The Techee

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has taken a swipe at Chinese initial public offerings (IPOs) after regulatory hiccups in China have affected many Chinese stocks listed on US markets and American stockholders holding them. The SEC has issued new guidance on Chinese companies seeking to list shares in the US, requiring them to make certain disclosures to investors or otherwise refrain from listing in the US markets. First of all, usually, Chinese companies listing in the US don't actually sell shares of the operating companies but that of shell companies with contractual relationships with the operating companies. These shell shares, known as American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) , are used to circumvent restrictions on foreign ownership of Chinese shares imposed by the country's government. Now, the SEC in a statement has made it clear that Chinese companies seeking to list in the US must provide clear descriptions of the shell operations involved in such listing

It's a big time for Xiaomi , a Chinese electronics brand that's taken the world by storm in just about a decade of existence. The brand has overtaken Apple to become the number 2 smartphone vendor in the world, according to info published by research firm  Canalys .  Canalys is a reputed research firm whose statistics are a major standard in the smartphone business.  According to Canalys , Xiaomi accounted for 17% of global smartphone shipments in the 2nd quarter of 2021, surpassing Apple's 14% and now trailing only Samsung's 19%. More so, the annual growth of Xiaomi's smartphone shipments was 83%, surpassing that of the other brands by a wide margin. Credit: Canalys According to Canalys , the top 5 smartphone vendors are Samsung, Xiaomi, Apple, Oppo, and Vivo. Interestingly, both Oppo and Vivo seem to be offshoots of one Chinese company named BBK Electronics though the specifics around that are unclear (if wholly-owned or just affiliates), so it seems BBK could e

It's a landmark time for the business world, as one of the biggest tech giants from China has filed for an IPO on the US markets. That giant is Didi Chuxing , China's biggest ride-hailing company just like Uber in the US. As one of the biggest privately-held tech companies in China that's only surpassed by TikTok owner ByteDance, Didi's IPO has been long-awaited. Now, the filing for that has dropped upon us like a quiet bomb. As usual, we'll be dissecting some important information from Didi's F-1 filing , especially its revenue figures. The F-1 provides long-awaited insight into the business of Didi as China's premier on-demand transportation company. Figures Didi reported $21.6bn in revenue in 2020, up 11% from the previous year. It wasn't profitable on a net basis for that year, reporting a $1.6bn net loss. However, in the first quarter of 2021, Didi declared a net income of $837mn (before certain shareholder payouts) on $6.4bn in revenue. Meanwhile,

A popular online jobs site in China is set to list on the US public markets very soon. That site is Boss Zhipin , operated by parent company  Kanzhun Ltd .  Last month May, Boss Zhipin's parent Kanzhun filed an F-1 document with the US SEC as required for foreign companies listing in the country's markets. Now, it's filed an updated F-1 document  that indicates the terms of its IPO. Kanzhun is seeking to raise as much as $912mn by selling 48 million American depositary shares at between $14 and $17 each. Each depositary share represents two ordinary shares.  At the mid-point of the set price range, Kanzhun will have a fully diluted market cap of $8.2bn. Kanzhun had $298mn in revenue in 2020, up 95% year-over-year. The company isn't profitable on a net basis, with a $144mn loss in 2020. Kanzhun's Boss Zhipin is a popular jobs site in China with 25 million monthly active users as reported in its F-1 filing. It makes money by charging companies for posting certain jobs

A top online marketplace for used electronics in China is set to soon hit the US public markets. It's  Aihuishou , a company backed by investors including China's JD.com.  Aihuishou has filed for an IPO on the US markets. It's set to list on the New York Stock Exchange.  From its F-1 filing with the US SEC, great insight is provided into  Aihuishou's business with information publicly disclosed for the first time. Here, we're breaking down some of the most important bits from the filing. By the Numbers Aihuishou made 4.9bn Chinese yuan ($770mn) in revenue in 2020, compared to 3.9 billion yuan ($610mn) in 2019. As an online marketplace for used electronics, the company primarily makes money by taking a cut from sales transactions made on its platform. Aihuishou isn't profitable on a net basis, reporting a net loss of 471mn yuan ($74mn) in 2020, down from 705mn yuan ($111mn) in 2019. With a history of losses over the past three years, Aihuishou has sustained its

Meituan, a fast-growing "super-app" in China, has dropped its latest earnings report for the quarter ended March 31, 2021. The report showed soaring sales at the company, with quarterly revenue more than doubling over the year. In its report, Meituan touted China's effective measures to contain the Covid pandemic as a focal point of its strong business in the first quarter of 2021.  Meituan is a "super app", a term fondly used to refer to single apps covering lots of services. In Meituan's case, its app covers online retail, food delivery, travel, logistics, advertising, and its likes.  Details Meituan reported $5.8bn in revenue in Q1 2021, up 121% year-over-year. The high growth came thanks to heavy investments that Meituan is making to expand its business, and as such, the company's net loss widened to $752mn compared to $266mn in the previous year. Meituan's business was propelled by the growth of its food delivery and hotel booking and travel se

The biggest on-demand trucking startup in China, Full Truck Alliance , has filed for an initial public offering on the US markets. The company, also known as the Manbang Group, has unveiled an F-1 filing with the US SEC as required for foreign companies listing in the US. Full Truck Alliance (FTA) has filed to list on the New York Stock Exchange. As usual, the company's F-1 filing provides great insight into its business with information not publicly disclosed before, and we're pointing out some of that here. To start, Full Truck is a platform connecting shippers and truckers on-demand. It makes money by taking a cut of the shipping deals transacted on its platform. By the numbers: FTA made $396mn revenue in 2020, compared to $379mn in the previous year. It's largely not profitable on a net basis, reporting a $532mn net loss in 2020. FTA claims to be the world's largest on-demand digital freight platform. By its reporting, it fulfilled $27bn worth of orders in 2020 and

A patent feud between two major gaming companies in Asia has resulted in a big court-ordered payment for the smaller company in the feud. That feud is between Japanese gaming company Gree and Chinese gaming giant Tencent, actually its subsidiary Supercell , that's resulted in a big monetary damages award for Gree. Although both Gree and Tencent are based in Asia, the legal feud that resulted in a verdict against Tencent was fought in the US, precisely in Texas.  Details: A federal jury in Marshall, Texas has ordered Tencent's Supercell gaming division to pay $92.2mn in damages to Gree after finding it guilty of violating Gree's patents.  Supercell is Tencent's Finland-based mobile gaming division that it acquired in a $10bn deal in 2016. It's best known for its Clash of Clans hit mobile game. The patent feud between Gree and Supercell began last year when Gree sued the Finnish game developer for allegedly infringing on its patents. The patents centered on feature

One of China's best-known electric carmakers is expanding into the European market in a major way, particularly in Norway. That carmaker is Nio , for which Norway will be its first step overseas. Details: Nio has officially announced its market entry  into Norway where it'll open a full retail system including showrooms and a service center. Nio's flagship ES8 SUV will be its first car to be introduced in Norway this year while its ET7 sedan follows next year. For sales, Nio says it'll open its first dedicated retail center in the country in the third quarter of this year while four more will be launched next year. Nio plans to start delivering cars to Norwegian customers in September 2021. Highlights: Norway is one of the major markets for electric cars globally, as it made up 54% of the cars sold in the country last year. It's one of the foremost countries at the push away from ICE cars towards electric models. With Norway's status as a major m

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 p

Luckin Coffee, the once high-flying Chinese coffee chain startup that came crashing down on the heels of a major accounting fraud wherein it admitted faking revenue to the tune of over $300 million , appears to be attempting to bounce back even after its hefty troubles.  Luckin has said that it's secured a $250 million investment commitment from two Chinese private equity firms, Centurium Capital and Joy Capital, both of whom were existing shareholders of the company before committing the funding. Under their set terms, they'll purchase preferred shares of Luckin Coffee, which was delisted from the Nasdaq stock market last year and now trades over-the-counter. Centurium Capital will invest $240 million while Joy Capital is ponying up a much smaller $10 million. The new capital for Luckin is akin to a bailout that the company hopes to use to rebound its business.  Unsurprisingly, Luckin says that it'll use the new capital it just secured to help pay a hefty $180 million fin

ByteDance Technologies, the high-flying Chinese technology startup that owns a suite of apps including the popular TikTok, has made a major gaming acquisition that is the company's biggest acquisition yet, paying a reported $4 billion to buy mobile game developer Moonton. Moonton is a Chinese mobile game studio that's best known for its multiplayer online battle arena game Mobile Legends: Bang Bang . It was founded just seven years ago and now has seen a big exit with a sale to ByteDance. Per publicly-known information, Moonton is known to have raised just a small amount of venture funding, making its reported $4 billion sale price very lucrative for its shareholders. Its sale signals ByteDance having big ambitions venturing into the gaming world. As it made a big gaming acquisition, ByteDance also announced the appointment of a new Chief Financial Officer poached from Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi. Shou Zi Chew, who served as Xiaomi's CFO from 2015 to 2020 will become B

The latest Chinese tech company making a push to list on the US public markets is Zhihu, a popular Q&A website in China that's fondly referred to as the country's version of Quora, which is the leading Q&A site in the American market. Zhihu has submitted an F-1 filing  for an IPO to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as usual for foreign companies looking to list securities on a US stock exchange. That F-1 filing provides a peek into the company's business with information not publicly known before. Zhihu will sell American Depositary Shares to investors on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to become publicly-traded in the US. Three banks, namely Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, and J.P. Morgan are the underwriters for the company's imminent IPO. From its F-1 filing, it's indicated that Zhihu generated the equivalent of $207 million in revenue in 2020, double what it made in the previous year 2019. Though, the company isn't profitable, reporti

After becoming a public company last year through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), electric carmaker Fisker has taken a bold and crucial step towards its planned manufacturing of electric cars with a partnership with Foxconn, the Taiwanese manufacturing powerhouse famously known for assembling Apple's iPhones. Fisker has announced a partnership with Foxconn that'll see the Taiwanese manufacturing giant build electric cars bearing Fisker's name with projected annual production volumes of 250,000+ units. The vehicle to be manufactured by Foxconn will be Fisker's second electric vehicle and hasn't yet been unveiled. Fisker says that the new electric vehicle to be built by Foxconn is planned to go into production by Q4 2023, roughly a year after the scheduled launch of Fisker's first vehicle, the Ocean SUV . Already, over 12,000 reservations have been booked for the Ocean SUV, wherein Fisker has grand plans to get into a competitive elect

Baidu is the Chinese search engine giant that's known as 'China's Google', and just like Google, most of the money made by the Chinese tech giant has come from online advertising. However, the company has in recent years invested heavily to diversify its revenues beyond online advertising, also like Google has done, and has now begun seeing its investments reap fruits. Baidu just posted its quarterly results for the fourth and final quarter of 2020, showing $4.6 billion in revenue that was driven significantly by the rise of its non-advertising businesses. 2020 was the year of the Covid-19 pandemic which negatively affected Baidu's advertising revenue stream while its other businesses increased sales by 52%. Baidu's other businesses include cloud hosting, artificial intelligence software, and the provision of software for connected vehicles. The company has spent billions of dollars in recent years to boost its prowess in those newer markets. In Q4, Baidu posted

Plus, an American-Chinese self-driving truck startup that formerly bore the name Plus.ai , has announced  that it's raised a fresh funding round of $200 million led by new investors Guotai Junan International, CPE, and Wanxiang International Investment, three Chinese firms. Other existing backers such as the Chinese on-demand trucking giant Full Truck Alliance also participated in the round. With its new funds, Plus says that it's working to meet its goal of mass production of self-driving trucks this very year. The company already has extensive testing operations in the US and China and now plans to expand further internationally into Europe and other parts of Asia. The new funds will allow Plus to hire more employees to guide its growth. Plus has made a key partnership with the Chinese truck maker FAW, a partnership that involves the deployment of its self-driving technology on trucks mass-produced by FAW. The company aims for the mass-production deployment to kick off this y

Nio, the Chinese maker of electric cars, has posted its sales figures for the month of January 2021, revealing that it delivered 7,225 vehicles in the month, about quadruple what it delivered in the same month last year. Nio sold 352% more vehicles in January 2021 than it did in January 2020, indicating very strong growth prospects for the company. During the month, Nio delivered 1,660 ES8 SUVs, 2,720 ES6s, and 2,845 EC6s. The company has now delivered a total of 82,866 vehicles since its start. For now, Nio only offers electric SUVs, even though that wouldn't stay the same for much longer as the company recently unveiled its first electric sedan , the ET7 (pictured above). The new sedan is expected to enter into production next year. As Nio's business has grown, that growth has reflected very well in the company's affairs on the stock market. In 2020, the company's share price rose by over 1,000%, an unprecedented rise by normal standards, and Nio didn't just sit t

Just a short while after the Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi was placed on a blacklist by the former Trump administration that sought to bar US investors from buying shares of the publicly-traded company, Xiaomi has now filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Defense and Treasury department, challenging and seeking to reverse the US government's order. In its suit , the US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen are named as defendants, the two of them being freshly appointed by the Biden administration with less than two weeks on the job. Xiaomi is challenging the Trump-issued executive order against the company, arguing that requiring US investors to divest all their Xiaomi shares by the 14th of January, 2022 as stipulated will hurt the company by cutting off its access to US capital markets and also American investors with big Xiaomi stakes like BlackRock, Vanguard Group, and State Street Corp. Xiaomi was placed on a blacklist by the Trump administration ove

Huohua Siwei, a Chinese e-tutoring company backed by investors including the Chinese tech giant Tencent and private equity firm KKR, appears to be on its way towards a public listing that could come this year. The company has picked banks including Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse to work on a public offering in the US, Bloomberg reports . Huohua Siwei, or Spark Education in English, is a major e-tutoring provider in China, serving children aged 3 to 12. It's backed by some $443 million in venture funding from investors including Tencent, KKR, The Carlyle Group, Sequoia Capital China, IDG Capital, and GGV Capital. 2020 was a great year for e-tutoring services as the Covid-19 pandemic largely increased the demand for online learning activities. As such, it seems that Huohua Siwei is looking to ride that boom all the way to the public markets. The company is said to be seeking to raise as much as $500 million from a US public offering. Just like Huohua, another major Chinese e-tutor

Just a while after sweetening its Acacia takeover deal from $2.6 billion to $4.5 billion, Cisco has gotten the required approval from China's antitrust regulator to go ahead with its proposed takeover, clearing the hurdle for the deal to go through.  The approval came from China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), the country's antitrust regulator. Before now, Cisco made an earlier $2.6 billion bid for Acacia but later got rebuffed by the company on the grounds that it didn't gain the required approval from China's antitrust regulator in the stipulated time. Now, with a takeover deal that was hiked from $2.6 billion to $4.5 billion, the hurdle appears to have been cleared for Cisco to buy Acacia, which is a major producer of optical communications equipment. It marks a big deal for Cisco to open 2021 with. As it looks, Cisco first struck a deal to buy publicly-traded Acacia Communications in July 2019 but will complete its acquisition in 2021. The