Apr 23, 2019 - Economy

Chinese gaming platform giant DouYu files to go public

Dan Primack

Illustration of Xbox controllers — Illustration: Axios Visuals

DouYu, a Chinese live game-streaming platform, on Tuesday filed for a $500 million IPO.

Why it matters: This may be the largest of what is about to be a flood of highly-valued Chinese companies going public in the U.S. This week features road-show launches for both So-Young (online plastic surgery marketplace) and Yunji (social e-commerce), while yesterday came an IPO filing from Luckin Coffee (whose $150m fundraise was our BFD just last week).

Details: DouYu plans to trade on the NYSE (DOYU) with Morgan Stanley as lead underwriter, while backers include Tencent and Sequoia Capital China. The company reports a $127 million net loss on $531 million in revenue for 2018, respective increases of 43% and 200% over 2017.
Bottom line: "Douyu, whose name translates as “fighting fish,” is the second Twitch-like service backed by Tencent to go public in the U.S. Its direct competitor Huya, who has a similarly fierce name “tiger’s teeth” and also counts Tencent as a major investor, raised $180 million from its NYSE listing last May." — Rita Liao, TechCrunch

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Chinese gaming platform giant DouYu files to go public

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