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Qutoutiao

Mobile contentChina
πŸ’€ Dead / Bankrupt
PeakΒ $2.1 BillionToday
~-100%
from peak
  1. πŸ¦„
    Became a unicorn
    2018
  2. πŸ“ˆ
    Peak valuation
    $2.1 Billion ’18
  3. πŸ’”
    Became a Unitard
    2019
  4. πŸ’Έ
    Last valuation
    Wiped out
πŸ”₯ Raised & burned
$455M
Total raised
$410K/day
Burned Β· 3.0y alive
Funding: TechCrunch/Crunchbase
Current status
Delisted from Nasdaq (2023) after the value of its public shares fell below listing minimums

How it happened

Qutoutiao (袣倴村) was a Tencent-backed Chinese mobile content aggregator that rewarded users with cash and points for reading and sharing light news and short videos, growing so fast it became the quickest Chinese company to go from launch to a US IPO. It listed on Nasdaq in September 2018 at about $2.1B and more than doubled on its first day, but short-seller fraud allegations in 2019, heavy user-acquisition subsidies, persistent losses and a tightening content-regulation environment gutted the stock. After its publicly held share value fell below Nasdaq minimums in 2022, the company was delisted in 2023, its equity all but wiped out.

Source: Caixin / GlobeNewswire / SEC 6-K (Tencent-backed mobile news aggregator; Sept 2018 Nasdaq IPO at ~$2.1B, more than doubled on day one; short-seller fraud claims in 2019; Nasdaq MVPHS deficiency Sept 2022; delisted 2023)

πŸ¦„