From 30 billion to 9 billion, Zhihu went to Hong Kong for IPO
2022-04-11
China's largest online Q & a community will go to Hong Kong for IPO. On April 8, the official website of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange showed that the underwriters of the IPO were Credit Suisse, JPMorgan Chase, CICC and China Merchants Bank International. Zhihu was born in 2010. At that time, Zhou Yuan, 30, had been a programmer and journalist. The seed of entrepreneurship sprouted in his heart. After two explorations, Zhou Yuan finally made Zhihu and made it a popular social platform from the original gathering place of minority elites. Over the past decade, the story of Kwai has attracted many capital stops. Innovative works, Sai Fu investments, Qiming venture capital, Tencent investment, Sogou, today's capital, Huaxing capital, fast hand, Baidu and other famous institutions have invested in it. The market value of RMB 30 billion was successfully landed in New Zealand on March 26, 2021. According to the latest data, the market value has shrunk to 9 billion yuan. From 30 billion to 9 billion, do you know what happened? What do you want to change by listing in Hong Kong? 01 star VC / PE, with a market value of 30 billion When it comes to the origin of Zhihu, it must start with a programmer. Zhou Yuan's first 20 years were almost all around "programmers". He studied in the computer department of Chengdu University of technology when he was in University, and then obtained a master's degree in software engineering from Southeast University. After graduation, he naturally entered a software company in Shanghai to engage in the development of underlying database. However, the road after that began to "yaw", and Zhou Yuan gradually found that he was not suitable to be a programmer. So he turned to be a reporter. It is this work experience that Zhou Yuan planted the seeds of entrepreneurship in his heart. The road to entrepreneurship will never be plain sailing. The first two entrepreneurial attempts ended in failure. But Zhou Yuan was not discouraged. Instead, he summarized his experience and prepared for the next venture. At that time, Zhou Yuan remembered that he had cooperated with his friend Zhang Liang to develop Apple 4 US website provides a communication platform for people who love apple in all walks of life. Overseas, a Q & A SNS website called quora has been very popular, while in China, there are still vacancies in the market, so he immediately found Zhang Liang. They hit it off and began to know in 2010. At the end of 2010, Zhihu began internal testing and officially launched on January 26, 2011. From the very beginning, Zhihu's story has taken on a trace of legend. It is reported that among the earliest 200 users of Zhihu, there are famous entrepreneurs and VC's such as Li Kaifu, Wang Xing, Wang Xiaochuan, Xu Xiaoping and Ma Huateng. In the first 40 days of Zhihu's development, these people created 8000 questions and 20000 answers. It is the high recognition of Zhihu's content that has contributed to Zhihu's angel round financing. In January 2011, the Innovation workshop invested 1.5 million yuan in Zhihu. In fact, before talking about investment, Li Kaifu and Wang Hua were already known as "fans". In this case, Zhihu's financing path is very smooth. It successively obtained millions of dollars of a-round investment of Qiming venture capital in 2012, 22 million dollars of joint investment of Saifu investment fund and Qiming venture capital in 2014, and 55 million dollars of c-round investment led by Tencent in 2015, followed by Sogou, Saifu, Innovation workshop and Qiming venture capital. In 2017, the financing amount of Zhihu doubled again. Almost $100 million of capital is invested by the old shareholders and continues to lead the round of financing today. It is worth noting that at that time, the investment of today's capital was basically negotiated on the same day, and spa was signed within a week. "Many institutions have also informed ts in this round, but because Xu Xin's speed is too fast, the two sides have been closed when others are still considering which financial consultant to use to help finance." Afterwards, Zhou Yuan also revealed that this round of financing was very fast. "It was settled before writing the PPT, and the money arrived quickly." According to statistics, before listing, it is known that nine rounds of financing have been completed, basically maintaining the speed of one round a year, and the financing amount is rising, with a total financing amount of nearly US $1.5 billion. Among them, it has not only attracted the favor of the above-mentioned well-known VC / PE, but also competing Internet giants. Tencent, Sogou, Kwai Fu, Ali and Baidu are their investors. On March 26, 2021, Zhihu successfully landed on the New York Stock Exchange. As of the closing of US stocks on that day, Zhihu's market value was about US $4.751 billion, equivalent to more than 31 billion yuan. 02 report card of the first anniversary of listing: evaporation of market value and increase of loss However, in the U.S. stock market, it is not satisfactory. As of press time, Zhihu's share price fell to US $2.57 from US $13.58, the highest point, with a market value of US $1.446 billion, equivalent to RMB 9.198 billion. In other words, in just one year of listing, Zhihu's market value has evaporated by two-thirds. According to its 2021 financial report, it is known that the total revenue in 2021 reached 2.959 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 118.9%, of which the revenue in the fourth quarter was 1.019 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 96.1%. It is known that the gross profit of the whole year in 2021 is 1.554 billion yuan, and the gross profit margin is 52.5%, an increase of 105.1% compared with 2020. However, as bright as revenue, there are more and more losses. The financial report shows that the adjusted net loss in 2021 is 747 million yuan. In 2020, the net loss was 338 million yuan. At the same time, it is known that the gross profit margin in 2021 was 52.5%, lower than 56% in 2020, and the gross profit margin in the fourth quarter was 47.1%, much lower than 64.1% in the same period in 2020. In this regard, Zhihu explained in the prospectus that the investment in 2021 is used to establish and expand the content ecosystem. It is expected to continue to generate net loss and net outflow of operating cash in the near future, because it will continue to strategically generate expenditure to establish and expand the content ecology, further improve the content quality and content combination of Zhihu, promote community culture and user interaction, and consolidate organic growth. Behind this is the anxiety of the old content community. It is understood that Zhihu's revenue sources include advertising, paying members, content business solutions and other four sectors, of which the advertising revenue in 2021 was 378 million yuan, accounting for 37.1% of the total revenue. It is worth noting that in the past, Zhihu relied heavily on advertising business for revenue, and Zhihu is also trying to adjust this "walking on one leg" state. In 2019, Zhihu's advertising revenue accounted for 86% and decreased to 62% in 2020. In 2021, the data is still declining. It is known that the proportion of advertising revenue in total revenue was 44.8%, 38.9%, 39% and 37.1% respectively in the four quarters. On the other hand, content business solutions have gradually become the main force of Zhihu's revenue. In 2019, the revenue of this business accounted for only 0.09%. In the four quarters of 2021, the revenue of Zhihu content business solutions business was 121 million yuan, 207 million yuan, 278 million yuan and 367 million yuan respectively, and the corresponding revenue accounted for 25.3%, 32.4%, 33.7% and 36% respectively. In the fourth quarter of 2021, the revenue of content commerce solutions business was 367 million yuan, almost equal to that of advertising. Behind this is the soaring data obtained by constantly burning money, but it also leads to high operating costs. In 2020, the total operating cost of Zhihu was 1.361 billion yuan, an increase of 2.95 billion yuan in 2021. Among them, the sales and marketing expenses in 2020 will be 730 million yuan, an increase of 123.3% to 1.63 billion yuan by 2021; In 2020, the R & D expenditure will be 330 million yuan, an increase of 87.9% to 620 million yuan by 2021; The general and administrative expenses will be 300 million yuan in 2020, an increase of 130% to 690 million yuan by 2021. However, this commercialization adjustment has also brought about a crisis. For users, the essence of content business solutions is soft and wide, which is not a good thing for content-oriented community platforms. If we can't continuously provide users with high-quality content and balance content and business, it will inevitably lead to the loss of users. 03tmt stock concept return wave is coming It is understood that it has been approved by the Hong Kong stock exchange to adopt the dual main listing mode to be listed in Hong Kong and the United States. It plans to raise US $150 million to US $200 million through listing in Hong Kong, and may become the first China concept Internet company to return to Hong Kong for listing in the dual main listing mode. In fact, knowing that listing in Hong Kong is not new, but has become the standard configuration of overseas listed Internet enterprises. Since the second listing of Alibaba in November 2019, Netease, jd.com and station B have completed the second listing on the Hong Kong stock exchange. On March 14, Jinshan cloud also made it clear that it was exploring the opportunity to be listed on the main board of Hong Kong. According to professionals, there is a big difference between dual main listing and secondary listing. Companies with dual main listing will have the same listing status in two listing places at the same time. If delisting in one listing place will not affect the listing status in the other listing place. From the perspective of the listing process, the dual main listing return process is a complete Hong Kong listing application, while the secondary listing process will be much simplified, and many Hong Kong listing rules will be exempted. If the company is upgraded from secondary listing to dual main listing, it must also go through complex application and approval processes, with considerable variables. After the CSRC identified a number of Chinese companies as "relevant issuers" with delisting risk, seeking Dual Major listing has been included in the agenda of a number of Chinese companies. On the evening of March 16, station B announced that it would strive for voluntary conversion to dual listing on the main board of the Hong Kong stock exchange. On April 7, Ernst & Young released an industry report entitled "hot action and cold thinking on the re listing of TMT shares in Hong Kong". According to the report, "In recent years, the uncertainty of foreign capital markets has increased, and the supervision in the United States has become more strict. At the same time, the investment and financing environment in Hong Kong has been continuously optimized, and the listing system reform of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange has relaxed the conditions for the secondary listing of China concept shares in Hong Kong. These factors have jointly catalyzed the return wave of China concept shares. For TMT enterprises, its application scenario is rooted in China, and the continuous improvement of domestic policy environment and capital market value recognition of TMT high-tech enterprises are also TMT China concept shares An important driving force for returning to Hong Kong for secondary listing. " Back to Zhihu, its business scenario is rooted in the Chinese market, and its business model and development prospects can be better understood by Chinese consumers and Chinese investors. However, today's Zhihu has been criticized by more and more netizens. "It's better to change its name to Bian Hu" and "Zhihu's community atmosphere has become miasma. Not only can the questions not be answered, but also they will often be abused and attacked". With the change of its overall style, can it still win the trust of users? (Xinhua News Agency)
Edit：Li Ling Responsible editor：Chen Jie
Source：融中财经
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