Chinese live-streaming company YY Inc (歡聚時代) is planning to spin off and list its e-sports video platform Huya Broadcasting (虎牙直播) in the US, people familiar with the matter said.
YY’s streaming division, similar to Amazon.com Inc’s Twitch, is seeking to raise at least US$200 million this year to fund expansion in a fledgling but heated sector, the people said, asking not to be named because the matter is private.
YY’s American depositary receipts gained as much as 5.5 percent in New York.
Live-streaming of games has attracted the attention of technology giants, with Alphabet Inc’s Google, Amazon.com Inc, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) and Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊) all pushing into the sector.
The Chinese market alone is expected to generate 3 billion yuan (US$462.6 million) in revenue and attract 140 million users this year, according to IResearch Consulting Group (艾瑞諮詢集團), with users tracking the online exploits of gamers within PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds or League of Legends.
Huya’s appeal in an initial public offering (IPO) might be enhanced by its improved financial performance, and a leading position in terms of traffic among rival platforms.
Operating losses at the business narrowed to 10.1 million yuan in the third quarter of last year, compared with 159 million yuan a year earlier, chief financial officer Jin Bing (金冰) said during YY’s earnings call in November last year.
He on Thursday declined to comment on whether the company harbored IPO plans.
NASDAQ-listed parent YY, which grew mobile monthly active users 37 percent to 73 million in the third quarter, allows live-streaming for would-be Internet celebrities, who either sing or teach online classes.
Users send digital gifts to the broadcaster and YY takes a cut of that revenue.
Its Huya subsidiary is focused on games, and in May announced a US$75 million Series A round of funding from investors including Ping An Insurance Group Co of China Ltd (中國平安保險集團), Banyan Capital and Morningside.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last