Kuaishou to be first of its kind to list

Short-video platform Kuaishou will become China’s first listed company of its kind when it lists in Hong Kong next month, industry officials said on Monday.

Regulators have given the green light to Kuaihou, the world’s second-largest video-sharing app, to issue an IPO to raise about US$5 billion to US$6 billion, according to media reports.

Kuaishou didn’t comment on the IPO issue on Monday.

According to  previous statements, Kuaishou’s revenue has reached 40.7 billion yuan (US$6.3 billion) with 262 million daily active users. Shareholders include Tencent, Sequoia Capital and Baidu.

Short-video platforms are one of the most popular mobile applications in China. Short-video and social media are the two kinds of applications to occupy over 80 percent of netizens’ online time on average, UBS said recently.

But they face competition with platforms offering longer videos such as Bilibili and iQiyi, according to analysts.