Chinese TikTok rival Kuaishou share price nearly triples in IPO debut

Shares in the Chinese short video app Kuaishou almost tripled on their Hong Kong debut on Friday, surging to HK$338 ($43.60) upon opening, from an IPO price of HK$115 ($14.80).

The stock later slipped from those highs but still ended the day over 160 percent higher, closing at HK$300 ($38.60) a share.

The tech company raised HK$41.28 billion ($5.32 billion) from the initial public offering (IPO), which was the biggest for an internet firm since 2019.

In the documents tendered to the Hong Kong stock exchange, Kuaishou said it aimed to be “the most customer-obsessed company in the world.”

Kuaishou, which employs almost 20,000 people, has a massive user base in China and competes with ByteDance’s TikTok. According to the firm, 305 million daily active users spend over 86 minutes a day on the platform on average. Its revenue rose from 8.3 billion yuan ($1.28 billion) in 2017 to 40.7 billion yuan ($6.3 billion) in the nine months ended September 2020.

The company, which started out in 2011 as a platform sharing GIFs (animated images), has since expanded into short videos and livestreaming. It is also pushing into new areas such as e-commerce.

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