Online video platform Kuaishou’s stock closed 161 percent above its IPO price on its first day of trading on the Hong Kong exchange.
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Kuaishou, often viewed as the chief competitor to TikTok in China, raised more than $5.3 billion through its IPO. The company priced its shares at about $14.80 and its stock opened at $43.60, about 194 percent higher. Kuaishou is backed by investors including Tencent Holdings and DCM, according to Crunchbase.
Although investors had a sense it would be an exciting IPO, the outcome was better than expected, according to Kyle Lui, a partner at DCM, which led the company’s Series B round and holds a 9.2 percent stake in the company.
“I think short-form video is going to continue to be more mainstream because of the authenticity and it being truly a form of media entertainment,” Lui said in an interview with Crunchbase News.
The company, which is based in Beijing and launched in 2011, reported about 305 million daily active users in a regulatory filing, with each daily active user averaging more than 86 minutes on the platform.
“I think what Kuaishou proved out is that there’s a market for digital goods, and I think that’s a model that the U.S. is just starting to understand, to dip their toes in,” Lui said.
The U.S. market has been focused on subscription and ad revenue to monetize media, whereas Kuaishou has been an early leader in the idea of livestream e-commerce, Lui said.
“The form factor of doing livestream, where you have influencers showing their authentic self, lends its product positioning well for the next generation of e-commerce,” Lui said.
Illustration: Li-Anne Dias
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