HONG KONG -- For a long time after it launched in 2011, Kuaishou Technology -- the short video platform now seeking $5.4 billion in the world's largest initial public offering since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic -- was best known for humdrum videos created far from China's bright lights.
Its clips -- farmers collecting wheat from fields, a migrant worker dancing at a construction site, a village housewife making stewed pork with potatoes -- were brief insights into ordinary daily lives in less developed regions.