DOMESTIC question-and-answer platform Zhihu Inc., which went public in the United States in March this year, denied media reports that it plans to seek a secondary listing in Hong Kong, saying the company had no idea of such listing plan. Citing a report by The Paper, Bloomberg reported Saturday that Beijing-based Zhihu is considering another initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong and the firm plans to submit documents for its share offerings in January. The report cited public registry records as showing that some of Zhihu’s major shareholders, including a firm associated with Tencent Holdings Ltd., have pulled out, leaving chief executive officer Zhou Yuan with a 99.3 percent holding in the company, while chief technology officer Li Dahai owns the remaining stake. Zhihu told The Paper that an ownership change is standard practice for Chinese companies that list overseas and the major shareholders and their stakes in the company are unchanged. But domestic news outlet BKEconomy quoted unnamed Zhihu sources as responding that the firm had never heard of the news that it would consider a secondary listing in Hong Kong. BKEconomy also quoted sources in the capital market as saying that it is unlikely that Zhihu will get listed in Hong Kong as the intermediary fee for a second listing is very high and it seems impossible for the firm to raise a large amount of money from the secondary listing. Zhihu shares have tumbled more than 40 percent following the company’s listing on the New York Stock Exchange late March. Founded in 2010 by Zhou, Zhihu, meaning “do you know” in classical Chinese, has become the largest online question-and-answer community in the country. The Tencent-backed company has ambitions to become much more than a text-based content platform. It has embraced popular multimedia functions such as livestreaming and other video content, introduced paid content and membership programs, and it even offers an online education and e-commerce service. By the end of last year, Zhihu had more than 43.1 million cumulative content creators who contributed 315.3 million questions and answers, according to its prospectus for the U.S. listing. (SD-Agencies) | 