Chinese Q&A Platform Zhihu Files for U.S. IPO

“Do you know?”The question is embedded in Zhihu( 知乎 )’s Chinese meaning.As a China-based question-and-answer platform, Zhihu has filed for an initial public offering on New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “ZH”. Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs (Asia), and J.P. Morgan are the joint bookrunners on the deal. No pricing terms were disclosed. According to Renaissance Capital, Zhihu intends to raise $100 million.In 2020, Zhihu’s revenues totaled RMB1.35 billion, an increase of 101.7% year-on-year. The net loss was RMB518 million, which decreased by 48.2% from RMB1 billion in 2019.Zhihu stated that “we have amassed a large, vibrant, and loyal user base,” with an average of 75.7 million monthly active users in the fourth quarter. As of December 31, 2020, the company had 43.1 million cumulative content creators, and it had 75.7 million average MAUs in Q4 2020.The company monetizes through online advertising, paid membership, content-commerce solutions, and other services such as online education and e-commerce related services.Last year, Zhihu’s income from online education and e-commerce has soared from RMB 4.45 million to RMB 52.53 million, a year-on-year increase of 1083%.Zhihu also said in its files that “we are still in an early stage of monetization, with significant runway for growth across multiple new monetization channels.” In the future, the company will continue to expand its content-centric monetization channels, including offering online education and e-commerce related services. Besides, before IPO, Zhihu’s founder and CEO Zhou Yuan controls 8.2% shares but 46.6% voting rights. Sinovation Ventures built by AI magnate Kai-Fu Lee is the biggest shareholder with 13.1% of company shares while technology giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. owns 12.3%.