More than 38.5 billion in market value wiped out! Cao Cao Mobility, which turned losses into profits in a single quarter, finds it hard for Robotaxi to become a “cure”

After several years of maturation, the overall landscape of the shared mobility industry has essentially been established.

After the boom in the sharing-economy wave, the sector-related companies’ appeal to capital has also been declining.

When the commercial story of autonomous driving needs bigger technological breakthroughs, the industry’s focus shifts from “scale expansion” to “achieving profitability.”

On March 27, one of the largest listed mobility platforms in Hong Kong, Cao Cao Chuxing, released its first annual report since going public. The financial report shows that in 2025, Cao Cao Chuxing achieved revenue of RMB 20.19 billion, up 37.7% year over year; it recorded a net loss attributable to shareholders of RMB 635 million, with losses of RMB 614 million during the year, expanding 50.8% year over year; adjusted net loss was RMB 508 million, expanding 29.8% year over year; gross margin was 9.4%, compared with 8.1% in the same period last year.

As of the end of 2025, Cao Cao Chuxing’s business coverage had reached 195 cities nationwide.

It is also worth noting that in 2025, Cao Cao Chuxing’s net cash flow from operating activities was RMB 378 million, up 60.3% year over year, which likewise indicates that Cao Cao Chuxing’s own “cash-generating” ability has significantly strengthened.

According to the financial report, Cao Cao Chuxing’s average monthly active users in 2025 reached 41.30 million, up 43.9% year over year; its average monthly active drivers reached 631k, up 35.4% year over year.

In addition, this financial report sends out a very important signal: in the fourth quarter of 2025, the company’s adjusted net profit turned positive for the first time. It is reported that this is also the first time Cao Cao Chuxing has turned loss into profit on a single-quarter basis.

Despite this financial report exceeding market expectations, the capital market’s reaction has been relatively muted.

Data show that since the end of August 2025, Cao Cao Chuxing’s share price has fallen by more than 65%, with a market value decrease of over HK$38.5 billion; the decline for the year was 12.67%. As of the latest close, Cao Cao Chuxing’s market value was only HK$15.2 billion, having fallen below the offering price.

Public information shows that Cao Cao Chuxing was founded in 2015 and is a ride-hailing platform incubated by Geely Automobile.

Against the industry backdrop at the time, the sharing economy entered a breakout period. In the international market, SoftBank’s founder Sun Zhengyi invested heavily in Uber, making him its largest shareholder in one move; in the domestic market, sharing-mobility companies represented by Didi rapidly captured the market through large-scale subsidies, accumulating hundreds of millions of users.

Under the sharing-economy boom, Uber’s and Didi’s high-growth models began to be copied across industries. The shared office industry paid the biggest price for it and drew the most controversy.

At its peak, WeWork established branches in dozens of countries worldwide, repeatedly made it onto global top startup lists, and at one point had a valuation as high as US$47 billion, becoming a “unicorn” heavily sought after by global capital. Even just SoftBank’s total investment in WeWork exceeded US$18 billion.

In 2019, the sharing-economy bubble burst in a concentrated way. In the third quarter of that year, SoftBank recorded an investment loss of US$4.6 billion for WeWork, and Vision Fund’s loss in a single quarter reached US$8.9 billion. In the same period, Uber also caused investment losses of US$5.2 billion to SoftBank Group.

Morgan Stanley’s chief U.S. stock strategist, Mike Wilson, once commented: “The failure of WeWork’s IPO marked the end of an era. Investors are no longer willing to pay for excessive expansion, and the days of generously funding companies that cannot become profitable in the long run are gone forever.”

After the sharing-economy bubble burst, the valuations of leading companies in the shared mobility industry were all significantly hit. Therefore, whether they can achieve profitability became the most core metric the market uses to assess companies. The financial report shows that Uber had already achieved profitability back in 2023 and saw a surge in profitability growth in 2024.

According to the financial report, in 2025, Uber generated revenue of US$631k, up 18.28%; it achieved net profit of US$52.02B, up 2.00%. This is also the first time Uber’s net profit has broken through the US$10 billion mark.

In the capital market, Uber has been priced according to the valuation framework for mature companies, with the latest price-to-earnings ratio only 14.56x. Even global industry leaders are at this level; the valuation pressure faced by mid-tier companies is only likely to be greater. Therefore, to find a new direction for breakthroughs, autonomous driving has also become a battleground for shared mobility companies.

In December 2025, Cao Cao Chuxing CEO Gong Xin announced an upgrade to its Robotaxi strategy and proposed the strategic goal of “100 cities and 10 years, and one trillion in scale.”

To achieve this goal, Cao Cao Chuxing’s system laid out the “three-step” strategy for Robotaxi: in the initial stage, it is for technology validation and small-scale testing and operation; in the current stage, it completes the transition from being accompanied by safety drivers in the main cabin to fully driverless operations, and explores mixed-operation models combining human driving and autonomous driving; in the future, it will roll out comprehensive commercial operations worldwide with专属定制Robotaxi车型 (specifically customized Robotaxi models).

Under the plan, over the next decade, Cao Cao Chuxing will set up five major operating centers worldwide, expand Robotaxi services to 100 cities, and cumulatively achieve RMB 100 billion GTV.

In Kanjian Finance’s view, in terms of market structure, the Robotaxi track is already quite crowded, and whether it can achieve profitability is the issue the market cares most about. Clearly, Cao Cao Chuxing is already on the edge of profitability, but the gap with industry leaders remains significant.

For the Robotaxi industry, its competitors come not only from other shared mobility platforms, but also possibly from traditional vehicle manufacturers.

According to materials, platform-type enterprises represented by Uber choose a “vehicle OEM + autonomous driving company + mobility platform” golden-triangle cooperation model to deploy in the Robotaxi track. By using an open-operation approach to onboard Robotaxi vehicles from different technology routes, they can quickly expand the size of their vehicle fleets, build competitive barriers, and these advantages will continue to concentrate among leading companies.

On the OEM side, manufacturers led by Tesla, through a self-developed route to deepen autonomous driving, have made Robotaxi an important deployment that cannot be avoided in the future. Musk once judged that the Robotaxi track is a “trillion-dollar opportunity.”

At a recent earnings call, Xiaopeng Motors chairman and CEO He Xiaopeng stated that Xiaopeng Motors plans to launch a Robotaxi passenger-carrying demonstration operation in the second half of 2026 to complete the closed-loop validation of technology, users, and business models.

Peng Jun, founder and CEO of Pony.ai, said that the development of the Robotaxi industry depends on five pillars: technology, policy, mass production, operations, and ecosystem cooperation. These five links connect to each other; it is not simply a matter of投入资源 (investing resources) that can bring accelerated development. During large-scale expansion and commercial rollout, Robotaxi technology is no longer the only decisive factor; the ability to manage large-scale operations is also equally crucial.

Facing an increasingly intense competitive landscape in the Robotaxi track, Cao Cao Chuxing has chosen to comprehensively accelerate its transformation.

Looking ahead to 2026, Cao Cao Chuxing plans to push forward Robotaxi business deployment both domestically and internationally, and to deploy more operating vehicles.

The company plans to gradually expand into more cities domestically to achieve large-scale Robotaxi operations; at the same time, it will enter international markets and explore Robotaxi business deployment in Hong Kong.

It is understood that Cao Cao Chuxing has reached a strategic cooperation agreement with the Abu Dhabi Investment Office and has set up a dedicated business unit to expand its overseas Robotaxi business. At the same time, the company will replicate its domestic mature capabilities in platform operations, intelligent dispatching, and asset management to international markets, and leverage the global network of the Geely Holding Group to quickly deploy the “intelligent customized vehicle + intelligent driving + intelligent operations” model in suitable markets.

But judging from performance realities, Kanjian Finance believes that it will not be easy for Cao Cao Chuxing to achieve the above plans. First, in the domestic market, the industry leader Didi has already achieved stable profitability ahead of time.

Based on Didi’s latest disclosed 2025 financial report, Didi generated revenue of RMB 226.7 billion in 2025, up 9.6% from RMB 206.8 billion in the same period last year; among this, China mobility revenue was RMB 201.9 billion, international business revenue was RMB 10.05B, and other innovative business revenue was RMB 14.95B. Adjusted net profit was RMB 9.84B; net profit was RMB 7.86B, with an overall gross margin of 19.2%.

In contrast, based on Cao Cao Chuxing’s financial report data, its overall gross margin is only 9.4%, meaning its profitability is clearly weaker than that of leading platforms such as Didi. In addition, Cao Cao Chuxing’s reliance on aggregation platforms remains high: out of every RMB 100 in revenue, RMB 8.4 flows to aggregation channels such as Amap, and its customer acquisition cost growth rate is nearly twice the revenue growth rate.

Kanjian Finance believes Cao Cao Chuxing is betting important chips on the Robotaxi track. While the direction is reasonable, the crowding level of the Robotaxi track is far beyond market expectations. Therefore, if Cao Cao Chuxing wants to use Robotaxi to break through, its development pace must be fast enough, and compared with companies such as Didi and Uber, its existing advantages are not prominent.

Industry insiders point out that Robotaxi still has a long way to go before truly achieving large-scale, commercialized rollout. Cao Cao Chuxing will also face multiple challenges, including continuous capital investment, technology R&D, and the entry of new competitors.

From industry trends and business logic, we believe the market landscape for shared mobility has essentially been set. Compared with leading industry companies, Cao Cao Chuxing still needs to achieve comprehensive profitability as soon as possible. As the elimination round in the industry intensifies further in the future, Cao Cao Chuxing must also accumulate enough strength to deal with any new changes that may emerge in the industry at any time.