IPO观察｜Soul第四次谋求上市，靠提供情绪价值年入22亿元，面临合规风险

Core Viewpoint - Soulgate, the parent company of the social platform Soul, has restarted its IPO process for the fourth time, submitting its application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on November 27, 2023, after previous attempts faced setbacks due to various issues [1][5]. Financial Performance - Soul's revenue has shown a consistent growth trend, with projected revenues of RMB 16.67 billion, RMB 18.46 billion, and RMB 22.11 billion for the years 2022, 2023, and 2024 respectively, reflecting a compound annual growth rate of over 15% [6]. - The adjusted net profit for Soul turned positive in 2023, with a reported RMB 2.86 billion for the first eight months of the year, marking a 73% year-on-year increase [6][11]. User Metrics - As of August 31, 2025, Soul has accumulated 389 million registered users, with 78.7% being Generation Z. The average daily active users for the first eight months of this year stood at 11 million [3]. - The monthly active users (MAU) decreased slightly from 29.4 million in 2022 to 26.2 million in 2023, but user engagement, measured by daily active users (DAU) to MAU ratio, increased from 0.32 to 0.39 [10][11]. Business Model - Soul's primary revenue sources are emotional value services and advertising services, with emotional value services accounting for approximately 90% of total revenue. The revenue from emotional value services is projected to grow from RMB 15.19 billion in 2022 to RMB 19.69 billion in 2024 [9]. - Advertising revenue constitutes about 10% of total revenue, with a significant portion coming from Tencent, which contributed 9.9% of Soul's advertising revenue in 2024 [9][11]. Compliance and Risks - Soul faces multiple compliance risks related to algorithms, content publishing, ecological governance, user information protection, and cybersecurity reviews. The company has been previously flagged by regulatory authorities for issues related to user data collection [12][13]. - Reports of fraud incidents involving users on the Soul platform have raised concerns about the platform's safety and governance, prompting the company to invest in AI-based fraud prevention systems [14].