Against the backdrop of internal competition in the price war of new energy vehicles, Autohome, as a vertical media information platform in the automotive industry, has accelerated the pace of selling cars in the next stage.
The Autohome Space Station is the core carrier for the company's offline new retail business layout. There is no need to search for 4S stores throughout the city, as the space station basically gathers mainstream new energy vehicle brands; There is no need to worry about the difficulty of choosing, as test drives and data comparisons can be completed on the space station; Don't worry about not being able to sell your old car. While looking at and choosing a car, you can also achieve second-hand car transactions... These are all its service scenarios.
After the 20th store Beijing Station officially settled in the Beijing Automotive Museum at the end of this year, the offline layout of 50 cities will be completed by the end of 2024, and the offline layout of 100 cities will be completed by the end of 2025, becoming a new goal for anchoring the space station.
Yang Song, Senior Vice President of Autohome and Chairman of Tiantian Paiche, stated in an interview with Securities Times · e Company that the role played by Autohome Space Station and Autohome Online App is the same. Both are platforms that connect OEMs, 4S stores, and used car dealers.
This year, the car market has been quite tight, with the profit margins of car dealers continuously decreasing, and many offline branches of car platforms are shrinking. Why is Autohome expanding its investment in the "Autohome Space Station" in the opposite direction under this trend?
Yang Song highly recognizes the "market volume" of new energy vehicles. The data he cited is that in the past three years, there have been over 5000 stores of various brands that have entered supermarkets in China. The profit and loss point of these supermarket experience stores is about 40 units per month. Currently, very few single brand stores can reach this number, and a large number of stores are operating at a loss. Meanwhile, in third - and fourth tier cities, due to limited market size, many single brands find it difficult to sink into such markets, which can lead to a mismatch between market supply and demand.
New energy vehicles have seen a decrease in after-sales revenue based on the characteristics of electric vehicles, resulting in high sales terminal costs. At the same time, since the beginning of this year, the "price war" in the domestic car market has become increasingly intense, and the obvious obstacle of resource mismatch, which hinders car marketing, has yet to be resolved. According to Zhou You, Vice President of Autohome, the space station is a great way to solve the problem.
In September 2022, the first Autohome space station landed in Shanghai, and the second one landed in Haikou in May this year. Subsequently, it landed in Chengdu in August and Chongqing in October. The final concentrated outbreak quickly replicated to 20 cities within about three months. This means that Autohome, an old player, has entered the stage of running and expanding its offline layout in the new retail field of automobiles after undergoing initial trial and error and experimentation.
Zhou You stated that from the perspective of investors, the investors of "Autohome Space Station" mainly come from three types: traditional 4S dealership dealers, real estate industry, and internet industry, with the largest proportion of 4S dealership investors. For the operation of these space stations, the company stated that it is not yet convenient to disclose specific numbers, but currently, the monthly operating data of the stores is 5-10 times the industry average monthly sales volume of car dealerships.
The business model constructed according to the "Autohome Space Station" aims to achieve a win-win situation among franchisees, consumers, dealers, OEMs, and Autohome.
Yang Song stated that the space station will not be involved in a price war for new energy vehicles. "We can achieve mutual benefit and win-win with the host factory. For example, in sinking cities, our platform delivers orders to the host factory, and the host factory pays us CPS commission. We hope to help the host factory reduce CPS (single unit transaction costs)."
"Previously, some dealers or car brands had doubts about whether Autohome would become both a judge and an athlete, and whether the clues and data it collected and sold would become the 'nourishment' of the space station." Zhou You said that in fact, the core user sources of both sides do not overlap, and the transaction orders of the space station will be an absolute increase for many new energy vehicle brands. ". "Therefore, for OEMs and dealers, we can reduce the single unit sales cost of past advertising and sales lead purchase models. For consumers, we have the empowerment of the Ping An ecosystem, where we can know the selling price of any local brand or car over a period of time. Professional consultants will help consumers select the most suitable car and find the most favorable price, allowing consumers and 4S stores to achieve a win-win situation."
At present, China has replaced Germany and Japan as the world's largest automobile exporter, with new energy vehicles accounting for 25%. However, not all brands have the ability to go global. Assisting in going global is also an important strategy for the future of the Autohome Space Station.
"The overseas business map of the space station will be expanded to five continents to help more domestic OEMs carry out business overseas." Yang Song said that there is a lack of dialogue window between the strong supply of China's new energy vehicle industry chain and the demand in overseas local markets; As an offline terminal, space stations not only sell cars but also provide marketing services, enabling overseas live streaming, content production, and other marketing needs to have specific landing and shooting scenes.