DouYu International Holdings Ltd. is a Chinese video-game live-streaming platform backed by social media and gaming giant Tencent. Think of the American version of Twitch, which is owned by Amazon. Fun fact, DouYu stands for Fighting Fish 😊

DouYu is one of China’s top two video-game live-streaming platforms. Its largest competitor, Huya Inc went public in the States over a year ago. Huya currently has a Market Cap of 5.43billion.

This is no surprise, with China being the world’s largest game streaming market, with approximately 4.9 times the monthly active users of the U.S. market in 2018.

DouYu is still loss-making and reported a net loss of $127.4 million in 2018. The company significantly increased its sales and marketing expenses – which jumped 73 percent in 2018 – as well as its research and development expenses which increased 55 percent.

The company significantly increased its sales and marketing expenses – which jumped 73 percent in 2018 – as well as its research and development expenses which increased 55 percent.

According to the prospectus, DouYu was the largest game-streaming platform by average total monthly active users (MAUs) on both mobile and PC during the fourth quarter of 2018. On top of this, DouYu has exclusive streaming rights to 29 major tournaments in China, including League of Legends, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, and DOTA2.

The firm aims to raise around $500 million through selling 44.9 million American Depositary shares for $11.50 to $14 each. Some current investors plan to sell approximately 22.5million worth of shares.

Taking a look at its American counterparts, Twitch was valued at $1billion cash in 2014 and was valued at approximately US$3.79 billion in 2018. While Twitch is by far the most popular live streaming website for gaming and esports, Amazon’s most notable competition comes from tech giant Google, through its Youtube Gaming arm. Another possible contender is Caffeine, which is backed by Fox.

In 2018, more people watch streamed gaming content than HBO, Netflix, Hulu, and ESPN combined. We expect this space to continue to grow.