Sources familiar with the matter said that ByteDance is in talks with investments for a proposed Douying listing on the HKEX. This will be another major listing on Hong Kong along with the upcoming Ant Group listing.
On Monday, October 26, TikTok parent ByteDance said that it plans to list the Chinese short video app Douyin in Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX). People familiar with the matter said that ByteDance is having internal discussions with investment banks like Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NASDAQ: GS).
Douyin is the Chinese counterpart of TikTok since the latter isn’t available in the country. The sources also added that the investment bank is doing ground research and analysis for a standalone IPO. If through, this will be yet another big IPO on the Hong Kong stock exchange.
On Sunday, Coinspeaker reported that the Alibaba-backed Ant Group is looking for a stellar IPO in Hong Kong. Reportedly, this IPO will be worth a massive $17.4 billion. Along with Hong Kong, Ant Group plans for a dual IPO on Shanghai’s STAR Exchange. Reports suggest that the total IPO fundraise will be $35 billion, making it the largest IPO in the history of financial markets.
Coming back to Douyin, the short video app has attained massive popularity in China. Its daily active users (DAUs) have surged past 600 million. Douyin’s immediate local competitor Kuaishou is also mulling an IPO. Kuaishou reported DAUs at 300 million at the start of 2020.
Recently, amid the Sino-U.S. tensions, a number of Chinese companies have decided to go public in Hong Kong and Shanghai. ByteDance has faced massive pressure from the U.S. authorities for its alleged involvement with data spying on U.S. customers. The White House has raised security concerns on ByteDance’s TikTok which has 100 million customers in the country.
ByteDance’s Plans With Douyin
ByteDance China CEO Kelly Zhang recently spoke at the Douyin Creator Conference in Shanghai. He noted that over 22 million Douyin creators have generated 41.7 billion yuan ($6.15 billion) on the last over the last year. To support the creators, ByteDance is also planning to invest traffic resources worth 10 billion yuan. They also plan to double their income to 80 billion yuan by the coming year.
Both TikTok and Douyin have turned into jackpot ventures for ByteDance. Both these applications have almost similar functions i.e. creating and sharing short videos with added sound effects and other special effects. But a report from Gartner this February shows Douyin has more advanced features like e-commerce compatibility. Besides, it also has a premium set-up for official accounts and other sponsored challenges.
With big companies chipping in for Hong Kong listing, it will help it retain the status of Asia’s fastest-growing financial market.
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