Uju Holdings, an online marketing service provider backed by ByteDance, Xiaomi, and others, has recently filed for IPO in Hong Kong, aiming to raise 900 billion yuan (US$141 million).

Details:

Established in 2017, Beijing-based Uju provides one-stop cross-media online marketing solutions for clients. Uju has accumulated over 900 clients so far, spanning multiple industries, including e-commerce, internet service, online gaming, cosmetics, and online education.

Uju Holding's media partners include ByteDance, Kuaishou, Alibaba, 360 Search, Sogou Search, etc. According to 36kr quoting iResearch, Uju Holding is the second largest online marketing service provider in China in 2020, in terms of short video ads, with a market share of approximately 3.0%.

E-commerce companies are the largest group of advertiser clients for Uju. According to its prospectus, during the first quarter of 2021, 47.0% of Uju's total revenue came from e-commerce advertisers.

It is also worth mentioning that, in 2020, 10.3% of its total revenue came from online education advertisers, and 15.3% came from online gaming advertisers —— two industries that have been drastically reshaped recently. It raises the question of whether or not Uju can quickly adjust to the new industry landscape.

According to a 36kr report, Uju Holding collects certain user data from online media platforms to provide precise advertising. Such data includes the advertising effectiveness indicators such as number of displays, number of video views, number of clicks, conversion rate, and cost per conversion.

Context:

The gathering of users' data has served ad providers well in the past years by allowing them to build user profiles, therefore, reach consumers efficiently and precisely. Yet that model is about to change — concerns over data privacy and data security are escalating, spreading from consumers, regulators to platform providers like Apple. As a result, ad providers have to shoulder more responsibilities to the public, as well as maintain ad effectiveness.

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) went into effect on January 1, 2020, followed by two more privacy laws passing in Colorado and Virginia.

Meanwhile, China's first data security law went into effect on September 1, 2021, stating that operators are responsible for protecting users' personal information and data security.

Apple rolled out privacy changes that let users refuse tracking in April.