China’s largest used car platform races for IPO, backed by Tencent and JD.com

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Author | Huang Yu

Hong Kong stocks may soon see "China's largest used car trading platform."

Wall Street Insights has learned that on May 6, Yusheng Holdings Limited ("Tao Che Che") officially submitted its prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, planning to list on the main board, with Citi acting as the sole sponsor.

It has been eight years since it was spun off from Hong Kong-listed company Yixin Group in 2018. The prospectus shows that Yixin Group now holds about 44% of Tao Che Che’s shares, making it the largest shareholder. Its list of shareholders also prominently features Tencent and JD.com.

According to Frost & Sullivan, based on the 2025 total merchandise transaction value, Tao Che Che is China’s largest used car trading platform, with a market share of 3.8%.

Although it carries the halo of being “Number One,” a mere 3.8% market share clearly does not give Tao Che Che an absolute industry advantage.

The data disclosed in the prospectus also reveals the real nature of this industry leader: In a trillion-level but highly fragmented track, even as a top-tier player, Tao Che Che remains in a state of loss.

Obviously, in this fiercely competitive used car market, Tao Che Che hopes to break through via IPO and establish differentiated barriers amid homogenized competition.

Jiang Dong and the Giants Behind Him

Although Yixin Group is now the largest shareholder, Jiang Dong, founder and CEO of Tao Che Che, is clearly the soul of the company. Jiang Dong previously served as President of Yixin Group, later leading Tao Che Che to assemble an executive team with backgrounds in key positions at 360, Bitauto, Autohome, and other internet and automobile platform companies.

From the equity structure, Jiang Dong wields high influence. As of December 31, 2025, Jiang Dong directly and indirectly exercised about 23.61% of the company’s voting rights, and has been entrusted with 60% of the voting rights of the largest shareholder, Yixin Group.

This stable governance structure ensures the company’s strategic direction will not drift during its long-term investment period, but also means performance is closely tied to management decisions.

Tao Che Che originated as "Tao Che," the used car division within Yixin Group, and was independently spun off in 2018.

This spin-off was seen at the time as an important strategic move by the “Bitauto system.”

Since its founding, Tao Che Che has drawn strong capital interest, completing five rounds of financing and raising over 4 billion RMB in total. The latest round occurred at the end of February 2026, pushing Tao Che Che’s valuation to $1.002 billion.

Both Tencent and JD.com are bullish on this company.

According to the prospectus, Tencent, through Yixiang Architecture and Bitauto Holdings (Bitauto), holds a combined 17.49% stake in Tao Che Che; JD.com’s Ambilight Ruby holds 2.74% equity.

This is not just funding, but an entry ticket into giant ecosystems.

However, unlike the popular asset-light platform model at the time, Tao Che Che chose a more capital-intensive path: not only building an online platform but also setting up offline self-operated sales centers.

The prospectus shows that as of December 31, 2025, Tao Che Che had 62 offline sales centers, 9,294 designated display spots covering 53 cities, with both sales center and display spot counts ranking first nationwide.

These nationwide sales centers form Tao Che Che’s so-called "moat," but also bring heavy operating costs.

The patience of capital is being tested. After several rounds of financing, Tao Che Che has finally arrived at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, attempting to seek new liquidity in the secondary market to sustain its vast offline network.

An auto retail industry insider told Wall Street Insights that the current used car market is fiercely competitive. Tao Che Che’s core advantages lie in its massive offline network and traffic boost from Tencent and JD.com, but to break through further, it will need more capital support.

Even the Number One Can't Claim Certain Victory

Tao Che Che is still at a key juncture of striving to achieve profitability.

From 2023 to 2025, Tao Che Che’s revenues were 4.429 billion RMB, 5.471 billion RMB, and 6.662 billion RMB, respectively.

In 2025, Tao Che Che’s retail used car sales were 71,000 units, with revenue increasing 15% year-on-year to 4.355 billion RMB; wholesale vehicle sales were 14,000 units, with revenue increasing 78.3% year-on-year to 1.194 billion RMB.

The main reason for the large increase in wholesale vehicle sales revenue is the relatively low base in 2024. In that year, as overall auto market prices fell, Tao Che Che cut back its wholesale business in domestic and foreign markets.

In 2025, the wholesale business rebounded because Tao Che Che worked to establish business relationships with major institutional sellers and buyers, while continuing to focus on sales growth in Middle East and Africa markets.

However, Tao Che Che’s scale growth has not yet translated into accounting profit.

The prospectus discloses that in 2025, Tao Che Che’s annual loss was about 917 million RMB, a loss increase of roughly 60% compared to 2024.

Tao Che Che’s profit margins are suffering from intense competition from the new car market. In recent years, China’s new car market has experienced an unprecedented “price war,” with frequent price drops severely impacting used car value retention.

This has squeezed used car dealers’ gross margins significantly.

An even harsher reality is the extreme fragmentation of used car market share.

Even as industry leader, Tao Che Che’s market share is only 3.8%. The next four used car trading platforms have shares of 3.7%, 2.9%, 2.4%, and 1.8%, respectively, totaling just 14.5% market share.

This means that in this trillion-level track, top players have no obvious gap between them, and the vast majority of the market is still held by countless small and medium-sized dealers.

Tao Che Che attempts to standardize via its so-called “AI brain” and TCN cooperative operating system, but the “one car, one condition” non-standard nature of used cars limits the effectiveness of algorithms in complex offline transactions.

R&D spending also reflects the cost of this technological transformation.

According to the prospectus, from 2023 to 2025, Tao Che Che spent over 120 million RMB on research and development. But before technology becomes an absolute competitive advantage, this remains a heavy burden.

Additionally, Tao Che Che’s overseas business is still at the starting stage; in 2025, overseas revenues accounted for only about 5.9%.

Going abroad is about finding new growth, but also requires facing more complex political and market risks. Although sales centers have been established in Dubai and Nigeria, fluctuations in the Middle East in 2025 have already impacted Tao Che Che’s overseas business.

For Tao Che Che, a Hong Kong IPO is a matter of survival, not a victory celebration.

Between the temptation of trillion-level scale and the chilling winter of new car price cuts, this “number one used car platform” must prove to the market whether its heavy offline fortress is a firewall warding off the cold or a burden it cannot shed.

Jiang Dong and his team are embarking on a journey more perilous than at the entrepreneurial beginning.

Risk Disclosure and DisclaimerThe market carries risks; investment requires caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice, nor does it take into account individual users’ specific investment goals, financial situation, or needs. Users should consider whether any opinions, views, or conclusions in this article are appropriate for their particular situation. Investments made accordingly are at one’s own risk. ```