Unique Research · Insight · March 15, 2023 · Full rewrite — not a stub
On Feb 27, 2023, Shenzhen Easou Tech (宜搜科技) filed a HKEX prospectus; sole sponsor BOCI Asia. Founded Apr 2005 as mobile search (vs Baidu/Google); now AI-recommendation engine across digital reading, digital marketing, game publishing, other digital content. Use of proceeds: R&D moat, strengthen independent digital-reading platform, expand digital marketing, restart game publishing, WC.
2022: revenue ¥333M, NI ¥29M, GM 51.95%. Prior investors (SBCVC III, BlueSky, Estate Success, Ventech China II, Lihe, Ding, Jinhe…) ~24.94%. Largest shareholder group: Wang Xi (chair/CEO) via Growth Value / Fase / Hope Trust with Qi Yuan — no controlling shareholder post-issue.
Pivot. 2013 Easou Novel App; 2017 Fast-Read edition; six-layer AI rec engine. Reading: paid (sub / pay-per-use) + free+ads. Marketing: AI match of advertisers ↔ audiences. Games: paused Jun 2020 (hurt GM 2020–21).
Financials (2020 / 2021 / 9M’22): rev ¥410M / ¥433M / ¥333M; NI ¥31.3M / ¥50.0M / ¥30.0M; NI margin 7.6% / 11.5% / 9.0%. Reading ads ¥130M→¥186M→¥156M (31.8%→47% of rev); paid reading ¥55.0M→¥32.2M→¥20.5M (13.4%→6.2%). Digital marketing ¥153M / ¥202M / ¥148M (37.4% / 46.6% / 44.6%). GM 52.2% / 48.2% / 51.9%. Top-5 customers 31.0% / 33.1% / 29.2% of rev; largest 10.9% / 9.6% / 6.8%. MAU 21.1M / 23.9M / 25.5M (+13.3% / +6.7%); 44M cumulative regs. Analysys 2021: #5 China digital reading by MAU; 98 min/day (#4). Still far behind China Literature 265M / iReader 160M H1’22. Sales/dist ¥122M / ¥99.3M / ¥98.8M (~23–30% of rev); 9M’22 ad spend within S&D +38.6% to ¥93.1M (94.2% of S&D). Op. CF −¥0.34M / +¥51.0M / −¥13.9M. AR ¥59.5M→¥86.3M→¥117M; AR days 45.5→60.6→82.7 (longer credit to new advertisers + COVID). Current liabilities ¥69.1M / ¥48.6M / ¥117M — more bank debt for liquidity.
CN prospectus charts; attach on ingest.
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