ByteDance is considering to list its short video app Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, in the US market, the South China Morning Post reported on Tuesday, citing confidential sources familiar with the matter.
According to the paper, the plan is still under preliminary discussion and there’s a possibility that the company will also raise money in Hong Kong with a secondary listing, as did Alibaba, JD.com, and NetEase. In previous reports, the Hong Kong bourse was named as the more attractive destination. In November, 36Kr said that the Beijing-based firm was planning to combine Douyin, news aggregator Jinri Toutiao, and Xigua Video, which are all considered to be “mature businesses,” for a listing in Hong Kong. However, the idea to shift to New York has gained traction with ByteDance’s investors after Joe Biden’s inauguration, SCMP wrote.
In a response to local media, ByteDance said that “it’s not true.”
Launched in 2016, Douyin has been downloaded more than 1 billion times and its daily active users reached 600 million by the end of August of 2020. ByteDance reportedly raked in RMB 180 billion in advertising revenue in China last year, and Douyin contributed nearly 60% of that ad revenue. Douyin was the exclusive virtual red packet partner of China’s state-owned broadcaster CCTV for this year’s Spring Festival gala last Thursday, pouring a record high RMB 1.2 billion into red packets.
Kuaishou (HKEX: 1024), Douyin’s domestic rival, made its debut earlier this month on the Hong Kong exchange, raising USD 5.3 billion in the biggest tech IPO since Uber, with its share price almost tripling from HKD 115 to HKD 338, signaling massive investor interest into the short video stocks.