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produced by huxiu commercial consumer group

author | chen yaoge

editor | miao zhengqing

header image | visual china

during the national day holiday when the stock market was buoyant, lalamove quietly updated its hong kong stock exchange prospectus.

on october 2, lalalamove’s parent company “lala technology holdings co., ltd.” updated its prospectus on the hong kong stock exchange and disclosed its 2024 interim results. the joint sponsors are goldman sachs, bank of america securities, and jpmorgan chase. this is lalamove’s third attempt to be listed on the hong kong stock market. in april this year, lalamove submitted a listing application to the hong kong stock exchange for the third time. the company had previously applied for hong kong stock listing twice in march and september 2023.

in the first half of 2024, lalamove’s revenue was us$709 million, a year-on-year increase of 18.17%; operating profit was us$178 million, a year-on-year increase of 39.13%; net profit reached us$184 million, and adjusted net profit was us$213 million. in comparison, in the first half of 2023, lalamove had a net loss of us$32.997 million and an adjusted net profit of us$151 million. lala technology operates under the brands "lalala" and "lalamove" in mainland china and overseas markets respectively. the revenue contribution from the mainland and overseas markets is approximately 9:1.

lalamove quoted frost & sullivan data in its prospectus, saying that based on global closed-loop freight transaction value (gtv),with a market share of 53.9%, lala technology is the world's largest logistics trading platform.in the first half of 2024, lala technology facilitated approximately 338 million orders, a year-on-year increase of approximately 30%; the total global freight gtv reached us$4.6 billion, a year-on-year increase of 17%.

lalamove’s profits continue to grow. “the freight rate of lalamove is getting lower and lower. the price of medium-sized models was 4 yuan per kilometer at first, and now it is only about 2 yuan,” xiaomian ge, a qingdao driver with 4 years of experience in lalamove, told huxiu. “carpooling orders will be launched this year. since then, the freight rate has exceeded 1 yuan per kilometer.”

it depends on the driver to pull goods, and it also depends on the driver to make money

drivers are not only service providers to lalamove, but also their most important source of income. in the first half of 2024, membership fees and commissions from drivers accounted for 58.85% of lalamove’s revenue in mainland china.

lalamove’s revenue sources are divided into three parts: freight platform services, diversified logistics services and value-added services. freight platform service revenue almost entirely comes from drivers’ commissions and membership fees; revenue from diversified logistics services comes from less-than-truckload transportation, moving services and corporate services; value-added services mainly include vehicle rental, energy services and credit solutions provided to drivers. accounted for less than 10% of the company's revenue. in may this year, lalamove launched a loan product “yuanyidai”, with annualized interest rates starting at 10.8% and a maximum limit of 200,000 yuan. but within half a month, lalamove removed the loan portal, leaving only the explanation of "system maintenance and upgrade, specific launch time to be notified".

the freight platform service business is lalamove’s largest source of profit, contributing 50% to 60% of total revenue, with gross profit as high as 80%.in the first half of 2024, commission and membership fee income accounted for approximately 31.38% and 21.98% of lalamove’s domestic revenue respectively. most drivers of lalamove are members of lalamove, because the number of orders dispatched, the success rate of order grabbing and the amount of commissions are all related to membership qualifications and levels.

according to the prospectus, lalamove’s business model is to “connect and serve merchants and drivers through a platform model.” “the platform realizes closed-loop transactions from online ordering to intelligent order matching, automatic order dispatch, and after-sales service. the price is mainly determined by it is pre-determined by merchants and drivers and is completely transparent to both merchants and drivers.”

the ideal state is that lalamove's platform services empower drivers and users. drivers and users can receive orders more "effortlessly" through the information, order taking, payment and other functions provided by lalamove, solving the problem of opaque information in the traditional freight industry. , it is difficult for users to find services. in the early days, lalamove was also designed based on this idea. most of the freight platform service revenue came from driver membership fees. later, in order to improve profitability and convert the growth of gtv into revenue growth, lalamove began to adopt a "hybrid monetization model" to increase the proportion of commissions in revenue. the prospectus shows that lalamove's commission as a percentage of mainland china freight platform service revenue increased from 11.7% in 2021 to 57.0% in 2023, and from 55.9% in the six months ended june 30, 2023 to 2024 58.5% over the same period last year.

the revenue from the diversified logistics service business accounts for approximately 30% of the total revenue, and the gross profit fluctuates around 20%. the calculation of revenue from the diversified logistics services business is somewhat complicated. in some cases, lalamove acts as a "principal" and provides freight services by instructing drivers to perform obligations on its behalf. in this case, the fees paid by customers are included in revenue. in other cases, lalamove acts as an “agent” that facilitates transactions between drivers and users, and the fees paid to the drivers are deducted from the revenue. the costs of the diversified logistics services business include fulfillment fees (i.e., compensation paid to drivers as principals), as well as employee expenses for related operations.

in the first half of 2024, lalamove’s contract fulfillment costs were us$1.821 billion, a year-on-year increase of 46.70%. at the same time, in the first half of 2024, the number of monthly active driver users was approximately 1.3612 million, a year-on-year increase of 19.13%; the number of completed orders was approximately 338 million, a year-on-year increase of approximately 29.91%.

"i love and hate lalamove. it is more free than online ride-hailing. but it used to be easy to earn four or five hundred yuan a day, but now you have to work very hard to earn four or five hundred yuan. for many people, one day is three hundred yuan is not bad," brother xiaomian told huxiu. he registered as a lalamove driver in august 2020. when he is not driving cars, he also provides lalamove driver training for a local new energy company in qingdao.

competition in the intra-city freight market is still fierce. in addition to platforms such as manbang, kuaigou dache, and didi, lalamove also faces many regional competitors.lalamove must better balance the relationship between users, drivers and the platform to form a more sustainable business model.