According to the financial report released by digital freight platform Manbang Group (YMM.US) on August 21, the company's operating income in the second quarter of 2024 reached 2.76 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 34.1%. Adjusted operating profit under non-US GAAP reached 0.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 55.1%. Adjusted net income under non-US GAAP reached 0.97 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 34.3%. The profitability continues to improve.

It is worth noting that despite the complex and changing macroeconomic impact on freight volume in the second quarter, the platform's fulfillment volume during the reporting period still reached 49.1 million orders, reaching a new historical high. In an investor conference call held before the market opened, Manbang Group's chairman and CEO Zhang Hui introduced that the platform's fulfillment volume in the first half of the year increased by 25% compared to the same period last year, far exceeding the growth rate of national road freight volume. This reflects the continuous replacement of traditional offline trucking and planned logistics with digital and intelligent logistics models.

With the development of the economy and the growth of logistics demand, the road freight market, as an important part of the logistics system, has maintained a stable growth trend. However, the problems of information asymmetry and low efficiency under the traditional logistics model have once become bottlenecks that restrict the further development of the industry. The emergence of digital freight platforms has effectively solved these problems by leveraging economies of scale, platformization, and advanced technologies such as big data and cloud computing, improving logistics efficiency, reducing operating costs, continuously increasing market penetration, and leading the industry to upward transformation. This is also the reason why Manbang is hailed as a new productive force in the logistics industry.

The reason for the record high freight volume lies in the significant bilateral network effects brought about by the growth of both shippers and driver users. Manbang serves both shippers and drivers, so when shippers increase and freight volume grows, it becomes easier for drivers to accept orders. At the same time, more drivers join the platform, making it faster for shippers to schedule the delivery of their goods. This further drives the growth of the shipper count, forming a flywheel effect of shipper growth, driver growth, shipper growth, and driver growth.

During the reporting period, the average monthly active shipper count on Manbang was 2.65 million, an increase of 32.8% compared to the same period last year. The management of Manbang Group stated that since the second quarter, the group has continued to increase investment in acquiring new shippers through multiple customer acquisition channels, while focusing on ensuring a good fulfillment experience for new users. It is expected that the scale of shippers will continue to increase in the future.

On the other hand, the dependence of drivers on the platform is gradually increasing. As of the second quarter, Manbang had 3.98 million active drivers in the past 12 months, which continued to increase based on the previous quarter and maintained a high stickiness. In the second quarter, Manbang achieved benign growth in transportation capacity through a combination of flow distribution and rights allocation, using a combination of "grabbing goods in seconds," a driver ranking system, and driver behavior scoring. In the future, Manbang hopes to continue to explore driver stratification mechanisms to improve the management and matching efficiency of high-quality transportation capacity.

In addition, under the guidance of the country's "development of new productive forces" and "reducing the overall logistics costs", Manbang actively promotes the development of new energy capacity, in addition to continuing to increase investment in digitalization and intelligence infrastructure. In the first half of 2024, the proportion of new energy capacity orders accounted for nearly 20% of the Group, with a doubling growth rate.

Market views believe that Manbang's core competitiveness lies in its high market share, strong network effects, and solid barriers to entry for both cargo owners and drivers. The platform offers clear user value and a smooth monetization logic. Manbang leads in both the number of cargo owners and drivers, and the network effects between the two sides continue to strengthen the platform's value and barriers. For cargo owners, Manbang provides three major values: saving money, saving time, and peace of mind. For drivers, Manbang offers high value in terms of high order volume, low empty truck ratio, and guarantee. In addition, the company enhances user experience and increases user stickiness through a series of value-added services, which brings strong revenue growth certainty for Manbang.