Collectible Handicraft E-Commerce Platform Weipaitang Eyes Hong Kong IPO

Weipaitang, an online auction platform for collectible handicrafts, submitted application materials for a public listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx) on Wednesday. The exclusive sponsor is CICC.

The prospectus cites data from Frost & Sullivan showing that, in 2021, the GMV of collectible handicraft transactions promoted by Weipaitang reached 40.5 billion yuan ($6.03 billion). The company also pointed out that as of December 31, 2021, it was one of the professional platforms with the most comprehensive collectible handicraft categories.

The company said that under the current market mode, most of the products on Weipaitang are provided by merchants. There were reportedly more than 108,000 active merchants on the platform in 2019. The figure exceeded 110,000 in 2020 and surpassed 78,000 in 2021. These merchants have provided a wide range of products on the platform.

As of December 31, 2021, there were more than 74 million registered users and more than 331,000 registered merchants. In 2021, the number of active buyers exceeded 3.9 million, and the total number of orders exceeded 85.2 million. The average MAU had reached about 5 million.

The revenues of Weipaitang were 473 million yuan in 2019, 1.07 billion yuan in 2020 and 978 million yuan in 2021. Meanwhile, its gross profit was 340 million yuan in 2019, 814 million yuan in 2020 and 752 million yuan in 2021. Net profit totaled 137 million yuan in 2019, 53.82 million yuan in 2020 and 142 million yuan in 2021, indicating obvious fluctuation.

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According to the prospectus, the income of Weipaitang is mainly divided into three categories: platform service fees, online marketing service fees and others. Specifically, the platform service fee accounts for the largest proportion, which consists of commissions and annual platform service fees. Commission income accounted for more than 50% of the total income, and became increasingly concentrated, accounting for 57.1% in 2019, 64.0% in 2020 and 63.2% in 2021.

However, on July 1, 2021, Weipaitang was fined 1.35 million yuan by the Hangzhou Municipal Market Supervision Administration for misleading promotion, failing to take necessary measures to prevent illegal acts against consumers’ rights and interests, and other illegal acts by the platform operator.