HONG KONG, Jan. 20, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Autohome Inc. (NYSE: ATHM; HKEX: 2518), a leading online destination for automobile consumers in China, has recently released annual operating data for its pre-owned car business line. The Group has made an outstanding contribution to overall pre-owned car transactions across China making it the largest second-hand car trading platform in the country contributing as well to the development of the automotive industry at large.

According to proprietary data, there were 14 million pre-owned cars transacted in 2021. More than one-third of them, or over 5 million individual car sellers posted trading information on Autohome last year. Among used passenger vehicle transactions, 16% were facilitated by the integrated information and auction services by Autohome or its one-stop pre-owned car auction subsidiary Tiantian Paiche, ensuring the platform ranked at the top within the sector. Meanwhile, there were a total of 7.4 million potential car buyers expressed an interest in making a purchase on Autohome. Among the group, 900,000 potential buyers clinched a deal, accounting for 6% of the total buyer cohort. By the end of 2021, Autohome created 80,000 leads regarding pre-owned car transactions while the quantity of pre-owned cars available on the shelf was around 300,000. All of these operating metrics were industry leading.

With growing business volume, Autohome's pre-owned car ecosystem is now in good shape and has created a collaborative platform with unique integrated marketing and supporting service offerings ready to solve the pain points for pre-owned car dealers. Thanks to the enormous user traffic from its 500 million-strong userbase and an efficient digitalized operation, Autohome has become the firm of choice for pre-owned car dealers to carry out online sales. There were more than 50,000 pre-owned car dealers joining Autohome with average spending on the rise.

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Quan Long said, 'We are delighted to see the rapid growth in the pre-owned car segment, a living testimony of our successful development strategy. Pre-owned cars are an indispensable part of the auto value chain and now have gradually become a major growth driver for China's automobile sector. Autohome enjoys the first-mover advantage for being a digitalized smart platform. For us, there are many opportunities ahead in the coming years, including facilitating sales for pre-owned electric vehicles and offering comprehensive financial services in collaboration with Ping An.'

Quan Long continued, 'Autohome has the largest number of auto online users in the world while Ping An, our strategic shareholder, has more than 140 million car owners among its customers. In response to changing trends that indicate nearly a third of automobile customers looking to buy or sell a used car consider Autohome for their purchasing needs, we have rolled out pre-owned car services that take advantage of the data capabilities of our strategic shareholder Ping An and we have made more cars available for trading following an integration with Tiantian Paiche. We are proud at being able to provide fast transactions and high-priced trading opportunities for users so that they feel at ease. Customer satisfaction has improved significantly and the transaction contribution rate is among the leaders within the industry due to our efforts. Looking forward to 2022, we look forward to serving more car owners in collaboration with Ping An and offering more comprehensive services including A.I.-enabled car recommendation and dedicated financial solutions.'

According to China Automobile Dealers Association, total trading volume for pre-owned cars was approximately 17.58 million in 2021, an increase of 226% over the same period in 2020, which outpaced new car sales. Until now, the penetration rate of pre-owned car transactions was much lower in China than in Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea, which in turn demonstrates strong growth potential for the future.

As an important part of Ping An's automotive ecosystem, Autohome will cooperate with Ping An in the fields of pre-owned car sales, digitalization and new energy businesses, as well as introducing more professionals. Autohome is poised to reconstruct the traditional pre-owned car industry and achieve new business breakthroughs thereby creating a new peak in business growth.

About Autohome

Autohome Inc. (NYSE: ATHM; HKEX: 2518) is the leading online destination for automobile consumers in China. According to QuestMobile, the company ranked first in the industry with 67.72 million monthly active users in September 2021. Its mission is to enhance the car-buying and ownership experience for auto consumers in China. Autohome provides professionally produced and user-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 advertising campaigns. Further, the Company's dealer subscription and advertising services allows 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 improving their efficiency and facilitating transactions. As a transaction-centric company, Autohome operates "Autohome Mall," a full-service online transaction platform facilitating transactions for automakers and dealers. Further, through its website and mobile applications, it also provides other value-added services including auto financing, auto insurance, used car transactions and aftermarket services.

For more information, please visit our website: https://ir.autohome.com.cn/