Autohome Inc
NYSE:ATHM
| US |
|
Fubotv Inc
NYSE:FUBO
|
Media
|
| US |
|
Bank of America Corp
NYSE:BAC
|
Banking
|
| US |
|
Palantir Technologies Inc
NYSE:PLTR
|
Technology
|
| US |
C
|
C3.ai Inc
NYSE:AI
|
Technology
|
| US |
|
Uber Technologies Inc
NYSE:UBER
|
Road & Rail
|
| CN |
|
NIO Inc
NYSE:NIO
|
Automobiles
|
| US |
|
Fluor Corp
NYSE:FLR
|
Construction
|
| US |
|
Jacobs Engineering Group Inc
NYSE:J
|
Professional Services
|
| US |
|
TopBuild Corp
NYSE:BLD
|
Consumer products
|
| US |
|
Abbott Laboratories
NYSE:ABT
|
Health Care
|
| US |
|
Chevron Corp
NYSE:CVX
|
Energy
|
| US |
|
Occidental Petroleum Corp
NYSE:OXY
|
Energy
|
| US |
|
Matrix Service Co
NASDAQ:MTRX
|
Construction
|
| US |
|
Automatic Data Processing Inc
NASDAQ:ADP
|
Technology
|
| US |
|
Qualcomm Inc
NASDAQ:QCOM
|
Semiconductors
|
| US |
|
Ambarella Inc
NASDAQ:AMBA
|
Semiconductors
|
If you don’t study any companies, you have the same success buying stocks as you do in a poker game if you bet without looking at your cards.
Utilize notes to systematically review your investment decisions. By reflecting on past outcomes, you can discern effective strategies and identify those that underperformed. This continuous feedback loop enables you to adapt and refine your approach, optimizing for future success.
Each note serves as a learning point, offering insights into your decision-making processes. Over time, you'll accumulate a personalized database of knowledge, enhancing your ability to make informed decisions quickly and effectively.
With a comprehensive record of your investment history at your fingertips, you can compare current opportunities against past experiences. This not only bolsters your confidence but also ensures that each decision is grounded in a well-documented rationale.
Do you really want to delete this note?
This action cannot be undone.
| 52 Week Range |
22.43
34.44
|
| Price Target |
|
We'll email you a reminder when the closing price reaches USD.
Choose the stock you wish to monitor with a price alert.
|
|
Fubotv Inc
NYSE:FUBO
|
US |
|
|
Bank of America Corp
NYSE:BAC
|
US |
|
|
Palantir Technologies Inc
NYSE:PLTR
|
US |
|
C
|
C3.ai Inc
NYSE:AI
|
US |
|
|
Uber Technologies Inc
NYSE:UBER
|
US |
|
|
NIO Inc
NYSE:NIO
|
CN |
|
|
Fluor Corp
NYSE:FLR
|
US |
|
|
Jacobs Engineering Group Inc
NYSE:J
|
US |
|
|
TopBuild Corp
NYSE:BLD
|
US |
|
|
Abbott Laboratories
NYSE:ABT
|
US |
|
|
Chevron Corp
NYSE:CVX
|
US |
|
|
Occidental Petroleum Corp
NYSE:OXY
|
US |
|
|
Matrix Service Co
NASDAQ:MTRX
|
US |
|
|
Automatic Data Processing Inc
NASDAQ:ADP
|
US |
|
|
Qualcomm Inc
NASDAQ:QCOM
|
US |
|
|
Ambarella Inc
NASDAQ:AMBA
|
US |
This alert will be permanently deleted.
Autohome Inc
You don't have any saved screeners yet
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by for Autohome's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2017 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time.
I would now like to turn the meeting over to your host for today's conference, Ms. Fang Liu. Please go ahead.
Thank you, operator. Hello, everyone, and welcome to Autohome's Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2017 Earnings Conference Call.
Earlier today, Autohome distributed its earnings press release, and you may find a copy on the company's website at www.autohome.com.cn.
On today's call, we have Mr. Min Lu, Autohome's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer; and Mr. Jun Zou, Autohome's Chief Financial Officer.
After the prepared remarks, Mr. Lu and Mr. Zou will be available to answer your questions.
Before we begin, please note that the discussion today will contain forward-looking statements made under the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from the current expectations. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those outlined in our public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Autohome does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required under applicable law.
The earnings press release in this call also includes discussions of certain unaudited non-GAAP financial measures. The press release contains a reconciliation of the non-GAAP measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures and is available on Autohome's IR website.
As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. In addition, a webcast of this conference call will also be available on Autohome's IR website.
I will now turn the call over to Autohome's Chairman and CEO, Mr. Lu.
Before I begin, on behalf of Autohome, I would like to thank all of our users, clients and shareholders for your trust and contribution to our continued success. We wish everyone a very happy and a prosperous new year of the dog.
2017 was the first full year in which we rolled out our 4+1 strategy, and I'm very pleased to report today that it generated record results. Our media and leads generation services' revenues increased 31% and 34% year-over-year during the fourth quarter and the full year 2017, respectively. More [indiscernible] -- adjusted net income during the quarter grew 74% year-over-year to RMB 776 million, representing a net margin of 44%.
Full year 2017, we generated RMB 2.2 billion in adjusted net income. I believe these strong top and bottom line results demonstrate the effectiveness of our 4+1 strategy in strengthening Autohome's market-leading position and in driving our long-term sustainable growth and profitability.
As we head into 2018, we will begin executing the next phase of our 4+1 strategy to further strengthen the foundation of our business and sharpen the focus of our management team. As I mentioned in the last earnings call, our 4+1 strategy, which we codenamed the [Foreign Language] in Chinese, or 4 ways to eat 1 fish, refers to the 4 business pillars that we -- that will drive further growth momentum well into 2018. These 4 pillars comprise of our core media and the leads generation businesses, which are our key growth drivers and are supported by 2 new initiatives: our data product suites and auto financing and the insurance business. These 4 pillars combined will enable us to better serve our users and clients.
I will now go over each pillar in some more detail to give you -- to provide some color on our future endeavors. The first pillar, our core media business grew significantly during the quarter, outpacing growth of the overall market and that of our competitors. Growth was again driven by continued innovation of content, our platform growth in high-quality traffic and our ability to leverage big data and technology to personalize and optimize user engagement and enhance the user experience.
During the fourth quarter, mobile advertising revenue accounts for 48.3% of our media services revenue. The number of average daily unique visitors, DAU, on the Autohome primary app during the quarter increased 29.3% year-over-year. While we already offer a very immersive open-platform experience, which enriched the PGC content for over 5,700 contributors as of February 2018, we plan to further expand the traffic growth and enhance user retention by creating more diversified OGC, PGC, UGC content. This diversified content will focus on alternative energy, games, the transformation of our online [indiscernible] into offline social events, intelligent vehicle recognition using auto graphs and voice command. This diversified array of content is expected to enhance overall intelligent recommendation and data-driven customization.
We are also planning to expand AR/VR use throughout our eco-platform in order to offer OEMs and the dealers with innovative and effective branding campaigns and greater exposure to highly targeted potential consumers throughout China. As of February, we already rolled out the AR/VR experience for about 500 vehicle models and online AR/VR vehicle showrooms for about 15,000 OEMs and dealers.
Turning to our leads generation business. We continue to generate industry-leading volumes and conversion rates as well expanding our dealer car platform. As of February 2018, our dealer car platform covered over 6,000 dealers. Our highly intelligent VR showrooms and the tools are actively used to enhance the lead conversion and increase ROI to expand sales leads based on consumer behavior and preferences, personalized marketing and sales callback recommendations. We plan to further integrate online/offline services within our dealer platform in 2018 to provide more intelligent tools to dealers who are seeking to increase traffic, further differentiate and customize their sales promotions and enhance conversion rates.
Our new data product suites [Foreign Language], or Autohome AR cloud forms our third pillar that -- and has been launched toward the year-end of 2017. These data product suites leverage our big data analysis capabilities and the massive pool of user data we have accumulated on our platform. We have received positive feedback for these data product suites following the initial launch around 2017 year-end, which I believe is a testament to the unique value proposition of our big data analysis capabilities that have crossed 3 key stages of vehicle planning, manufacturing and sales and marketing.
Finally, our auto financing and insurance business, which in 2017 facilitated RMB 8.8 billion transactions in consumer loans and approximately 1.77 million customer accounts. By fully integrating our business with Ping An Group, we are now able to significantly streamline the transaction and the loan processing as well as increase its speed. As of February 2018, we have now implemented the new vehicle close the loop transaction process to 4 Chinese provinces, initially to used car close the loop capabilities and extend our SaaS platform to cover about 34,000 used car dealers spanning over 160 Chinese cities. Going forward, we plan to further enhance our transaction leads generation and the conversion as well as expand our financial service capabilities with streamlined and optimized matching of both consumers and merchants in order to increase monetization in 2018.
With auto financing and insurance being one of our key focuses for the future, we welcomed Mr. Haifeng Shao onboard as President of Autohome last month. Haifeng has served in various leadership roles within Ping An Group for over 22 years, including 15 years as a Senior Manager in the Financial Service division and 7 years in the Internet Finance division. We are all very pleased to have him on the team where his deep experience will help to further drive our financial service business.
In closing, Autohome has adopted rapidly changing market dynamics and evolving digital paradigms in China's automotive market to emerge the clear market leader. I'm confident in our ability to maintain our market-leading position given our well-defined long-term strategy plan, experienced and committed management team and a laser focus on servicing consumers and auto suppliers. Leveraging this asset, we will be able to further enhance our core foundation, accelerate growth momentum generated by our new business initiatives, increasing profitability, enhance capital and resource allocation and deliver industry-leading returns.
With that, I will now turn the call over to our CFO, Jun Zou, for a closer look at our fourth quarter and full year financial results and business outlook.
Thank you, Min. Hi, everyone. As Min has already highlighted, we're very pleased to report another record quarter and a very strong 2017 result. Please note that the numbers I will reference today are all in RMB.
Net revenue for the fourth quarter decreased 13% year-over-year to CNY 1,751,000,000, primarily due to the de-emphasis of our direct vehicle sales business. However, for the media and leads generation services combined, net revenue increased 31% on a year-over-year basis.
Media service revenue once again outgrew the underlying auto sector, increasing 32% year-over-year to CNY 969 million. The strong growth throughout 2017 demonstrates how Autohome continues to gain market share from its competitors due to continued traffic expansion, customized content and optimized product offering as well as brand leadership.
Leads generation services revenue was up 29% year-over-year to CNY 718 million. This increase was primarily driven by an increase in ARPU and our client base, which demonstrates how we continue to build trust among dealers by increasing sales leads volumes and enhancing conversion rates.
Online marketplace revenue, which mainly consists of commission-based revenue from our new car e-commerce and financing business, was CNY 65 million. During the same period last year, online marketplace revenue, excluding direct vehicle sales, was RMB 22 million.
Cost of revenue decreased to 66% year-over-year to CNY 323 million, mainly due to a decrease in cost of goods sold relating to direct vehicle sales. Sales and marketing expenses during the quarter were CNY 507 million, representing a slight decrease of 2% year-over-year. This was primarily due to our continued efforts in enhancing customer content, which resulted in flat traffic acquisition cost compared with the same period last year.
P&D expenses were CNY 266 million, up 59% year-over-year. Again, this reflects an increase in R&D headcount during the past few quarters and is proof of our commitment to technology and talent.
Finally, G&A expenses decreased 43% to CNY 54 million, primarily attributable to a decrease in share-based compensation expenses and professional service fees. As a result, we delivered operating profit of CNY 602 million, a significant increase of 120% year-over-year, primarily a result of improved operating efficiency and operating leverage. Adjusted net income attributable to Autohome Inc. was up 74% year-over-year to CNY 776 million.
Non-GAAP basic and diluted earnings per share and per ADS for the fourth quarter were RMB 6.62 and RMB 6.53, respectively compared to RMB 3.87 and RMB 3.82, respectively, in the corresponding period of last year.
As of December 31, 2017, our balance sheet remains very strong with cash, cash equivalents and short-term investment of about CNY 8.2 billion. We generated operating cash flow of CNY 1.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2017, representing a 67% year-over-year increase.
Let me now turn to a short summary of our 2017 full year results. We continued to drive growth in revenue, which increased 4.2% year-over-year to CNY 6.2 billion. The combined media and leads generation services revenue increased 33.7% year-over-year to CNY 5.7 billion. In addition, we also delivered adjusted net income of CNY 2.2 billion, representing an increase of 53% year-over-year. This is primarily as a result of improved operating efficiency and operating leverage.
Let me now address our first quarter 2018 outlook, which reflects our current and preliminary view on the market and operating conditions that may be subject to change. We expect to generate net revenues in the range of CNY 1,222,000,000 to CNY 1,252,000,000. If we exclude the impact from our direct sales business, this represents a 25.5% to 28.5% year-over-year growth. As we detailed in the earning release, starting from January 1, 2018, we adopted a new revenue recognition accounting standard, ASC 606, which changed the presentation of value-added tax on a gross basis to net basis. The above guidance reflects revenue net of tax under the new revenue recognition standards. If presented on a gross basis, including value-added tax, which is the same basis as 2017, then our net revenue are expected to grow between RMB 1,345,000,000 to RMB 1,375,000,000 in the first quarter of fiscal year 2018.
In summary, we're the best-in-class category winner in the automobile sector. We are expanding into new businesses in order to further capture the enormous opportunity in the Chinese automotive market while delivering an outstanding financial performance. Going forward, we'll continue to focus on driving profitable growth, enhancing operating efficiency and investing prudently in order to generate long-term, sustainable value for our shareholders.
With that, we're ready to take your questions. Operator, please open the line for Q&A.
[Operator Instructions] The first question is from Liping at CICC.
I have 2 questions here. The first question is related to your first quarter 2018 guidance. We noticed that the guidance, there is impact of the direct vehicle sales as well as the new accounting standards. So what's the core business growth in next quarter if we use the old accounting standards? And my second question is about your new business. So what's your development on financing services and your target on this piece for next 3 years?
Thanks, Liping. Yes, go ahead.
[Foreign Language]
Liping, thanks for your question. Actually, as we explained in our earnings release, we started adopting the new ASC 606 revenue recognition policy. And all Chinese ADRs started to adopt this new revenue recognition policy starting from 2018. And if we were to report revenue on a gross basis like last year, then our revenue guidance would be CNY 1,345,000,000 to CNY 1,375,000,000, and that is roughly a 25.3% to 28.1% increase. Now starting from this year, we adopted the new policy and we report revenue on a now VAT basis. And if we compare to that of the same, let's say, net of tax revenue last year, then our growth rate were 25.5% to 28.5% as we reported in our earnings. So now giving you an example, now we will report actually a revenue, net of VAT, but the same VAT will be also deducted from our cost of revenue. And basically, we'll see a operating profit and net profit line that is going to be same as if we report on a gross basis. But operating margin and net margin will be higher because now we have a smaller revenue base after tax. And Liping, sorry, your second question was?
On your financing service business. So is there any new developments you can share with us? And what's your, for example, the target for this year, for example, the loan balance or et cetera?
[Foreign Language]
Okay.
[Foreign Language]
So actually, as I have mentioned above, financing is 1 of the pillars, 1 of the 4 pillars of the -- to eat the fish in 4 ways. So financing is very important for us.
[Foreign Language]
Last year, we have done a lot of basic works with mainly the Ping An Group. And the work we've done includes the design of our product and to put the feature on the Internet platform.
[Foreign Language]
And this year, as we have seen that in the first quarter, we have celebrated -- the first of all, finance. And in the years to come and in the times to come, we will further promote our financial business.
[Foreign Language]
Actually, the financial business is comprised of 3 parts. The first one is before transaction; second, in the middle of transaction; and the third, after transaction.
[Foreign Language]
Actually, before the transaction, we have an independent transaction channel. This actually has little to do with the transaction in itself. It means that before buying a car, some of the customers may have the financial demand so we can carry this part.
[Foreign Language]
Secondly, in the middle of transaction, we have 2 e-commerce platforms. The first is used car platform and the other is another platform.
[Foreign Language]
And the other is the new vehicle platform.
[Foreign Language]
As I have mentioned, we have already established the used car platform because our SaaS system has covered 300,000-second car dealers.
30,000. Over 30,000.
Over 30,000.
[Foreign Language]
And over this platform, we provide sourcing of car, lead of car and the merchant loan for the second car dealers -- for the used car dealers.
[Foreign Language]
So this year, I believe that as this platform develops, the transaction over this platform will also grow. And we will also have more and more merchant loans, the consumption loans and the car insurance.
[Foreign Language]
And as for the new car platforms, as I have mentioned, we have already covered the 4 provinces. And this year, our target is to cover 20 provinces in China. And over this platform, our main focus is to provide those customers in the fourth- and in the third-tier cities in China, where there are no 4S stores to help them to buy cars.
[Foreign Language]
And we hope that as this platform grows, the financial transactions over this platform will also grow.
[Foreign Language] Hello?
Financial market service platform, it also needed to take some time. So this year, we will focus on the before and in the middle part. We hope that, as our business grows, the financial revenue will also contribute to the total revenue of Autohome.
[Foreign Language]
[Foreign Language]
[Operator Instructions] Our next question is from Hillman Chan at Citigroup.
So I have a question regarding the data product. Could you share more color on the adoption by OEMs and dealers in recent months? And what's the [ FH ] contract size? And also, how do we see the feedback from them, like on the top of existing sales and marketing budgets for them? That's my first question. And the second one is also on the auto-finance. So what is the mix that we are looking at between Ping An and other third-party financial institutions for our consumer loan and also merchant loans in 2018? And could you help us to understand the current order size in the 4 provinces that we have expanded the platform? And -- that would be great.
[Foreign Language]
[Foreign Language]
Actually, we have 3 kinds of data products, one for OEM, and the second for dealer and the third for user. The dealer-dealer product was launched at the second half of last year, and now 4,000 dealers have bought our dealer products. And our OEM product was also launched last year. It is called the Auto AI Cloud, and it has -- it contains 8 products in its series. And I think it also takes more time to have more sales of our data products. And this is also different from the medium service. And we have to focus more on the R&D side to look at these products, data products.
We need also to focus on the R&D and the marketing department of the OEMs. Because for the traditional media services, we're owning the marketing and the branding departments. Now we need to go to the R&D department. It takes a little bit more time. It's -- they are all big companies. The procedures take a long time. But it's attractive to them, I think. [Foreign Language]
And also for, as for the user product, it has emerged in our application. We will further strengthen these products so that our users can better experience in the selection and in the acquisition of a car.
[Foreign Language]
And I also want to add that apart from the standard products, this year, we will have some major project data cooperation. And this year, some of the -- several major projects will be launched. And by doing so, it means that we will transfer from -- we will transform from the public cloud to the private cloud.
[Foreign Language]
And these are my opinions for the data products.
[Foreign Language]
[Foreign Language] So consumer loan, merchant loan. [Foreign Language]
[Foreign Language]
Actually, our cooperation with Ping An and other financial institutions are going on at the same time, but we have a different cooperation with Ping An Group. For example, traditionally, the financial institutions find it difficult to sell their products over the Internet.
[Foreign Language]
For example, now we are cooperating with Ping An Group and other financial institutions. What we do is redefining and redesigning the products. For example, now we are issuing the new kind of credit card. This card is different from the traditional card, which means that if the users see and apply for this card over the Internet, all of the approval and the other procedures can be done online so the users do not need to go to the physical site to finish all of these procedures. Otherwise, the conversion rate will be very low. So to achieve this goal, we still need to cooperate more with our financial partners.
Just add to that. This is an Autohome brand card and issued jointly with Ping An Bank. And we actually have a simpler process to actually eliminate offline face interview in the branch office.
[Foreign Language]
And usually, if we cooperate with the financial institutions, we'll not spend a lot of time in redefining and changing the design of the product and also changing the procedure and the standard of risk control. But since we have a lot of cooperation with Ping An and we are familiar with them, so we find it easier to do so in cooperating with Ping An in doing this thing.
[Foreign Language]
As I have mentioned, we have covered the 4 provinces in China currently, and I don't think the volume is big enough now. So this year, our target is to expand to 20 provinces in China. And as we do so, the financial services will also grow.
[Foreign Language]
Thank you.
[Operator Instructions] Next question is from Wayne Wang at HSBC.
I have a quick question on the SaaS platform. And so it seems previously, some other competitors also have similar products here, so could management add more color on our products versus the competitors' products? What's our advantage? And also I would like to have a quick follow-up on the data products. So I think [indiscernible] has mentioned that we were likely to have some project-based data product cooperation with some OEM. So how much will be the project size?
[Foreign Language]
[Foreign Language]
As for the SaaS, they are for the used cars and they have been expanded to 30,000.
[Foreign Language]
It is true that some of our competitors have a similar product, but we've mainly focused on our own advantage.
[Foreign Language]
The first thing is that we have the sourcing of the used car. For example, last year, every day we have the sourcing of used car of 10,000.
[Foreign Language]
And also, by the end of last year, we have achieved that; we have 40,000 leads for purchasing used cars.
Per day. 40,000 per day. [Foreign Language]
That's why the used car dealers are willing to cooperate with us because we have our own advantage.
[Foreign Language]
And now we are building the platforms for our business. And we will also use more resources in Autohome to support the establishment of these platforms. And I hope that this year, every day, we will have -- that the sourcing of second -- of used car and the purchasing leads of the used car will continue to grow.
The platform is already ready, so we'll put more resources into this platform, and then we hope to increase the sources of used car every day and the total number of leads per day. [Foreign Language]
And also, as I have mentioned, for the high-quality dealers, we will provide them with the merchant loan.
[Foreign Language]
And this year, the loans grows very fast.
[Foreign Language]
By doing so, we have formed a cooperation ecosystem which, as we say, is empowerment and win-win.
[Foreign Language]
So as we help the users, we also help the used car dealers to make their business easier. That is why they are willing to use our SaaS platform.
[Foreign Language]
This is my answer to SaaS system.
[Foreign Language]
[Foreign Language]
[Foreign Language]
Actually, the detailed number of the project remains secret now because these -- as I've mentioned, these are the private cloud. But what we are doing is that we're cooperating with the OEMs to further expand their products and to expand their client base because this is also one of our new missions, that is, to further promote the development of auto industry in China.
The next question is from Eddy Wang at Morgan Stanley.
So I have a quick follow-up on the used car dealer platform business. Actually, as you mentioned that the coverage of the number of dealers grew significantly from last earnings call, the number in the last earning call you mentioned. So my question is that when we're talking about the opportunity in the used car market, do you see any very strong growth momentum in this year? And is that the reason that you have been growing this business quite ambitious? Because in my view, I think we have been talking about the used car business for years, but relative -- compared with the new car, sales volume, in terms of sales volume value, used car is still relatively small. So can you elaborate a little bit more on this business and -- in terms of competition versus the new car business? And I also have a very quick follow-up on the lead gen business. So we see that the average revenue per payer dealer is actually -- in the fourth quarter last year is around 12%. It seems lower at the end of -- versus the third quarter last year. So is there anything related, the reason that we increased the used car dealers or the new car sales dealers in the lower-tier cities? Is this the reason because of that? Or is there any reason lead to this relatively low, the average revenue per paying dealers?
[Foreign Language]
[Foreign Language]
Actually, Autohome has been exploring the used car business, and now we have established the platform in our business mode.
[Foreign Language]
As I have mentioned, the mode in our platform is a win-win mode. We are not directly involved in the buying or selling of a car.
[Foreign Language]
We have just provided a platform for our partners to complete the transaction.
[Foreign Language]
There are a lot of different things and different developments in the second car market.
[Foreign Language]
As for Autohome, we do not invest a lot in large-scale advertisement.
[Foreign Language]
As I have mentioned, our advantage is that in the used car market, we have a lot of sourcing, a lot of leads and also offline partners.
[Foreign Language]
So I think our advantage over the platform is B2B to B2C.
C2B to B2C.
C2B to B2C.
[Foreign Language]
And this year, we will do more in the used car market. Actually, also inside of our team, we have indicators for our business, so I think -- and I also hope that we can work harder to achieve our indicators.
[Foreign Language]
Also, as for your question related to the dealers, actually, I think they are not in conflict with the 4S store because we are promoting our business in the cities where there are no dealers. And we also have a lot...
Supplier-dealers...
No 4S stores.
No 4S stores. So we are also having a lot of opportunities with the dealers, cooperation with the dealers.
[Foreign Language]
Yes, Eddy, to answer your second question, actually, in the fourth quarter, you see that the ARPU grew actually at a slower pace compared to third quarter. That's mainly because we actually have a slight decrease in dealer advertising. Because, you know, the dealer advertising, we actually discontinued our mainly offline advertising and offline trade shows that were generally lower margin compared to online marketing and online promotion for dealers. And in the fourth quarter, I believe we have already had a very strong quarter with very decent growth already. And we purposely actually decreased our effort on offline promotion and advertising for dealers.
[Operator Instructions] The next question is from Thomas Chong at Crédit Suisse.
I have 2 quick questions. Can management provide us some guidance in terms of the headcount by the end of 2017? And what's our expectation for 2018? Because it seems that we have a lot of initiatives going on, just want to see if there will be a significant increase in headcount? And my second question is about the traffic for the mobile app traffic growth. Because I see -- we are talking about 29% year-on-year for Q4. And actually, I noticed that it's more on an accelerating trend. Can management talk about why we did so well in our traffic? And how AI actually helps on this front?
[Foreign Language]
[Foreign Language]
[Foreign Language]
Actually, last year, our headcount in our company -- in Autohome is 4,097. Actually, when I was in Autohome in 2016, the headcount was 4,000, and we have downsized 400 to 500. But last year, as our business grows, our headcount was over 4,000 once again. But we have made sure that the growth in revenue surpassed the growth in headcount.
[Foreign Language]
So that we can make sure that our company can have sound development. And more importantly, we have improved our collaboration across different departments. Every week, we have a lot of meetings and conferences among different departments so that we can -- different departments in our Autohome can unite as one team.
[Foreign Language]
And as for your second question, it is true that last year we had sound momentum on the mobile traffic.
[Foreign Language]
And this year, we will make sure that these momentums will be -- remain. We are doing several things to achieve this target. The first one is to increase the content. For example, we have launched the new energy channel. We are also going to launch the channel for youth in March and also the channel for tourism. At the same time, as for PGC, we have now over 6,000 sales media writers.
[Foreign Language]
And secondly it is about the selection and the buying of the cars. We are renewing the product in this regard so that we can help our customers to have a better experience in selecting and buying a car.
[Foreign Language]
And the third part is about social activities. In previous, we have the largest forum in this area. And now we are building the ecosystem of the car users.
[Foreign Language]
So this offline network can connect the car users who have the common habits, and they can offer suggestions and they can also get some service. So we have pinned a lot of hope on this offline network.
[Foreign Language]
And the first part is the gaming part. Now we have launched the game car, the Auto City. And in this game, the young users and consumers can come to this game to complete reading, complete selection and buying of a car.
This -- Auto City is not a game, but it's game-like. It's like a user interface but with a different appearance. [Foreign Language]
And in this Auto City, we have introduced a different series of games. And the first series is the car games.
[Foreign Language]
And the fifth part is the AI called [Foreign Language]. It wants to use the voice recognition to help users to finish different tasks.
[Foreign Language]
And the sixth part is that we are exploring the application of new technologies.
[Foreign Language]
To summarize, we hope that we want to put more energy and vigor and vitality into the application and also websites of Autohome so that the customers can have a better experience of watching, selecting and buying a car.
Even in the future, when they use a car, they can come to our website, come to our app. [Foreign Language]
So actually, we have put a lot of resources and efforts in the user.
[Foreign Language]
So this is my information on the user side.
Thank you. There are no further questions at this time. I will turn the conference back to management for closing remarks.
Okay. Thank you all very much for joining us today. We appreciate your support, and we look forward to updating you on our next quarter's conference call in a few months' time. In the meantime, please feel free to get in touch with us if you have further questions and comments. Thank you.
This concludes our conference call. Thank you all for attending. You may now disconnect.