INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Qutoutiao, a news aggregator app backed by Tencent, has filed for an initial public offering of up to $300 million in the United States
In its F-1 form, the company, whose name means &fun headlines,& said it is the number two mobile content aggregator in China
Its main rivals are Jinri Toutiao, China top news aggregator, Tencent Kuaibao and Yidianzixun.Based in Shanghai, Qutoutiao reportedly
reached unicorn status in March, when it raised a Series B of about $200 million led by Tencent
For Tencent, Qutoutiao and Kuaibao represent opportunities to take market share away from Jinri Toutiao, which is owned by ByteDance
ByteDance is reportedly planning a Hong Kong IPO that could value it at over $45 billion.In its SEC filing, Qutoutiao said that since
launching in July 2016, it has achieved monthly average users of about 48.8 million and daily average users of about 17.1 million, with the
average time users spend on the app each day totaling about 55.6 minutes in July 2018
To compete with Jinri Toutiao and other rivals, Qutoutiao targets users from China smaller Tier 3 cities
Despite increasing levels of disposable income, Qutoutiao says Tier 3 cities, many of which are located in the west of China, are still
underserved markets.Qutoutiao also said in its filing that its net revenues increased from RMB 58.0 million (about $8.8 million) in 2016 to
RMB 517.1 million (about $78.1 million) in 2017, and from RMB 107.3 million (about $16.2 million) in the six months ended June 30, 2017 to
RMB 717.8 million (about $108.5 million) in the same period in 2018.The app uses an AI-based content recommendation engine to display
articles and videos based on user profiles and plans to use money raised from its IPO to add more content offerings, increase monetization
opportunities and look for acquisition and investment opportunities
Qutoutiao plans to list on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol QTT
The IPO will be underwritten by Citigroup Global Markets, Deutsche Bank Securities, China Merchants Securities and UBS Securities and
