Live streaming service DouYu raises $775M through U.S. IPO

Tencent-backed Chinese live streaming platform DouYu International Holdings Ltd has listed itself on the New York Stock Exchange (Nasdaq) with the stock symbol DOYU.

After its first day of trading on the exchange, the platform raised $775M (£700M) – with around two-thirds of the figure coming from new shares being sold.

At the time of writing, DouYu has closed its first day of trading at by selling its American Depositary Shares (ADS) at an $11.50 (£9.21) offer price, a figure at the low end of its indicated range of $11.50-$14. The weak pricing may be attributed to the delayed listing of DouYu on Nasdaq due to the trade war between the U.S. and China.

Although DouYu lost 783M RMB (£91.55M), 613M RMB (£71.67M), and 876M RMB (£102.42M) in 2016, 2017, and 2018 respectively, DouYu has turned a profit with a revenue of 1.49 billion RMB (£170M) in the first quarter of 2019. Its revenue is generated mainly from live streaming, accounting for 86.1 percent of its total revenue in 2018.

One of the largest live streaming platforms in China, DouYu is only the second to go public in the U.S. after HUYA did in May last year. DouYu has now become the biggest cross-border listing from China since Tencent Music Entertainment Group raised $1.07 billion (£130M) in December.

At the time of writing, the company owns exclusive streaming rights to 29 major esports tournaments in China and attracts almost 160M users to its platform on a monthly basis.

Esports Insider says: As HUYA continues to expand its overseas market and partnered with Team Liquid and Team Griffin LoL successfully, DouYu urgently needs to prove its competitiveness through the listing.  It is evident that both parties will compete fiercely for resources in overseas markets and try to become the world’s largest live streaming platform in the future.

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