#Asia China’s Kuaishou raises US$350M from Tencent, reportedly valued at about US$3B now

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Kuaishou has been reported to have plans to go public in the US in H2 2017

kuaishou_funding_round

Image Credit: Kuaishou

Chinese video and photo-sharing app Kuaishou announced on Thursday that it has raised US$350 million in a funding round from Tencent Holdings, according to a Bloomberg report.

Though both companies’ spokespersons have been silent on the matter, an anonymous source stated that the investment has pumped the startup’s valuation to “about US$3 billion.”

Having been a popular streaming app among rural communities in China, Kuaishou cited plans to expand abroad, particularly to developing markets such as Indonesia and Thailand.

In a press statement, Tencent Chairman Ma Huateng dubbed the platform as a “dynamic Chinese mobile internet product that resonates with people.”

Kuaishou is said to have 50 million daily active users with five million videos being uploaded each day. It has been experiencing a surge of traffic consumption, which has been reported to exceed that of Weibo and WeChat.

The company is backed by investments from Sequoia Capital, DST, Baidu, and DCM.

Also Read: The next environmental threat: video streaming

According to a TechCrunch report, Kuaishou is planning to go public in the US in the later half of this year.

Recently, Chinese tech giants Alibaba and Tencent have been investing heavily in video content and services with the hope to push for online advertising revenue.

Alibaba has been eyeing China’s own Youtube, Youku Tudou, while Tencent has been in talks with game streaming platform Douyu.

In its latest financial report Tencent reported a net profit of RMB41.45 billion (US$6 billion) for 2016 (up 42 per cent from the previous year), on revenue of RMB151.94 billion (US$22 billion), a 48 per cent increase.

The revenue growth is attributed to stunning performance of smartphone games, paid digital content, social and performance advertising, and payment-related services.

 

 

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