MeYou Files for ChiNext IPO: Backed by Hillhouse and Matrix, Will Maternal Health Sector See an IPO Boom?

On the evening of July 30, Xiamen Meet You Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Meet You”) filed for an initial public offering (IPO) on the ChiNext board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.

As disclosed in the prospectus,Meet You reported operating revenue of RMB 617 million and net profit of RMB 124 million in 2019, with a planned IPO fundraising target of approximately RMB 1.87 billion.

Founded in 2013, Meet You specializes in female menstrual cycle management. Using menstrual tracking as its entry point, the company continuously explores women’s user needs and operates a suite of mobile applications centered around women’s lifestyles, including Meet You, You Baobao, Youzi Street, Yangmao Shengqian, and Fanhuan Wang. Its core functionalities encompass menstrual and pregnancy management, news reading, health education, community interaction, and online shopping.

As of 2019, according to Umeng data statistics,Meet You’s products have amassed over 250 million cumulative users, with its main apps recording a combined monthly active user base of more than 31 million and daily active users exceeding 7.5 million.

Beyond Meet You, the maternal and infant health sector features other formidable players such as BabyTree, Lama Zhidao, and Dayima, backed by prominent investors including Matrix Partners China, Hillhouse Capital, and SoftBank China.

They are jointly orchestrating a narrative: as the growth of domestic mobile internet users reaches saturation, vertical platforms continue to follow an upward trajectory. The next path forward for the internet may well lie in small, specialized, and refined vertical operations.

Meet You itself is a microcosm of this story.

The founder of Meet You is Chen Fangyi.

He was born in Fujian Province in 1986, started his entrepreneurial journey at the age of 19, and rose to prominence at 22 by seizing the e-commerce boom to found Fanhuan.com.

In a media report, Chen Fangyi was referred to as one of the “Four Little Kings” of the mobile internet era, with the other three being Didi’s Cheng Wei, Toutiao’s Zhang Yiming, and Momo’s Tang Yan.

In 2013, when the mobile internet was booming, Chen Fangyi, who did not even have a girlfriend at the time, chose to focus on women’s menstrual cycles and build a vertical ecosystem app exclusively for women. The app was initially named “Xiyou” and later renamed “Meiyou.”

The decision to focus on a vertical niche is based on the following judgment:“The era of mobile internet has arrived, and I must seize this momentum. At the very least, I need to identify a niche market where I can establish a monopoly—ideally one that BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent) would not prioritize in the short term.”Chen Fangyi believes that women’s essential needs are nothing more than beauty, menstrual cycles, and childbirth. However, as Meitu Xiuxiu had already seized the initiative in the beauty sector, he chose to focus on menstrual cycle management instead.

In its early stages, Meet You’s core features included not only menstrual cycle tracking and prediction but also functionalities for preconception care, pregnancy management, and childcare.

Since its launch, Meet You has been widely embraced by women. The platform subsequently evolved from a utility tool into a community, and later expanded into e-commerce.

By 2016, Meet You's quarterly net profit had reached RMB 10 million.

Of course, in its early stages, the development of Meet You was inseparable from capital support.

(Financing History of Meet You Since Its Establishment)

As shown in the figure,Matrix Partners China began its continuous capital injections at the Series B round, sustaining its investment through to the Series E round.

After securing nearly RMB 1 billion in Series E financing, Chen Fangyi reviewed the growth logic of Meet You in an interview with the media:

“Our strategy is ‘tools–community–e-commerce,’ which is underpinned by deeper logic. Tools are standardized products that are relatively easy to monopolize. We have previously shared internally how truly great companies operate: firms like Facebook, Google, Baidu, and Alibaba all strive to achieve monopoly through a tool-based approach. Therefore, the first step is to establish a monopoly.”

Step two: Achieve monopoly by leveraging strong network effects rather than relying on massive headcount; thus, we remain a lightweight tool with significant leverage. Third, use this leverage to pivot into other business models. For instance, Facebook is essentially a communication tool, as is WeChat. After achieving monopoly, they leveraged their position to expand into advertising. Similarly, Google expanded into advertising after dominating search, and Alibaba leveraged its store-management tools to branch out into e-commerce, cloud computing, and financial services.

Therefore, the underlying logic behind tools, communities, and e-commerce is actually “monopoly, tension, and leverage.” This is our methodology, and we have consistently adhered to it."We haven’t talked much about it externally over the past two years, but in fact, we have been solidifying our tooling capabilities to achieve dominance in this area."

Looking back, Meet You’s success stemmed from its origins as a utility tool, which evolved into a robust app matrix characterized by high practicality and rich functionality. By leveraging vast amounts of female user data accumulated across various domains—including physiological health, informational content, community interaction, and e-commerce shopping—the company provides services tailored to multiple life stages such as menstruation, preconception, pregnancy, and childcare, thereby achieving monetization through these service offerings.

According to the prospectus data submitted by Xiamen Meet You Co., Ltd., as of December 31, 2019, and based on statistics from Umeng, the cumulative user base across all of the company’s products exceeded 250 million. The combined monthly active users (MAUs) of its flagship apps surpassed 31 million, with daily active users (DAUs) exceeding 7.5 million. Leveraging its mobile application user base, along with its technological R&D and commercial operations capabilities, Meet You provides advertisers and e-commerce merchants with precisely targeted advertising and e-commerce services, having established a mature and stable revenue model.

From 2017 to 2019, Meet You’s annual revenues were RMB 423 million, RMB 516 million, and RMB 617 million, respectively, with net profits of RMB 112 million, RMB 147 million, and RMB 123 million, respectively.

(Meet You's Financial Performance Over the Past Three Years)

As shown in the figure,Meet You’s revenue primarily comes from e-commerce services and advertising, with other business segments accounting for only 0.22% of annual revenue, amounting to merely millions.

So, how does Meet You conduct its e-commerce and advertising operations?

In terms of e-commerce services, Meet You promotes products for merchants through its operated mobile applications, including Meet You, Youzijie, Youbaobao, Yangmao Shengqian, and Fanhuanwang, earning commissions upon successful transactions. Specific e-commerce service offerings include featured discounted product displays, discount information search, and redirects to online malls. Major partner e-commerce platforms include Taobao, Tmall, JD.com, Vipshop, and Pinduoduo.In 2019, e-commerce services contributed nearly 40% of total revenue.

In terms of advertising services, Xiamen Meet You Co., Ltd. provides ad inventory to advertisers through its operated mobile applications, such as Meiyou and Youbaobao, and generates advertising service revenue based on settlement models including cost-per-click (CPC), cost-per-day (CPD), and cost-per-impression (CPM). Advertising services are categorized into bidding-based ads and non-bidding-based ads. Ad placements include splash screens, homepages, and the "Ta Ta Quan" community feature. The end-client industries primarily encompass beauty and body care, pharmaceuticals and health supplements, daily chemicals and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), and maternal and infant products.In 2019, advertising services accounted for 60% of total revenue.

As of the end of 2019,Meet You has cumulatively served over 1 million e-commerce merchants and 10,000 end-client advertisers.

The monetization of commercial value hinges on the establishment of a service system.

Supporting Meet You’s annual revenue of over RMB 600 million are its two core systems: women’s health management services and women’s e-commerce referral services.

(Meet You Product Matrix)

Women's Health Management Services

Meet You primarily provides women's health management services through the Meet You app, supporting seamless transitions across different life stages. It offers comprehensive health management services for women during menstruation, preconception, pregnancy, and parenting phases, while meeting their needs for information learning and emotional communication through features such as news reading and community interaction, thereby accumulating user health and social data. Among these, women in the preconception, pregnancy, and parenting stages can also choose the company’s specialized mobile application, Youbaobao App, to receive more integrated and precise services.

In terms of health management, the Meiyou APP supports users in independently switching among four identities: “Menstruation,” “Trying to Conceive,” “Pregnancy,” and “Hot Mom.” It provides tailored health management services for women at different stages—menstrual, preconception, prenatal, and parenting—and features intelligent identity switching to more precisely address the differentiated health management needs of women across these various life stages.

For instance, for pregnant users, the Meiyou APP provides pregnancy tracking and analysis features, allowing users to record physiological indicators such as weight and body temperature, and to set up prenatal check-up schedules with reminders. Additionally, the Meiyou APP offers dozens of pregnancy support tools, including dietary guidance, ultrasound report interpretation, fetal movement tracking, and prenatal education guidance, helping female users navigate their pregnancy with ease.

In terms of information services, the Meiyou App precisely pushes content of interest to users based on data such as user identity, browsing history, and interests, covering topics like relationships, entertainment, food, and fashion. The Meiyou App has onboarded over 20,000 self-media creators and professional news media outlets, who produce diverse informational content to meet the varied reading needs of its female user base.

Within the app, “She She Circle” in the Meiyou APP serves as a user communication community and is one of the largest female-oriented online communities in China. Users can post and share content in real time within “She She Circle,” including text-and-image posts, videos, and Q&A sessions. In addition to browsing and commenting on posts by other users, they can follow and interact with them. The “She She Circle” community features nearly 5,000 user groups covering topics such as personal growth, health, relationships, hobbies, beauty, preconception care, and pregnancy, allowing users to join relevant groups based on their individual needs and engage in topic-specific discussions.

Female E-commerce Shopping Guide Services

Meiyou provides online e-commerce shopping guide services for women through the “Youzi Street” section within the Meiyou app, the standalone “Youzi Street” app, and the “Yangmao Shengqian” and “Fanhuanwang” apps. By leveraging the user base and related data accumulated from its women’s health and lifestyle services, along with a personalized intelligent recommendation engine tailored for women, Meiyou offers information on discounted products and entry points for searching cost-effective e-commerce items. This approach meets female users’ demand for highly cost-effective shopping and enhances their online consumption experience.

For example, consider the “Wool Savings” app launched by Meet You in the second half of 2018. This e-commerce shopping guide app, centered on online shopping savings tools for users, not only provides promotional services for discounted products but also offers cashback rewards to its users.

Yangmao Shengqian APP curates discounted products for customers on a daily basis and provides search access to deals on e-commerce platforms such as Taobao, Pinduoduo, and JD.com. After users complete their purchases and confirm receipt of the goods, the Yangmao Shengqian APP will provide cashback based on the pre-determined amount. Users can withdraw their cashback via Alipay or other methods.

According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, China’s female population increased from 653 million in 2010 to 685 million in 2019, with its proportion rising from 48.73% to 48.91%. The average annual growth rate of China’s female population was 0.52%, which is 1.18 times that of the male population. This large female demographic has laid the foundation for the robust development of the internet-based women’s health management market.

Categorized by service type, the internet-based women’s health management industry falls within the broader domain of internet-enabled lifestyle services for women, alongside female-focused e-commerce and online medical aesthetics. As women’s awareness of healthy living continues to rise and their demand for health management grows, products related to women’s health management services have become increasingly popular, driving explosive growth in market size. According to Frost & Sullivan statistics, the market size of internet-based women’s health management in China expanded from RMB 510 million in 2013 to RMB 19.02 billion in 2019, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 82.8%.

From 2019 to 2024, the size of China's Internet-based women's health management market is projected to continue growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.7%, reaching RMB 46.65 billion by 2024.

Meanwhile, with the continued implementation of China’s two-child policy, the maternal and infant market boasts substantial capacity and promising prospects. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, China recorded 14.67 million newborns in 2019, with a birth rate of 10.48‰. An increasing number of women are opting for scientifically guided preconception care, leveraging mobile health management applications to accurately track physiological cycles, sexual activity, and other metrics, predict ovulation periods, enhance conception efficiency, and meet their needs for pregnancy management.

In the vast blue ocean of maternal and infant health, several substantial enterprises have emerged, including Xiamen Meet You Co., Ltd., BabyTree, Lama Bang, and Niangao Mama.

(Financing Status of Selected Companies in the Maternal and Child Health Sector)

Babytree went public in Hong Kong in November 2018, with its market capitalization once exceeding RMB 10 billion; however, its latest market cap stands at only HK$2.36 billion.

Among the five companies listed in the chart above, Meet You had previously secured investments from renowned firms such as Sequoia China and ZhenFund, raising RMB 130 million in its Series E round; Hipac raised USD 100 million last December from Hillhouse Capital and Anchor Equity Partners; and Mama Bang secured USD 100 million in its Series C round.

This indicates that in the maternal and infant health sector, several companies have reached later stages of financing. With Xiamen Meet You Co., Ltd.’s recent application for an IPO on the ChiNext board, the sector may see a wave of public listings in the future.

Moreover, the smooth and successful development of these enterprises may offer us the following insight:More segmented consumer groups require more vertical platforms.

This means that it is not necessary to build a large and comprehensive internet platform; small and beautiful platforms can also achieve excellent growth opportunities, especially in today’s environment where mobile internet traffic is approaching saturation.

Moreover, “small and beautiful” also implies refined platform operations.

Take a pregnant user on the Meet You app as an example. A typical scenario involves the user encountering discussions about baby bottle selection in the community, then finding multiple professional articles and related reviews on baby bottles via the search page, and finally locating and purchasing relevant products through the e-commerce service page. For users identified with tags such as “Menstruation,” “Trying to Conceive,” or “Hot Mom,” the Meet You platform offers similar service pathways.

In this scenario, Meet You provides community services, content services, big data and AI services, and finally, e-commerce services. Specifically, the community service refers to Meet You’s “She She Circle” community, which offers a platform for users to share experiences and knowledge with one another. In terms of content services, user-generated content (UGC) and professional-generated content (PGC) are deployed in parallel to ensure that users can always find the content they wish to view. Regarding big data and AI services, Meet You leverages insights derived from the massive data generated by its 250 million users, combined with individual usage habits, to deliver personalized recommendations. E-commerce services constitute the final step in completing purchases within this scenario.

Users complete the entire journey from decision-making to purchase on a single platform, eliminating the hassle of switching between different apps and enabling instant purchases upon discovery.

This is the allure of vertical internet.

This is also the most significant implication for the industry brought by Xiamen Meet You Co., Ltd.'s IPO application.