Autohome Inc. (ATHM) Q2 2026 Earnings Report, Transcript and Summary

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by for Autohome's Second Quarter and Interim 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] 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.

Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone, and welcome to Autohome's Second Quarter and Interim 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, Mr. 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 all 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 note that Autohome's earnings press release and today's conference call include discussions of certain unaudited 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's CFO, Mr. Craig Yan Zeng, for opening remarks. Mr. Zeng, please go ahead.

[Interpreted] Thank you, Sterling. Hello, everyone. This is Craig Zeng, Chief Financial Officer of Autohome. Thank you for joining our earnings conference call today. In the second quarter, our innovative business continued to make steady progress, driving Autohome's upgrade towards a comprehensive automotive service ecosystem. For our new retail business with the authorized dealer model in pilot operation and expanding into more cities, we launched the offline franchised chain brand, Autohome Good Car, further expanding our offline service network. In addition, our global expansion into used car trading is advancing steadily. Our cross-border export platform completed its first transaction in July, providing valuable experience to further expand our service capabilities. We also made major strides in AI, particularly in cutting-edge AI agent technologies. In early July, we unveiled our proprietary intelligent agent product, Cheese Car Butler and opened it for public beta as the automotive industry's first stand-alone agent product. It represents not only a pioneering exploration of intelligent applications, but also a key milestone in enriching our product portfolio and establishing a differentiated competitive edge for us. Specifically, in the second quarter, we made solid progress across content offerings, product capabilities and traffic alliances. On content, in May, we launched our annual IP, China Intelligent Manufacturing Exploration Plan jointly created with the News and Publicity Center of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Six episodes will be released throughout the year, covering exciting technological trends, including the low-altitude industry, intelligent cockpits, intelligent driving and embodied AI -- the premier episode focused on flying cars, combining immersive visits to the front lines of intelligent manufacturing with a fresh, innovative user-oriented storytelling perspective to make cutting-edge technologies more relatable and engaging for younger users. This series also marks our first major content initiative following Autohome's brand refresh. After its launch, the program sparked lively discussion on social media was covered by over 20 leading media outlets and generated over 70 million views across various platforms. On the product side, we launched our intelligent driving channel, which systematically profiles the intelligent driving capabilities of nearly 200 mainstream models and provides easy comparisons to help users understand differences across models and choose cars efficiently. In addition, we continue to advance collaboration across our multi-platform multi-scenario traffic ecosystem. A notable example was our partnership with Alipay in June, under which our mini program became the exclusive provider of comprehensive automotive services for Alipay's auto live channel, offering differentiated content to match the varied needs of first-time buyers, repeat buyers and those upgrading their vehicles. According to QuestMobile, in June, our daily active users steadily increased year-over-year, reaching 76.5 million. In the New Energy Vehicle sector, in late April, we launched a pilot online car purchase model in Shenzhen and Xi'an in partnership with authorized dealers. Under this model, local partners, dealerships posted competitive pricing on the mall, enabling consumers to select the vehicle and place deposits online and then complete the contract signing and take delivery offline. During this pilot period, over 400 dealers joined across these 2 cities, offering more than 1,000 models and over 1,000 transactions were completed within 70 days, receiving positive feedback from both our dealer partners and users. Based on the experience gained from the pilot cities in the second quarter, we replicated this model to 3 additional cities, Suzhou, Jinan and Shijiazhuang, steadily broadening our network coverage in Northern and Eastern China. At the same time, to address the service gap in low-tier cities, we launched our offline franchise chain brand, Autohome Good Car at the end of June with a focus on the underserved low-tier cities. Through precise traffic redirection and standardized operating and management systems and streamlined resource support system, we help dealerships in low-tier cities achieve scalable growth. At present, over 100 franchise stores joined Autohome Good Car. Going forward, the Autohome APP will remain the core of our online customer acquisition efforts while offline, Autohome Good Car franchisees and authorized dealer stores will handle vehicle delivery. Through standardized services, we aim to support users throughout the entire vehicle life cycle from vehicle discovery, selection to purchase and ownership. In AI and models powered by Autohome's proprietary large language model, we launched Cheese Car Butler, our intelligent agent product for the automotive vertical, the agent leverages our core assets accumulated in the automotive field, including our professional content, product database, MCN ecosystem and offline service network to provide users with a broad range of services, including multidimensional vehicle comparison, vehicle purchase guidance and maintenance services, et cetera, establishing a unique differentiated competitive advantage. Currently, Cheese Car Butler is available to users and has entered the feedback collection phase with the initial market response being positive. In the future, we will continue to enhance the underlying model capabilities, optimize the product's interactive experience and gradually integrate more offline service resources to steadily improve the product value and service quality. In the used car business, we continue to develop both our core domestic and overseas platforms. For our full process used car sales service platform, we continue to improve service quality through greater standardization. Recently, we completed an upgrade and integration of our vehicle inspection system, expanding the number of inspection items from 128 to 265, including 82 newly added assessments specifically designed for new energy vehicles further improving the accuracy and reliability of our inspection report. For our cross-border used car export service platform, we formally obtained the official export qualifications during the second quarter. We also established an online multilingual international website and an offline fulfillment network with business leads spanning over 100 countries. In early July, we successfully completed the first used car export order on our platform, making a breakthrough from 0 to 1 for our business. In the next phase, we will focus on 3 key areas: high-quality vehicle supplies upstream, expanding overseas customer acquisition downstream and improving platform operational efficiency. All of this supports our all-out effort to create a new one-stop channel for used car exports. In summary, since the beginning of the year, we achieved meaningful progress across all businesses. While steadily developing our businesses, we've consistently delivered on our commitment to shareholder returns. The USD 200 million stock buyback program announced in March 2026 was completed ahead of schedule in less than 6 months. In late July, we announced a new 12-month USD 400 million repurchase plan, demonstrating our strong confidence in the company's long-term value. In addition, the RMB 500 million cash dividend for the first half of the year was distributed at the end of July. Looking ahead, we will continue to deepen our new business development, provide high-quality services to users and partners and deliver sustainable returns to our shareholders. With that, let me briefly walk you through the key financials for the second quarter of 2026. Please note that I will reference RMB only in my discussion today, unless otherwise stated. Net revenues for the second quarter were RMB 1.2 billion. To break it down further, media services revenues were RMB 280 million. Leads generation services revenues were RMB 560 million and online marketplace and others revenues were RMB 357 million. With respect to costs, cost of revenues in the second quarter was RMB 274 million compared with RMB 503 million in the second quarter of 2025. Gross margin in the second quarter was 77.1% compared with 71.4% in the same period last year. Turning to operating expenses. Sales and marketing expenses in the second quarter were RMB 552 million compared with RMB 630 million in the second quarter of 2025. Product and development expenses were RMB 223 million compared with RMB 253 million in the second quarter of 2025. General and administrative expenses were RMB 96 million compared with RMB 133 million in the same period last year. Overall, we recorded an operating profit of RMB 130 million in the second quarter compared with RMB 297 million in the same period of 2025. Adjusted net income attributable to Autohome was RMB 277 million in the second quarter compared with RMB 476 million in the corresponding period last year. Non-GAAP basic and diluted earnings per share in the second quarter were RMB 0.62 and RMB 0.61, respectively, compared with RMB 1.01 for both in the corresponding period of 2025. Non-GAAP basic and diluted earnings per ADS in the second quarter were both RMB 2.46 compared with RMB 4.06 and RMB 4.04, respectively, in the corresponding period of 2025. As of June 30, 2026, our balance sheet remains robust. Cash, cash equivalents, short-term investments and other long-term investments totaled RMB 19.36 billion. We generated net operating cash flow of RMB 261 million in the second quarter of 2026. On March 5, 2026, our Board of Directors authorized a share repurchase program under which we are committed to purchase up to USD 200 million of Autohome's ADS over a period not to exceed 18 months as of July 30, 2026. We have completed this share repurchase program ahead of schedule with a total of approximately 10.63 million ADS repurchased. In addition, on July 28, 2026, our Board of Directors authorized a new share repurchase program under which we may repurchase up to USD 400 million of Autohome's ADS over the next 12 months. As of August 14, 2026, we had repurchased approximately 1.9 million ADS for a total cost of approximately USD 43.6 million. That concludes our financial summary. Now we are ready to open up the Q&A session. Operator, please.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Thomas Chong of Jefferies.

[Interpreted] I have two questions. The first one is about the auto industry, which is softer than market expectations. Can management comment about the second half industry outlook? And my second question is about the export of used car business. Can management comment about our competitive edge and the latest business progress?

[Interpreted] Thank you for your question. I will answer your question. Since the beginning of this year, the overall retail sales in the auto market has remained under pressure. In the first 7 months, domestic retail sales of passenger vehicles declined by 20% year-over-year, while the domestic new vehicle sales fell by 22% year-over-year in Q2. Even the New Energy Vehicle NEV, which had previously been the primary growth driver, it already see a sales decline of 8% in Q2 year-over-year for consecutive period. And the traditional ICEs, that is Internal Combustion Engine vehicles performed even worse. The sales declining 38% year-over-year in Q2. At the same time, the industry -- the auto industry profitability has been deteriorated. In the first half of the year, the profit for the auto manufacturing industry declined by 20% year-over-year with the profit margin at just 3.8%, which is a historical low. The market expectations for the overall industry sales at the beginning of the year was optimistic, but now this expectation has been revised downward. The China Passenger Car Association, CPCA, now forecast that the full year for 2026 passenger vehicle retail sales will decline by 16% year-over-year. So it brings the overall total annual sales to fewer than 20 million units. So this means that the overall China auto market will continue to face quite a lot of pressure in the second half this year. And we expect the auto industry to be characterized by a combination of weak domestic demand, structural differentiation and exports providing support. From the industry level, we can see the new energy transition is accelerating and auto exports is becoming a new growth driver. So for the China auto market, now it has entered into an existing market stage with the weak domestic demand becoming a major problem, major constraint on growth. And at the same time, you can see the penetration rate for NEV continue to pick up. So in April, it is the penetration rate is 60%. And now in July, it climbed further to a new high of 65%. So in contrast to the weak domestic demand, the auto export has maintained its strong growth momentum. During the first 7 months of 2026, passenger vehicle exports increased by 74% year-over-year with NEV accounting for more than half of the total export volumes. And with the weak domestic demand and strong overseas growth, simultaneously, auto exports has become a key engine for automakers to offset the weak domestic demand and drive profit growth. From the market level, we can see there is an increasing structural differentiation and consumers are increasingly in a mode -- they are in a mode of wait and see. So currently, the market is experiencing clear structural differentiation across segments. By price range, you can see the auto market is diverging at both ends. The entry-level market for vehicles priced below RMB 50,000 has contracted sharply, declining 55% year-over-year in the first half. On the other side, sales of high-end NEVs priced above RMB 400,000 surged 46%, demonstrating greater market resilience. So overall, the sales of traditional ICE and low-end NEVs continue to decline, while the middle to high-end NEVs have emerged as a growth segment. So in summary, the auto market in the first half of this year can be characterized as cold domestically hot overseas. Domestic demand weakened year-over-year, while NEV penetration continued to increase and auto exports became the primary growth driver for the overall industry. As China's auto market enters an existing market competition stage, currently, only those companies who can capture consumers' needs throughout their entire life cycle and provide value-added services across the entire customer journey will be best positioned for the future development in the transforming period and the market. So this is also one of the key areas we will continue to focus on and explore going forward. The second question about the used car export. The used car export market is sufficiently fragmented with a sufficiently large and diverse supply of used car vehicles. So this is favorable for us to build our long-term competitive advantage and sustainable barriers for entry. And if the market was more highly concentrated, it would be more difficult for platform companies. And for our advantages in this area, first is the brand, strong brand from Autohome. We are the leading auto vertical media platform. So we have a strong brand -- strong brand recognition and credibility. And also, we are newly listed. This also help us in our branding. Second is the stable supply, used car vehicle supply and a standardized system. We have access to a stable and compliant supply of used cars, supported by a standardized industry-leading vehicle inspection system, which can enable comprehensive assessment of the vehicle condition. So overseas buyers value accurate and complete and comprehensive vehicle inspection report as well as those maintenance and insurance claim records. So Autohome can provide all of this. So this gives overseas buyers greater confidence in their purchase process. Third is the digital one-stop service. This is our advantage. We leverage our online digital tools to improve the operational efficiency, including the 24/7 customer support, those dynamic matching of the vehicle supply and those multilingual website services, et cetera. So all these capabilities facilitate more effective communications between buyers and sellers. For our business progress update on the used car, in the second quarter, we just mentioned, we officially obtained the government qualification for the used car exports, and we successfully completed the first used car export transaction on our platform. So this represents an important 0 to 1 breakthrough for this business segment. And for the work ahead of us, on one hand, we will expand our high-quality used car vehicle sourcing. On the other hand, we will focus on expanding our overseas customer base. And also at the same time, we will continue to optimize our used car export service platform and improve the overall operation efficiency with the goal to build a one-stop new channel for the used car exports.

The next question comes from the line of Zhang Xiaodan of CICC.

[Interpreted] First of all, the company has recently taken proactive steps on shareholder returns. So how do you view the sustainability of the shareholder return program going forward? And over the medium to the long term, how will you balance the cash reserves as well as the shareholder returns? And secondly, regarding the new retail business, what is the company's current strategic positioning for this segment?

[Interpreted] Thank you for your question. Autohome has always placed a strong emphasis on the shareholder return and the long-term market value management. To further enhance our shareholder return mechanism and improve investment value, we have established a dual track return framework, combining a regular cash dividend policy with share repurchases, making our shareholder return policy more transparent and predictable. For the share repurchase, as we just mentioned, the USD 200 million share buyback program we completed ahead of schedule at the end of July. And also on July 28, we -- the company announced a new USD 400 million share repurchase program. And as of last week, approximately 10% of this buyback program has been completed. So going forward, in the future, we will continue to actively execute this buyback program in the open market in accordance with our established strategy. For the cash dividend, in March, the company announced the RMB 500 million cash dividend for the first half of this year, and this was successfully distributed to all our shareholders by the end of July. And also this year, we'll continue to execute our commitment to pay at least RMB 1.5 billion in cash dividends for the full year. For our long-term capabilities, Autohome has a healthy balance sheet, and we have ample cash reserves and stable business operations. So this gives us the capacity to deliver sustainable and stable and long-term returns to all shareholders. So in the future, we will continue to improve operational efficiency and strengthen the resilience of our business, ensuring we can fulfill our commitment to all the shareholders. For the new retail business, it is an important strategic initiative for Autohome as we build our transaction ecosystem and address gaps in our offline service capabilities. For online, we are leveraging the Autohome APP to build an automotive transaction service platform, Autohome mall. For offline, we leverage offline car purchase and Autohome Good Car to expand offline service network, connecting online demand with offline service fulfillment. So on the online to offline scenarios, we are leveraging our AI technologies to provide end-to-end support, including the vehicle selection through our AI car selection assistance and purchase support through AI price inquiry, et cetera. So going forward, we are planning to expand AI-enabled services into the vehicle ownership stage. In terms of our new retail business update and progress, as you can see that the implementation has been moving at a relatively rapid speed. For online car purchase, it began its pilot program in late April, and now it's expanded to 5 cities, Xi'an, Shenzhen, Suzhou, Jinan and Shijiazhuang, primarily targeting at high-tier cities. For Autohome Good Car, it opened up its franchise program in late June and has now more than 100 franchise stores with a primary focus on low-tier markets. So ultimately, our goal is to become a comprehensive automotive service ecosystem that deliver value throughout the entire auto life cycle from car discovery to car selection to purchasing owning and eventually replacing.

Our next question comes from Ritchie Sun of HSBC.

[Interpreted] I want to ask management about how do you feel the recovery timing as well as the drivers behind the auto market and especially for the media services, how would you view the trend in the second half of this year?

[Interpreted] Regarding the drivers for the auto industry recovery, we just mentioned, the auto market sales for the whole year expected to decline about 16% year-over-year. This has been downside. And however, it doesn't mean there is not any growth opportunities in the market. For example, the vehicles prepaid and replacement will will still contribute more for more new vehicle purchasing demand. And we just mentioned that sales of the high-end EVs priced over RMB 400,000, it increased 46% year-over-year. So in our opinion, a sustainable stabilization and recovery of the auto market still depend on improvement in the broader macroeconomic environment and the strengthening of the consumer confidence. And exports, auto exports is another important growth opportunity. In the first half of this year, the key passenger vehicle PV exports increased by more than 70% year-over-year and the NEV exports surging 124%. And for NEVs, it accounted for over 50% of the total passenger vehicle exports. So it represents new opportunities in the auto market. For the -- regarding the media business in the second half of this year, as you know, there is always saying that Golden September and Silver October. And besides, there will be a multiple of new vehicle and new car launching in the market. So in our opinion, we believe the market will show kind of a recovery second half of this year.

The next question comes from the line of Brian Gong of Citi.

[Interpreted] Given the pressure over auto dealers, how does management think about the outlook for our sales leads business?

[Interpreted] For the leads, the leads generation performance is highly related with the overall sales volume in the market. In Q2, the market and the sales of the autos decreased. So that is the main reason for the leads generation segment. So on one hand, for dealer continue to face significant operating pressures in the market. So many of them failed to meet their sales target for the first half this year. And according to the statistics data from the China Automobile Dealers Association, CADA, 77% of the dealerships achieved less than 90% of their first half year sales target. And so many of them -- many of those dealers, they they respond with more losses and with high volumes of inventories. So that's why we believe -- as we just mentioned, the sales volumes for the new cars still face pressure and a decrease for the second half of this year. So we still see some opportunities in the market. On one hand, we are increasing our traffic and upgrading our products to improve the quality and the content quality of the lead and lay a solid foundation for the renewal of our dealership products, for example, the for the second half of this year and the next year as well. I'll give you some examples. For example, we take -- we're using our AI technology. We use the AI live streaming. We are leveraging the AI technology to empower dealers, new media live streaming operations so we can help them to reduce costs and improve their efficiency increase their operational efficiency and help them to enhance their conversion capabilities. And also, we have smart stores. So we can upgrade the intelligent guided tour function. So when users browse a dealer's online store, AI-generated voice commentary can match the content on the screen, and it can be played automatically. So it can help to create an immersive watch and listen experience, helping to increase the number of users who will submit and leave their contact information. So we expect through those products and service upgrades and technologies, we can help -- we can build a solid foundation for the renewal of our products next year.

No further questions at this time. I will turn the call back over to management for closing remarks.

[Interpreted] Thank you very much, everyone, for joining us today. We look forward to speaking with you all again on our next quarter's conference call and sharing the latest updates on the company's corporate strategy and business development. Should you have any further questions or suggestions, please feel free to contact us at any time. Thank you, everyone. Goodbye. Thank you, operator.

That does conclude today's conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect. [Portions of this transcript that are marked [Interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]