Chinese Online Recruiter Boss Zhipin Eyes US IPO

Kanzhun, which owns Chinese online job recruiting platform Boss Zhipin, has filed to conduct a U.S. initial public offering (IPO) that could raise as much as $912 million.

A Friday (June 4) filing with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission indicated the company expects to offer 48 million American depository shares, which would sell for between $17 and $19 each, on the Nasdaq exchange.

Bloomberg reported that if the price is in the top of the range, the IPO will be the biggest by a Chinese company in the U.S. since Tuya, a software firm, drew $947 million.

Chinese companies have been planning to hold IPOs in the U.S. have held back due to the overall market reception for IPOs in general, according to Bloomberg.

Kanzhun stated in its SEC filing that it pioneered features in recruiting apps, including “getting the bosses involved early on;” being “mobile native;” being “recommendation based;” and using “direct chat.”

The SEC filing further stated: “We highly respect job seekers and are committed to better empowering them by giving them more say in the recruitment process. It is the job seekers themselves, not our platform, who decide which enterprise users can gain access to the job seekers’ resumes. This provides a powerful protection of job seekers’ privacy. We are also devoted to protecting job seekers against false information and frauds.”

The company stated in the filing that because of these approaches, “we have achieved significant growth.”

Monthly active users grew 19.8 million in 2020 from 11.5 million in 2019, according to the filing. For the quarter ending March 31, 2020, the company stated, monthly active users stood at 24.9 million compared 14.5 million in the year-ago first calendar quarter.

Revenue for calendar 2020 was $298 million, 95 percent higher than the prior full-year revenue, according to the filing.

According to Bloomberg, Kanzhun is backers by Tencent.