Zhihu was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange Founder Zhou Yuan: "Pirate Ship" went home

On April 22, the online Q&A community Zhihu was officially listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange with the stock code "2390", becoming the first Chinese-listed Internet company to return to Hong Kong by dual major listing.

Zhihu founder, chairman and CEO Zhou Yuan (left), Zhihu mascot Liu Kanshan (right)

Zhou Yuan, founder, chairman and CEO of Zhihu, said in his speech: "Today with the joy of returning home, our return to Hong Kong for listing is another important milestone for Zhihu and a more stable platform for future development. Standing on the new starting line, we will have more confidence to deepen the content track and get more recognition from friends. ”

The listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange is a dual primary listing, with the listing price set at HK$32.06 per share, a total of 26 million Shares of the Company's Class A common shares from early investors, and the shareholders of the sale will receive all the net proceeds of the global offering of nearly HK$800 million. At the same time, it is known that there is no additional issuance of new shares, which also means that there is no purpose of raising funds in Hong Kong, and from the perspective of the intention of this move, the company has achieved entry into the Hong Kong capital market without diluting the existing equity, and also resolved the risk of US stock delisting that is generally faced by Chinese stocks.

It is reported that there is a big difference between dual main listing and secondary listing, and companies that take dual main listing will have the same listing status in two listing places at the same time, such as delisting in one of the listing places, which does 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 a company moves from a secondary listing to a dual primary listing, it will also have to go through a complex application and approval process, with considerable variables. Industry insiders said that after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) identified a number of Chinese companies as "relevant issuers" with delisting risks, the pursuit of dual major listings has been included in the agenda of a number of Chinese-listed companies.

According to Zhihu's latest financial report on March 14, 2021, Zhihu's total revenue for the whole year reached 2.959 billion yuan (RMB, the same below), an increase of 118.9% year-on-year; of which the fourth quarter revenue was 1.019 billion yuan, an increase of 96.1% year-on-year; and the proportion of non-advertising business with content as the core reached 61%. As of December 31, 2021, Zhihu held cash and cash equivalents totaling $7.4 billion.

On March 26, 2021, Zhihu was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in the United States and achieved a full-year financial report that exceeded expectations. Thirteen months later, Zhihu landed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, becoming the first Chinese-listed Internet company to return to Hong Kong by way of dual major listings, building a more stable platform for Zhihu's future development.

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The full text of Zhou Yuan's speech by Zhou Yuan, who is listed in Hong Kong

Hello pirates,

Today is the day we are listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, we are the first Internet company to return to Hong Kong in a dual major listing, which is another milestone in the company's development. For me personally, in addition to excitement, there is also the joy of going home.

Because I have always had a wish, that is, to hold a listing ceremony in the company and witness the important moments of Zhihu with everyone. This morning, we held a ceremony to ring the gong in the company, welcoming everyone to the industry-university-research area and taking photos.

Today, all the employees who came to the scene were Zhihu, looking at the familiar faces, which also evoked countless memories of me. Here, I will only share a small story related to pirates.

On March 31, 2011, I sent a letter to the company, although there were 10 people in the company at that time. The email headlined "What are the 10 things we will never do in the next 3 months?" "Yes, that's a problem. Years later, last night, when I searched again and looked through the answers at the time, I was still a little touched.

Don't be disturbed by external information, keep your spirits high;

Don't ignore non-professional users, because everyone has a professional side just you don't know;

I think the last thing I can do is never to lose the sense of crisis that I have now;

We should resolutely fight against hydration, can not stop thinking about the product, and always need to remember what problems our products are to solve and how to solve them better.

These answers are still very strong today, through an 11-year cycle, and still very powerful. As a manager of a listed company, I think it is precisely because I have the privilege of working with a group of ambitious, awe-inspiring, and persistent people that I can always maintain the original intention and belief when starting a business.

Whenever I know to browse the content and try out the functions of each update, in addition to obtaining information, I also think that behind these achievements is inseparable from the living people, inseparable from the unity and cooperation of the members of each business line.

The pirates who know it have ideals, thinking, and motivation, and in the communication with everyone, I can always get something and be inspired, which is also the source of motivation that drives me as a CEO not to slacken off.

Thinking back to listing on the New York Stock Exchange last year, I once said that "I know that I started with Q&A and have surpassed Q&A". Today, I would like to especially thank you for the long-term trust and support of all the pirates, it is you who have given Zhihu the confidence to practice the proposition of a new era, how to make Zhihu surpass Zhihu?

For me, it is not only a cause to realize dreams, but also because of the existence of pirates, it has become a way to open up routes and discover the larger world, our common carrier - pirate ships.

Today, the pirate ship sailed into a familiar harbor. Yes, we went home. Not only back to the "little home", but more importantly back to "everyone".

Knowing that the choice to return to Hong Kong is a double major listing, which is the trend of the times. Although we are standing on a new starting line, we are surrounded by a familiar environment, and there are also familiar friends gathered around us. I believe that we will have more confidence in deepening the content track and gaining more recognition from our friends.

The current world is complex and changeable, and there are still infinite possibilities for the future of the content community. Knowing that since its birth, it is full of possibilities, and it is precisely because of continuous innovation and change that we have developed to today.

But I want to emphasize that functions, strategies, and methodologies can all change with the times, and what is more important is that it remains unchanged: our original intention remains unchanged; our adherence to our mission remains unchanged; and our spirit of rational optimism will never change.

Now that we know that this big ship has landed at the "port", this is the beginning of the next big route, we will continue to set off, and the larger world is still waiting for us to discover.

Thank you.