreign Language] CNY 2.16 billion，[Foreign Language] 30%，30.1%。Let me now turn to a short summary of our year 2023 full year results.
Total revenues were CNY 7.18 billion, an increase of 3.5% year-over-year. Of that, media services revenue were CNY 1.87 billion, lead generation services revenue was CNY 3.11 billion, and the online marketplace and others business revenue increased by 14.6% year-over-year to CNY 2.2 billion.
In addition, we delivered an adjusted net income attributable to Autohome of CNY 2.16 billion, with adjusted net margin of 30.1%. As of December 31st, 2023, our balance sheet remained very strong with cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments of CNY 23.55 billion.
We generated net operating cash flow of CNY 2.45 billion in 2023. 2021 [Foreign Language] In November 2021, our board of directors authorized a share repurchase program under which we were permitted to repurchase up to $200 million of Autohome ADS for a period not exceed twelve months thereafter.
In November 2022, our board of directors authorized an extension of this share repurchase program for another 12 months. As of December 31st, 2023, we have completed this share repurchase program with repurchase approximately 6.73 million ADS for a total cost of approximately $200 million. [Foreign Language]. With that, now we are ready to take your questions. Operator, please open the line for Q&A session.
Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you would like to cancel your request, please press the pound or hash key. Once again to ask question, please press star one one. The first question comes from the line of Thomas Zhang from Jefferies. Please go ahead.
[Foreign language]Thanks management for taking my questions. My question is about the industry outlook. Can management comments about the 2023 industry performance and how we should think about the trend and the outlook in China 2024 as well as the opportunities ahead? Thank you.
[Foreign Language].
Thank you very much for the question. Actually, in 2023, we do see the trend of the first low and then high momentum in the auto market in China. In terms of 2023, the sales volume hits historical high according to the statistics of the CPCA. In Q4, we do see a quick recovery in auto sales, especially for the retail sales, had gone up by 13.8% year-over-year and over quarter-over-quarter for the third quarter. It was up 1.4%. That is because close to the end of the year, there are a lot of promotions nationwide. For example, the offline auto show and providing consumption vouchers and coupons for car purchasing, and some of the stock for the combustion cars which failed to meet the National VI standards . And also in this way, it boosted the sales.
As for 2023, the passenger car sales have gone up by 5.3%, majorly due to the NEV car.
[Foreign Language].
We also see some challenges in this industry. For example, it's very competitive in starting the price wars and the margins has been squeezed. According to the data published by CPCA, for 2023, the whole auto industry, especially the revenue, has gone up by 12%. However, the margin is only 5%. Compared with the overall industrial corporate margin, which was 5.8%, the auto market margin is quite low. So in this way, according to the data of CADA, for the first half of 2023, there were 50.3% of the dealers suffered loss, and it's quite challenging for the 4S stores.
[Foreign Language].
Now looking into 2024, we firmly believe that the auto market will be a pillar industry for the national economy. It will be continuously supported by the government. Especially at the beginning of 2024, we do see a lot of local governments extended and issue, initiated a lot of supportive policy to stimulate the purchasing of the car. For example, in January, Guangzhou launched the subsidy for purchasing cars during the New Spring, and in Zhengzhou, they also issued consumption coupons for car purchasers, so this would help to stimulate the market demand, and also help to drive up the sales in the auto market. According to CPCA, in 2024, the auto market will continue to stabilize and will continue to providing a good development momentum, which will achieve 3% of the growth.
[Foreign Language].
[Foreign Language].
Finally, in terms of the structure of the auto market, NEV had always keep growing in a rapid way. The penetration rate of the NEV has come up from 28% back in 2022 to 35% in 2023. It will be expected to reach 40% in 2024. With the higher penetration rate, we do see some momentum change for the purchasers, and we believe that the competition in the traditional combustion car market will be even more aggressive. So we do see that no matter it's the domestic brands or the JV brands, a lot of the traditional, you know, car makers are trying to explore to launch a lot of an NEV car models to fit into the NEV growth market. That would also help the OEM to try to be more innovative, to enhance its competency to fit into this market.
[Foreign Language].
In general, we believe that with more and more supporting policies to be released, this would further stimulate this market and regenerate the consumption vitality. We are quite confident in 2024's auto market in China. Xie xie.
Thank you for the questions. One moment for the next question. Next question we have the line from Xiaodan Zhang from CICC. Please go ahead.
[Foreign Language].So thanks management for taking my questions, and I got two questions here. So first of all, we have noticed that the gross margin and operating profit margin declined year-over-year in 2023.
So what's your expectation for the margin trend in Q1 2024 and onwards? And secondly, could you please elaborate on your strategies for enhancing the synergies between Autohome and Ping An Group? Thank you.
[Foreign Language].
Well, thank you very much for the question. Now talking about the GP margin, well, yes, in 2023 compare with 2020 or 2023, with compare with 2022, we do see some slightly down in the GP margin. Well, now talking about the cost, we have provided more diversified content ecosystem, so that's why it drive up some of the cost. In terms of the user experience, we have enhanced the recruiting of the new customers and the promotion. In this way, we also expanded about 20 renewable energy NEVs offline experience stores, and we provided some promotion subsidies, and we also offered a lot of support for the dealers. So in this way, we provided also training and a lot of other resources to attract the local consumers to come to the store to do the test drive and to boost the car sales. Now in terms of the content, we have invested more and more in high quality content, not only the text and the picture based, we also invested in video and the live streaming. So in this way, it drives up some of the cost.
[Foreign Language].
[Foreign Language].
Now in terms of the cost and expenses, we have enhanced some marketing investment. For example, we launched the 818 Auto Show, Global Auto Show, and also online auto show, etc. Also we invested more heavily in the high-quality IP. For example, we have initiated the NEV Breakthrough Plan and NEV Super Test. So in this way, we have providing more professional content, so we are focusing on providing professionalism and a unique content. Now, in terms of the momentum of the profit, we do see that the whole industry is under stress and is receiving a lot of challenges.
But Autohome has always been quite stable in terms of the profit, although we are facing with some challenges, but if we can strictly control the cost and expenses, and we would enhance efficiency as a long term goal, we believe we can achieve a good balance.
[Foreign Language].
Now talking about the second question, which is about the synergy between Autohome and the Ping An Group. Now I want to make the comments. So first of all, Autohome and Ping An Group, each of them have its own unique characteristics as well as resources, and we can make our business quite complementary to each other. For example, Autohome has a lot of traffic. We have about 70 million DAUs every day, and we have professional content and tools. We have very rich to C and to B services and experiences. For Ping An Group, they have about 60 million car owners, which are their insurance customers, and in their platform, there are about 200 million registered customers. So they also have a lot of rich to C and to C services and experiences. So in terms of the service quality, we believe that each of us can play the merits of our strengths, and we can provide the online plus offline seamlessly connection and also providing the car owners from shopping the car, using the car and the post sales of the car services to create the closed loop ecosystem for the car users.
[Foreign Language].
In terms of the tools, content and services, we believe that we can create a lot of synergy. We can consolidate a lot of resources to create the one plus one is higher and more than two effects. So in this way, we believe that our, our two companies are quite complementary to each other, and in this way, Autohome will leverage on the resources of Ping An Group and to enhance our investment yield, and enhance the efficiency and try to build our vision and make our vision, you know, realizing our, our vision, we want to be the first class international to B and to C content provider, the tools and the service provider, and we want to be the unified, you know, auto purchasing and auto sales service platform.
Thank you, operator. Please go ahead.
Thank you, your next question comes from the line of Brian Gong from Citi. One moment, please.
[Foreign Language]. I will translate myself. Thanks very much for taking my question.
I have two quick questions. First one is along with rising mix from NEV traditional OEMs, their scale is declining, and this also impacts the scale of the 4S store. How does this impact our business, especially for our lead generation? And the second question is, at the end of last year, we announced the dividends. How should we think about our dividend plan in the future? Thank you.
[Foreign Language].
Well, thank you for the question. Well, talking about the market, if you look at the market, we do see the major sales was still contributed by the traditional combustion cars, and also the dealership model is still the mainstream model, because 60% of the sales are still combustion cars. In 2023, for the combustion cars, there were about 336 million cars, but by the renewable energy car is only about 20 million. So we do believe that to serve those base markets, we do still need a lot of dealers and 4S stores.
However, in terms of the future momentum, we do see that with the penetration rate of the NEV car gradually going up, we do see the shrinking of the 4S store and the dealership model would be the future momentum, but it will not drop very sharply. So during this process, we would work together with rest dealers, and they try to transform along with rest dealers, and they try to readjust our business model.
[Foreign Language].
Now, in terms of our current ecosystem and as well as our service system, we are also trying to work very closely with those combustion car dealers, and they try to work together and build a lot of synergy.
[Foreign Language].
Now, talking about our performance in the NEV car market, we are quite promising. In terms of the revenue, our revenue growth is higher than the market average.
[Foreign Language].
Now, if you look at the NEV car OEMs, originally they are shouldering the responsibilities from R&D, manufacturing, sales, marketing, and post sales. But the whole value chain is too long that it's quite risky to cover all the value chain. So in this way, we do see some of the NEV OEM started to adopt a lot of dealership and the franchising model. So in this way, they help to leverage our Autohome, which are the vertical media, which can help them to achieve better sales. So in this, we do see that our lead business are still very promising. We have no worries about our future, especially our lead business and the future growth.
[Foreign Language].
[Foreign Language].
actually we also we adjust our business along with this new business model and with the new characteristics, we see the new market opportunities. For example, we established our new retail business that is the Autohome Energy Space store. In this way, we help grow OEMs to get into the lower tier cities and into better channels to make the sales. This is a proactive change, trying to get more fit into this new structure of this market, and this is a brand new business model for us. It help us to achieve a better collaboration with the NEV car brands and to enhance itself. So we believe that in the future, if our retail, you know, business is expanding, that would bring a lot of extra revenue for Autohome, and we are very confident about this future business.
[Foreign Language].
Now tell me about the dividend payout plan. In the past few years, Autohome had always continued to providing a better return for our shareholders. Before 2021 our share actually dividend payout ratio is 20% of the net profit. Actually, in 2022, our board actually renewed the dividend payout system and the policy we announced that we are going to pay out no less than CNY 500 million RMB as the dividend, which equals to 28% of the net profit in that year. At the end of 2023, we further readjusted the dividend payout ratio system. We announced that we are going to make about CNY 1 billion RMB dividend payout and continuously from 2024 to 2026. For this future three years, we would provide no less than CNY 1.5 billion RMB dividend payout.
[Foreign Language
Now overall, if you can see that in the past few years, Autohome had always continuously enhanced its dividend payout system and trying to provide a better return for our shareholders. On one hand, this indicate that our company has very good financial condition. We have abundant cash reserve and very strong cash flow. On the other hand, this also show that we have long term commitment to providing better return to our shareholders. And this was quite rare in this market, we not only enhance the dividend payout ratio, but also push up the absolute amount of the dividend we paid out.
[Foreign Language].
In the future, we will keep a close attention to the market moves, and we would be in a timely manner to report and communicate with our board meetings, and we are trying to provide better returns for our shareholders.
Operator.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Ritchie Sun from HSBC. Please go ahead.
[Foreign Language]Thank you very much for taking my questions. I want to ask about all the Energy Space stores, so we plan to open to thirty more cities in 2024, so, could management share what would be the revenue contribution in 2024? And how much cost will be allocated to such expansion plan? Thank you.
[Foreign Language].
Well, thank you for the question. Yes, we build about 20 Autohome Energy Space stores in 2023. In 2024, our plan is to open 30 new stores covering from tier 1 city to tier 3, tier 4 city. Because we providing the franchising model, so in terms of the cost, yeah, opening new stores would not drive up a lot of cost because we provide more function, supportive function. So that's why we didn't providing very rapid growth of these stores, because we want our business to be stable, healthy and prudent. Because this is a new business, we are still in the exploration phase. Now tell me about the revenue. If you look at the revenue, especially in Q4 of 2023, it already reached to over 10,000 CNY, actually it was 16 million CNY.
We do see with more and more stores get into a maturing operating stage that will drive up our retail revenue. As for the future revenue incurred in 2024, because it's still too early for me to provide any guidance at the current stage, but I believe that we would keep in a timely manner to communicate with you if we further generate more and more revenue in the future.
Thank you. There are no further question at this time. I'll turn the conference back to management for closing comments.
[Foreign Language].
Thank you, thank you everyone for joining us today. We appreciate your support, and we look forward to updating you in our next quarter conference call in a few months' time. And in the meantime, if you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us. Thank you, goodbye!