Reporter Yang Tianyue

Tuhu has recently been listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, becoming the first Hong Kong stock listed company in the independent automobile after-sales service market. On the same day, JD Car Raising launched the "Zhenhu Price" with a high profile.

Aiming at the huge "cake" of the automotive aftermarket, Internet giants have launched their layout. The automotive aftermarket is a market formed around the various services and products required by car owners in the process of using vehicles. The narrow sense refers to repair, maintenance and automotive supplies, and in a broad sense, it covers various services such as auto finance, car leasing, automotive supplies, and second-hand cars.

In the new energy era, the automotive aftermarket will usher in an all-round transformation in terms of products and services, and consumers expect more complete supporting services in the face of huge opportunities.

The industry was born as the first Hong Kong listed company

Tuhu was recently listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange with an issue price of HK$28 per share and net proceeds of HK$10.81 billion, giving the company a market value of more than HK$240 billion. According to the prospectus, from 2019 to 2022, the company's revenue will be 70.4 billion yuan, 87.53 billion yuan, 117.24 billion yuan and 115.47 billion yuan, respectively, with a cumulative loss of more than 153.65 billion yuan. In the first half of this year, the revenue exceeded 2.14 billion yuan, and the adjusted net profit was <> million yuan, achieving full profit for the first time.

Founded in 2011, Tuhu started as a tire business, and then expanded its business to the entire automotive aftermarket, providing tire and chassis parts repair, car maintenance, car beauty and other services.

In recent years, with the increase in car ownership, consumers' demand for car repair, maintenance and modification has increased, and Tuhu has also stepped into the rhythm of the market. In 2019, there were only 1423,6 Tuhu factory stores, and as of June 30 this year, this number has increased to 4968,161, in addition to 20013 self-operated stores and <>,<> cooperative stores, covering most prefecture-level cities.

JD.com competes for the market and starts a price war

According to the China Insights Consulting report, the size of China's auto service market has reached 2022.1 trillion yuan in 2. It is expected to continue to grow at a high growth rate from 2023 to 2027, reaching 2027.1 trillion yuan by 9. In recent years, Internet giants have also targeted the automotive aftermarket and seized the "mountain".

In 2018, Tmall Automobile joined hands with Jingu's automobile maintenance platform Auto Superman and auto parts supply chain service provider Kangzhong to establish an automobile after-sales service company, and at the end of 2019, Tmall Car opened its first chain direct store, and launched external investment promotion in March of the following year.

In 2020, JD Car Maintenance was established, which is also positioned as an automobile maintenance platform, mainly providing consumers with automobile maintenance goods and services such as tires, maintenance, accessories, and batteries. On the night of Tuhu's listing, Miao Qin, president of JD.com's retail auto division, posted congratulations in the circle of friends, and said that the price of all "Zhenhu price" goods was 5% lower than that of friends.

The reporter learned that in June this year, Jingdong Retail integrated omni-channel businesses and teams such as vehicles, car products and car maintenance to establish a new automobile business department, and "Zhenhu Price" is a new service "rolled" by the Jingdong car maintenance platform to which the division belongs. This is also interpreted by the market as a signal to officially "declare war" on Tuhu Cars.

Maintenance services in the intelligent era need to be transformed

For the "Zhenhu price", Tuhu has not responded to the car maintenance for the time being. JD.com said that low prices are a "moat" built on the optimization of supply chain costs and efficiency, and are also the only "basic weapon" of the platform.

"At present, domestic consumers face many pain points such as spending a lot of money but not doing good things when carrying out car maintenance." Chen Haifeng, vice president of JD.com's retail automotive division, said that the platform's launch of the "Zhenhu Price" is not to disrupt the industry, but to force the industry to take user needs as the starting point to achieve transformation and upgrading. According to its introduction, the "Zhenhu price" will not only continue to "fight", but will also increase the weight in the future.

However, some analysts in the industry believe that car maintenance involves consumer safety and rights, and for car owners, service quality is also an important consideration. The low-price strategy to seize market share is not sustainable, and more attention should be paid to the innovation and improvement of products and services.

In fact, with the popularization of new energy vehicles and the improvement of digitalization and intelligence, the automotive aftermarket is about to enter a period of change. New energy vehicles do not need to replace oil, filters, ignition parts and other traditional vehicle maintenance services, sensors, reversing cameras and other assisted driving technology wide application will also reduce vehicle collisions, thereby reducing the maintenance needs of car owners to a certain extent. However, the demand for battery-related maintenance will gradually increase, and the need for software upgrades and maintenance such as autonomous driving systems, intelligent cockpit applications, and vehicle data use will also develop rapidly.

According to the latest data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, sales of new energy vehicles reached 8,84 units in August, with a market share of 6.32%. Automobiles are transforming from mechanical products to intelligent and networked, and the related vehicle maintenance and repair business will also change. In the new energy era, the automotive aftermarket shows great opportunities, and it is also expected to be supported by more complete supporting services. (Source: Beijing Daily)