Affected by the new crown epidemic, Tongcheng Yilong's income from accommodation booking services and transportation ticketing services in the first quarter of 2020 was affected to varying degrees.

On May 21, Tongcheng Yilong (0780.HK) announced the first quarter of 2020 results announcement. The announcement shows that Tongcheng Yilong achieved revenue of 1.05 billion yuan in the first quarter, adjusted EBITDA of 159 million yuan, and adjusted EBITDA margin of 15.8%. The adjusted net profit in the first quarter of 2020 was still positive, reaching 78.08 million yuan, and the adjusted net profit rate was 7.8%.

In terms of user growth, with the improvement of the domestic epidemic situation, the search volume of the user's long-term itinerary continued to rise, which helped promote the rapid recovery of the user scale of Tongyi Long. The announcement shows that in the first quarter of 2020, MAU (average monthly active users) has rebounded to 148 million, while MPU (average monthly paying users) has reached 14.8 million.

Looking ahead to the second-quarter 2020 performance prospects, Tongcheng Elong expects that the decline in net income in the second quarter of 2020 will narrow sharply and is expected to decrease by approximately 24% to 29% year-on-year, but the adjusted net profit will remain profitable.

Wu Zhixiang, co-chairman of Tongcheng Yilong, said that although the new crown epidemic has brought short-term impact and challenges to the company's business, in the long run, we believe that China's online travel market will continue to develop rapidly and provide tremendous growth potential. Increase, the proportion of urbanization and online penetration of tourism products will increase, especially in low-tier cities will continue to maintain a rapid growth rate.

Tong Heilong CEO Ma Heping said that we firmly believe that with the core competitive advantages in traffic channels, market positioning, technological innovation and operation, Tong Cheng Yilong has the favorable conditions to grasp the recovery trend and achieve growth. We will continue to adhere to the strategy of transforming from OTA to ITA, and continue to improve the user's travel experience, use diversified and low-cost traffic sources to expand the user base, and increase the expansion of low-tier cities.

Adjusted profit of 78.08 million yuan in the first quarter, showing strong anti-risk ability and resilience

In the face of the new crown epidemic, many industries and enterprises are facing huge challenges. In this context, Tongcheng Yilong's revenue in the first quarter of 2020 decreased by 43.6% year-on-year, but still maintained a profit of 78.80 million yuan in adjusted net profit, which demonstrated its strong anti-risk ability and resilience. It has also contributed to the healthy and sustainable development of the tourism industry.

Data show that Tongcheng Yilong's first-quarter 2020 revenue decreased by 43.6% year-on-year to 1.05 billion yuan, and its transaction value (GMV) decreased by 49.3% year-on-year to 18.2 billion yuan from 35.9 billion yuan in the same period last year. Adjusted EBITDA decreased by 74.2% year-on-year to 159 million yuan, and adjusted EBITDA margin decreased from 34.5% in the same period in 2019 to 15.8%. Adjusted net profit decreased by 82.6% year-on-year to 78.08 million yuan, and adjusted net profit rate decreased from 25.1% in the same period in 2019 to 7.8%.

In terms of specific business segments, affected by the new crown epidemic, the income of Tongyi Yilong from accommodation booking services and transportation ticketing services in the first quarter of 2020 has been affected to varying degrees. However, other revenues such as advertising services and supporting value-added user services have increased substantially, from 35.3 million yuan in the first quarter of 2019 to 89.33 million yuan, a 153.1% year-on-year increase.

Tongcheng Yilong continues to improve its product and service levels around its core business, while substantially improving business cross-selling. The high-frequency traffic of the transportation business has driven the rapid growth of supporting value-added user services and advertising services, and has achieved efficient collaboration between businesses. For example, the Black Whale paid membership system integrates resources in various business sectors such as transportation, air tickets, hotels, and attraction tickets, covering all scenarios before, during, and after the trip, and can provide users with diversified, personalized, and refined services. , Has an important role in enhancing user activity, increasing consumption frequency, and driving cross-selling. The data shows that as of the end of March 2020, Tong Cheng Yilong had provided free black whale membership annual cards to more than 300,000 medical personnel, expressing their respect for the efforts they paid in the epidemic.

As an innovator and leader in the online travel industry, Tong Cheng Yilong has a balanced user structure, geographical coverage and product structure, plus a stable source of traffic on the WeChat platform. The overall recovery performance is better than the industry average. In addition, at the beginning of the epidemic, Tong Cheng Yilong quickly launched a low-cost operation strategy, significantly reducing marketing, operating and administrative costs. Relying on its flexible operation strategy, strict cost control and lightweight operation mode, when faced with the impact of the epidemic situation, Tong Cheng Yilong appears to be both "strong" and "flexible", not only to achieve a balance of payments, but also the first in 2020 Maintained profit in the quarter and realized adjusted profit of 78.08 million yuan.

Continuously expand user acquisition channels, low-line, youthful layout pays off

Benefiting from Tencent's reciprocal partnership and rich experience and deep understanding of the operation of WeChat applets, Tongyi Yilong has a low-cost customer acquisition channel and is relatively stable during the outbreak. In addition, Tongcheng Yilong strives to find new sources of traffic and maintain diversified and effective traffic channels. For example, Tongyi Yilong has established a mutually beneficial cooperative relationship with a short video platform, using the advantages of both parties to try the innovative format of "tourism + live broadcast", and will also deepen cooperation in content marketing, scenario marketing and short video promotion in the future.

As income levels increase, second-, third-, and fourth-tier cities are becoming an important driving force for the growth of China's tourism industry in the next decade. With the reciprocal partnership with Tencent, effective sales and marketing strategies, and long-term cooperation with tourism service providers, Tongcheng Yilong can further penetrate low-tier cities. Data show that as of March 31, 2020, about 85.7% of registered users of Tongcheng Yilong lived in non-first-tier cities in China; in the first quarter of this year, about 56.1% of new registered users were from third-tier or below third-tier cities, compared with 44.3 in the same period last year % Has increased.

After the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, the Chinese government quickly implemented blockade measures and travel restrictions in most major cities. As China's epidemic situation improves, low-tier cities took the lead in deregulating measures, which has accelerated the recovery of low-tier cities. Due to the extensive business and rapid business adjustment of Tongcheng Yilong in low-tier cities, it seized the opportunity of recovery in the first time.

On April 22, Tongcheng Yilong officially announced the brand upgrade, officially launched the external service brand "Tongcheng Travel", and updated the brand logo and brand slogan "Let's go the same journey again". After the upgrade, Tongcheng Yilong will focus more on the young, fashionable and individual consumer groups and provide convenient, smart and safe travel services. This also coincides with the younger trend of Tongcheng Yilong brand and the strategy of cultivating low-tier cities.

Practice internal skills to continuously improve the travel experience and join hands with the industrial chain to achieve mutual benefit and win-win results

In the face of the crisis, Tong Cheng Yilong actively transformed and upgraded from OTA (Online Travel Agency) to ITA (Intelligent Travel Assistant), deeply grasped the opportunity of cultivating internal strength and continuously improving user experience, continuously tapping user needs with the help of technological innovation, and continuously creating "intelligence The role of "travel steward" greatly improves the user's travel experience. At the same time, Tong Cheng Yilong helps partners to enhance business capabilities, drive common growth, and build a more efficient travel ecosystem to achieve mutual benefit and win-win results.

Recently, we have cooperated with Cheng Yilong and Huawei to provide users with simple, convenient and intelligent cross-platform travel butler services to create a new experience of smart travel. When the user connects the same Cheng Yilong account to the Huawei Express Service Smart Platform on the mobile phone, the user does not need to open applications such as APPs or applets. Tongcheng Yilong will intelligently and real-time display the user's train ticket order process and results under specific scenarios. Proactively update the travel status to remind users to reasonably arrange travel time. In the future, it will also successively access air tickets, hotels, scenic spot tickets and other travel scene orders.

For the independently developed Huixing system, the upstream and downstream supply chain resources are better integrated, and the display and layout of users are further optimized to respond to user needs in a timely and effective manner and create value for users. And work with car operators to promote the digitalization of the automotive industry in the province, aiming to improve the experience of car passengers and increase the efficiency of the industry.

While adhering to its own development, Tong Yilong has never forgotten the role of the enterprise, always helping and driving the partners of the industry chain to grow together and achieve mutual benefit and win-win. For example, Tong Cheng Yilong took the lead in launching the establishment of the city "Ark Alliance" to provide free promotion services for tourist destinations. And launched a new "departure plan" in 2020, comprehensively integrate superior resources, connect a series of rich marketing scenarios, help the scenic spots around the world to start a new journey, and encourage users to plan their travel rationally.

In addition, Tongcheng Yilong helps many cities and regions to promote tourist attractions and establish tourism brands for free, and cooperates with local governments to distribute consumer coupons through the Tongcheng Yilong platform. At the same time, it joined forces with local governments and different tourist destinations to launch live programs on WeChat applets and other short video platforms to promote pre-sale products for attractions and resort hotels.