General IPO
May 7, 2021
6 minutes read

China: Podcast App Ximalaya, Cloud Startup Qiniu File For IPOs

Two major startups from China have newly filed for their respective IPOs on the US markets. They are Ximalaya, a…

Two major startups from China have newly filed for their respective IPOs on the US markets. They are Ximalaya, a popular podcast app in the country, and Qiniu, a cloud computing startup backed by investors including local e-commerce giant Alibaba.

As required for foreign companies seeking to list their shares on the US markets, Ximalaya and Qiniu have filed their respective F-1 documents with the SEC. The F-1s provide strong insights into both companies’ business with information not publicly disclosed before.

Details

Qiniu:

Qiniu’s F-1 document shows that of a company with fast-growing revenues over the past few years. It reported $166mn in revenue in 2020, up 100% year-over-year.

Qiniu is slightly unprofitable, reporting a small net loss of $3mn in 2020. For the three months ending March 31, 2021, the company reported $49mn in sales, up 100% year-over-year, and a $4mn loss.

With fast-growing revenues and relatively small net losses as reported, Qiniu has strong business prospects from the looks of it.

Qiniu has filed to list on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the symbol “QNIU”.

Qiniu is backed by venture funding to the tune of $400mn. Its biggest investor is China’s Alibaba which holds a 17.7% stake through its subsidiary Taobao China.

Ximalaya:

Ximalaya is a popular podcast app in China with a self-reported 250 million average monthly users. It’s a leading audio app in China which’s known to be the world’s biggest market by number of online audio users.

Ximalaya booked $621mn in revenue in 2020, up 51% year-over-year. In the first quarter of this year 2021, it booked $176mn in revenue.

Overall, Ximalaya isn’t profitable, reporting a net loss of $93mn in 2020. In the first quarter of 2021, it booked a $41mn net loss.

Ximalaya’s revenue comes from three main sources; subscription, advertising, and virtual gifts for livestreaming. Subscriptions bring in the lion share of its revenue.

Ximalaya’s major shareholders include co-founders Yu Jianjun and Chen Yuxin with respective stakes of 17.2% and 13.5%, and China’s Tencent with a 5.4% stake through a subsidiary named Image Frame.