Korea/Asia, Events, IPOs, Douglas Research Advisory

Douglas Kim

Nearly 30 years of experience in the Korean/Asian equity research. Major sectors coverage include the following:
- Technology 
- Consumer 
- Special Situations/Deep Value Plays
- Tender Offers/M&As
- Holdcos/Stubs
- Asian Unicorns/Private Companies

Korea/Asia, Events, IPOs

Zhihu (知乎) IPO - Monetizing Curiosity

Zhihu (知乎) IPO Trading - Peers Have Corrected Significantly but Still Has a Modest Upside

Zhihu (知乎): Censorship as Top Risk, May Follow Fate of Weibo

Zhihu (知乎) Pre-IPO - In the Early Stages of Monetization

Battle Lines Drawn As BABA Builds Out First/Last-Mile Capacity; But Who Will Fund 75+ Bn CNY CapEx?

Equity Capital Markets

Zhihu Technology / Equity Capital Markets

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<p><a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/zhihu-technology-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:32185:1" rel="noopener">Zhihu Technology (ZH US)</a> is getting ready to complete its IPO in the New York Stock Exchange in the next several weeks. Zhihu has a similar business model as Quora where millions of people ask questions and exchange their views and experiences. Zhihu has become the largest online question and answer community in China. In August 2019, Zhihu received $434 million in funding from leading investors including Baidu and Kuaishou Technology, valuing the company at $3.5 billion.</p>
<p>The company generated a strong sales growth of 101.7% YoY to reach 1,352.2 million RMB in 2020. Operating margins also improved from -157.9% in 2019 to -44.6% in 2020, which was driven by significant improvement in the company's operating leverage. Operating expenses as a percentage of revenue declined from 204.4% in 2019 to 100.6% in 2020. </p>
<p>Paid memberships represented 13.1% of total revenues in 2019, which increased to 23.7% of total revenues in 2020. Average monthly members jumped by 311.5% YoY to 2.36 million in 2020, which is a testament of an increasing number of customers that value the premium contents available on Zhihu. </p>
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Zhihu Technology (ZH US) is getting ready to complete its IPO in the New York Stock Exchange in the next several weeks. Zhihu has a similar business model as Quora where millions of people ask questions and exchange their views and experiences. Zhihu has become the largest online question and answer community in China. In August 2019, Zhihu received $434 million in funding from leading investors including Baidu and Kuaishou Technology, valuing the company at $3.5 billion.
The company generated a strong sales growth of 101.7% YoY to reach 1,352.2 million RMB in 2020. Operating margins also improved from -157.9% in 2019 to -44.6% in 2020, which was driven by significant improvement in the company's operating leverage. Operating expenses as a percentage of revenue declined from 204.4% in 2019 to 100.6% in 2020. 
Paid memberships represented 13.1% of total revenues in 2019, which increased to 23.7% of total revenues in 2020. Average monthly members jumped by 311.5% YoY to 2.36 million in 2020, which is a testament of an increasing number of customers that value the premium contents available on Zhihu. 



Zhihu Technology

Zhihu IPO Preview - China's Quora