Haier acquires Autohome? Actually, my buddy has been working on cars for a long time.

A few days ago, Autohome was acquired by Haier. I don’t know if everyone has the same reaction as me when they see this news:I thought it was a joke to say that the car turned into a refrigerator and a color TV, but Haier, are you serious? ? ?In fact, Haier is indeed serious, but they are not just buying refrigerators and color TVs, at least not for this purpose for the time being.

According to the announcement issued by Autohome, the major shareholder of AutohomePing An of ChinaSubsidiary companies andHaier GroupThe subsidiary signed an equity transfer agreement. Haier spent US$1.8 billion to acquire 41.91% of Autohome's shares from Ping An and became the controlling shareholder.

It may be difficult for everyone to associate Haier with cars. It is true that Haier has never said that it will build cars, but in fact,It has long been involved in automobile-related businesses.

CARTECH, the subsidiary Haier acquired this time, was established in 2022. This company is mainly engaged in back-end market business, including personalized customization, new energy vehicle charging, and novice used car sales.
Many people may have never heard of this company, but in the field of used cars, it is quite famous, and it has been getting better and better in the past two years.

In 2023, the list of the top 100 second-hand car dealers released by China's automobile circulation industry shows that two of the top ten dealers are owned by Cartech's companies. In the top 100 list in 2024, Catachi already accounts for 4 companies, and another company has squeezed into second place.

Brother Neck asked a salesperson at a Catachi store, and he said that they can purchase hundreds or even thousands of units at a time, and they have been selling cars like crazy in the past two years. Last year, we packed up 1,000 exhibition cars of a new force, including both old and new models, but it only took half a year for them to be sold out.

This year, their store's purchasing target is 10,000 units. Whether it is a new car, a show car or a car from other resources, they are willing to accept any car. Finally, my friend asked me if I had any channels. I was in urgent need of a car...

Therefore, after Haier acquires Autohome, it will have this huge traffic entrance, which will definitely improve Catachi’s second-hand car business. Haier also said in an official statement that this transaction can"Accelerate Catachi to build a new ecology of the automotive industry".

How to build it? This is about Autohome’s business.

Friends who own cars should have used Autohome. This company was originally founded in 2005 by Li Xiang, now the CEO of Li Auto.

In the early years, there were many automobile information websites, such as Pacific Automobile, Aika Automobile, etc., there were about 100 large and small websites in total. At that time, everyone had to go to these websites to buy a car.

Later, Autohome gradually became the benchmark for automotive information by relying on more complete information and sophisticated operations. After several years of hard work, it has firmly positioned itself at the top of the automotive media category.
As a car media, everyone must understand that it needs to "match" the needs of major car manufacturers.But in fact, Autohome's biggest source of income is not the "Qiafan" media service, but the clue service.

When you look at a car online, if you are attracted by it, do you want to try it offline? At this time, you will find that if you scroll down a little, there will be a bunch of store information. Just click on one and the phone number from the other side will come over.

"Sir, you are looking at this car, right? If you are interested, you can come to our store for a test drive..."

Such a set of processes connects your information clues to merchants.

According to Autohome’s financial report,Net revenue in 2024 will be 7 billion, of which 3.1 billion will be from clue services, accounting for 44%.

Selling a new car requires leads, and the same goes for used cars.

In fact, Autohome launched a second-hand car service as early as 2010. When you open the Autohome APP, there is a second-hand car entrance on the homepage, which contains information on the sale and transfer of various second-hand cars.

They also have a separate “Used Car Home” APP.

It seems like this,Haier bought Autohome, and Catachi can get a larger window. The deal sounds quite reasonable.

Will Autohome completely become a used car home in the future? I don't think it's possible for a while.

From the current information,Haier didn't make any radical moves after coming in.

After the announcement of this wave of acquisitions, Autohome immediately changed its leadership. The original CEO Wu Tao, who was from Ping An, resigned and was replaced by Yang Songlai, pictured below, as CEO.

It is reasonable for Ping An's people to be eliminated. According to conventional logic, Haier should parachute a leader to take over at this time.

After all, this was also the case when Ping An acquired Autohome. On the third day of the acquisition, Ping An kicked out all the original CEOs and CFOs and replaced them with their own confidants.
But Haier did not drop leaders, but promoted one from the original management.

Now the new CEO of Autohome is originally one of the senior executives of Autohome. He has managed the used car business and also worked for major car companies before coming to Autohome.

As for the next development of Autohome, Haier said:"Consolidate and develop existing business".

Brother Neck also inquired with several good buddies from Autohome. They had heard about this rumor a few months ago, and now that they have officially acquired it, their work at hand has not changed. They are doing whatever they need to do.

Moreover, Ping An has not sold all its shares. It still holds about 5% of Autohome's shares. It is still one of the major shareholders and still has a certain say.

Therefore, I think this wave of acquisitions will not bring any big changes to Autohome in the short term.

Of course, these are just Brother Neck's analysis based on the current information. We still don’t know how deep Haier wants to get into the automotive industry.

In recent years, it is nothing new for home appliance manufacturers to enter the automotive industry. Gree and Midea both have car-related businesses, as well as Skyworth, which makes cars, including Xiaomi.

Haier himself also made quite a few moves. In March 2021, Haier and SAIC signed a cooperation agreement on intelligent manufacturing and car-home interconnection. Then it signed a contract with Geely to cooperate in the Internet of Vehicles. At the same time, it and Chery are also working on the industrial Internet, and well-known suppliers like Faurecia have also been online.

After all, refrigerators and color TVs have almost become essential needs for new energy vehicles. There is nothing wrong with Haier entering the market early.

So don’t be surprised if it makes any big moves on the racing circuit in the future. Maybe in the future, the configuration list of any car will specifically indicate that the refrigerator is made by Haier...