Autohome Inc. Announces 2024 Q4 and Annual Earnings: Growth in New Retail Business and AI-Powered Product Upgrades

HONG KONG, Feb. 20, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Autohome Inc. (NYSE: ATHM; HKEX: 2518) ("Autohome" or the "Company"), the leading online destination for automobile consumers in China, today announced its fourth quarter and annual financial results for 2024. Driven by significant breakthroughs in its innovative businesses, the Company achieved total revenue of RMB1.78 billion in the fourth quarter and RMB7.04 billion for the full year. The adjusted net income attributable to Autohome for the full year reached RMB2.05 billion.

Additionally, Autohome announced a total dividend payout of RMB1.5 billion for the year, and a US$200 million share repurchase program, of which approximately US$88.5 million worth of shares has been repurchased (as of February 14, 2025). Moving forward, the Company remains committed to executing the board's approved dividend and share repurchase programs to further enhance shareholder returns.

Over the past year, Autohome's efforts to create a truly integrated 'online-to-offline' ecosystem have yielded impressive results. The Company has achieved significant milestones in user growth, content matrix enhancements, new retail business expansion, and AI application deployment.

New Retail Network Expands into Lower-Tier Markets to Support "Trade-in for New" Policy

In the fourth quarter, Autohome made significant strides in its new retail business, enhancing both online and offline operations. Online, the Company utilized its exhibition halls and holographic cabin technology at Autohome Space stores to boost local user acquisition capabilities through live streaming. Offline, Autohome hosted a series of curated multi-brand car sales events, providing consumers with a more streamlined, cost-effective purchasing experience. As of now, Autohome has established 28 franchised Autohome Space stores and more than 130 satellite stores nationwide, creating an extensive offline service network.

Since the launch of the car trade-in policy in early 2024, Autohome acted swiftly with a comprehensive online and offline strategy to support the initiative. Online, the Company leveraged its platform advantages to aggregate policy subsidies and promotional offers from manufacturers in real time, providing users with one-stop access to discount information and automatic benefit matching services. Offline, Autohome organized the Hundred Cities Trade-in for New series of auto shows, focusing on Tier 3 and 4 cities to support the trade-in policy and promote NEVs in rural areas. In 2024, Autohome hosted nearly 1,000 offline auto shows and over 3,000 single-store events, covering nearly 250 cities nationwide, with more than 80% of them in lower-tier cities, reaching almost 4 million people. This demonstrates the Company's deep penetration and strong ability to execute in lower-tier markets.

Autohome's Online Traffic Surges to New Heights as a Result of Smart Vehicle and NEV Focus

In 2024, Autohome deepened its commitment to original content creation to provide more value to users and enhance its industry influence. The content focused on two core areas: smart vehicles and NEVs.

For example, to address key pain points in the NEV industry, Autohome launched the First Winter Dual Temperature Tests program. The program tested over 50 models from 30 brands, focusing on low-temperature range, charging efficiency, and energy consumption performance. It garnered over 600 million views across various platforms, demonstrating the quality, expertise, and industry influence of Autohome's content.

At the same time, Autohome adopted an open platform model to create localized content channels that integrate services, trade-in offers, and promotions from regional automotive partners. This approach precisely connected user demand with local resources, forming a complete cycle from demand to supply and effectively activating traffic in lower-tier markets. According to QuestMobile, Autohome's average mobile daily active users ("DAUs") reached 77.48 million in December 2024, an increase of 13.6% year-on-year, reflecting its expanding influence in the industry.

Autohome Advances AI Capabilities and Expands Verified Used Car Listings

In the fourth quarter, Autohome prioritized AI-driven upgrades for its products and achieved significant progress, particularly in its leads subscription package services. For example, the Company launched an AIGC video generation tool with modular graphic and video production capabilities, empowering dealers to create their own content more efficiently. With respect to lead management, the AI-driven smart follow-up system has provided dealers with comprehensive solutions for managing leads from initial contact to the transaction—this has improved store staff's issue resolution efficiency by over 20%. As for business management, AI continues to streamline operational data analysis for stores, which supports data-driven decision-making.

For its used car business, Autohome continued to expand its digital offerings, providing users and clients with a wider range of tools to assist with researching vehicle conditions, pricing, marketing, and more. The Company also continued to strengthen vehicle sourcing processes, particularly for certified high-quality vehicles, to ensure quality and promote the healthy development of the industry.

Looking ahead, Autohome will continue to focus on the vast opportunities in lower-tier markets, continuously advancing its business model and enhancing operational quality to drive steady progress towards a new phase of high-quality development.

About Autohome

Autohome Inc. (NYSE: ATHM; HKEX: 2518) is the leading online destination for automobile consumers in China. According to QuestMobile, in December 2024, Autohome's average mobile DAUs reached 77.48 million with an increase of 13.6% year-on-year. Its mission is to engage, educate and inform consumers about everything auto. Autohome provides occupationally generated content, professionally generated content, user-generated content, and AI-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. Autohome operates its "Autohome Mall," a full-service online transaction platform, to facilitate transactions for automakers and dealers. Further, through its websites and mobile applications, it also provides other value-added services, including auto financing, auto insurance, used car transactions, and aftermarket services.

For further information, please visit: https://www.autohome.com.cn/about/index.html

source: Autohome