Bottom line: Meitu’s new disclosure of rapid growth in its internet services revenue looks encouraging, as it takes advantage of its early arrival status in a beauty products sector with big profit potential.
Meitu makes over image with internet revenue growth
A month after its lackluster IPO, beauty app operator Meitu (HKEx: 1357) is trying to shore up its sagging stock by releasing some financial data that proves it’s more than just a place for people to doll up selfies to share with friends. The particular data shows that Meitu actually earned some relatively sizable Internet revenue from online sales and advertising in the month of December, proving it can make money more directly linked to its core beauty app.
Before that, the lion’s share of the company’s revenue had come from sales of smartphones optimized for its app. Critics had argued such a business model wasn’t really sustainable, since many such purchases are one-time items that might not be repeated. By comparison, online advertising and sales of products linked to its core app seem more sustainable. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Meitu’s shares are likely to price and debut weakly due to skepticism about its profit potential from big western investors, but could perform better over the longer term if the beauty app can monetize its large user base.
Meitu sets IPO price range
What’s likely to be Hong Kong’s biggest high-tech IPO in nearly a decade is creeping ahead, with word that beauty app operator Meitu has set a price range for its widely watched offering that puts it within reach of its target to raise $750 million. But a read between the lines shows that this offering could easily price at the lower end of its range, following earlier investor worries that Meitu might have difficulty leveraging its huge customer base into meaningful profits anytime soon.
Meitu’s quandary is hardly unique, in an Internet universe where having huge user numbers doesn’t always translate to big profits. In this case Meitu, operator of an app that lets users tweak selfies to make themselves look more attractive, is quite rich in terms of traffic, with 450 million active users. But it hasn’t found a way to actually make money from that audience, and instead earns 95 percent of its revenue from sales of smartphones that draw people to its app. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Meitu’s Hong Kong IPO plan is likely to get a positive reception due to strong sentiment for Chinese tech companies, while a plan to list US-focused Media.net in China via a backdoor IPO is likely to fail due to numerous obstacles.
Meitu eyes HK listing by year end
A couple of IPO stories are in the headlines, including what could become the largest listing for a Chinese tech firm this year by Meitu, operator of an app that helps users make self-enhanced selfies. The other deal looks quite unusual, and has a Chinese investor group buying US advertising services startup Media.net, with plans to list the company in China through a backdoor-style process. In all my years covering China this is the first time I’ve seen this kind of deal, which looks both interesting but also quite speculative.
Each of these deals is quite different, and both have one or two notable points. Meitu looks most notable not only for its size, which could be up to $1 billion, but also for its location. IPOs for this kind of high-tech company have traditionally come in New York, and more recently on China’s Nasdaq-style ChiNext board, but are seldom seen in Hong Kong. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: The latest China trip by Apple’s CEO is designed to spotlight the company’s new mega-investment in Didi Chuxing and show its continued relevance for local app makers, as it seeks positive media coverage to halt a recent series of negative news.
Apple CEO looks for positive news on China trip
Less than 2 weeks after media first reported plans for a new China trip by Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) CEO, Tim Cook has appeared in Beijing for the eighth visit to his company’s second largest market. This particular visit comes at a sensitive time for Apple, which has experienced a number of China setbacks recently, led by a sharp drop in sales during the first 3 months of the year.
Against that backdrop, I previously said that Cook’s new trip looked partly aimed at damage control, though we should also note that he was already a frequent visitor to the country. In keeping with the past, Cook was relatively low key this time and didn’t even announce his arrival in China until he was spotted at a meeting with some of the company’s local app development partners in Beijing. (Chinese article) Read Full Post…
Bottom line: Innovation Works’ China OTC IPO plan shows the year-old small-cap board is rapidly becoming a popular place to list for money-losing companies that might have previously gone to New York.
Innovation Works files for China OTC listing
China’s year-old over-the-counter (OTC) market is suddenly becoming the hot place for new listings by young tech firms, with word that the technology incubator founded by Google’s (Nasdaq: GOOG) former China head has become the latest in a recent string of companies to file for listings there. The OTC application by Innovation Works highlights a new path to market for money-losing Chinese companies that might have previously chosen to list in New York.
The main stock exchanges in China and Hong Kong don’t allow money-losing companies to list, with the result that many private start-ups used to go to New York where profitability isn’t a requirement. But New York investors are also increasingly showing lack of interest in money-losing Chinese firms, causing their shares to languish and some like online video site Youku Tudou (NYSE: YOKU) to sell themselves and de-list. Read Full Post…
Bottom line: A new list of China’s top apps spotlights fast-growing names like news app Today’s Headlines, photo app Meitu and dictionary app Youdao, which could raise hundreds of millions of dollars in new funds this year.
Meitu earns place on top 10 app list
A newly released list of China’s top 10 apps for 2014 is shining a spotlight on an up-and-coming field of lesser known names that could be companies to watch, as many are much younger than stalwarts like Baidu (Nasdaq: BIDU), Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) and Tencent (HKEx: 700). The “BAT” trio of China’s biggest Internet firms took 4 of the top 10 spots on the list, which was compiled by Baidu. But far more interesting were some of the other names, including recently listed social networking app Momo (Nasdaq: MOMO) and news app Today’s Headlines, which made its own headlines with its meteoric rise last year. Read Full Post…
Most of China’s high-tech attention was focused on the scenic canal city of Wuzhen near Shanghai this past week, as a who’s-who of top Internet executives gathered for a conference that billed itself as a global gathering. Most of China’s top names were reportedly at the event, including Baidu’s (Nasdaq: BIDU) Robin Li, Alibaba’s (NYSE: BABA) Jack Ma and NetEase’s (Nasdaq: NTES) Ding Lei. But the guest list was notably lacking in major global names, and at least one executive commented on the sensitive subject of the exclusion of global leaders like Facebook (Nasdaq: FB) and Twitter (NYSE: TWTR) from the Chinese Internet.
Meantime, the marketing savvy Lei Jun, who is also CEO and hypemaster supreme for smartphone sensation Xiaomi, also managed to make his own mini splash in the microblogging realm by declaring his own ambition to overtake Samsung (Seoul: 005930) and Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) to become the world’s biggest smartphone brand. Such hype from Lei isn’t all that unusual, though I was somewhat surprised to see several executives from other firms chime in with support for this upwardly mobile company. Read Full Post…
