PanamaTimes

Sunday, Oct 25, 2026

China's answer to YouTube slumps on market debut

China's answer to YouTube slumps on market debut

Shares of Chinese video platform Bilibili have slumped at their launch on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

The shares opened at HKD$790 ($101.6 ; £73.7), which is 2.2% below their issue price, before slipping another 4%.

Bilibili is similar to YouTube, but the company hopes to increase revenues through Netflix-style subscriptions.

The listing is the latest in a large number of "homecomings" for US-listed Chinese companies.

The Chinese firms have sought out secondary listings in Hong Kong due to increased scrutiny from US regulators, which began under President Donald Trump.

In part, the listings are insurance against being kicked off US exchanges, a process which has already started for three Chinese telecommunications companies.

In January, The New York Stock Exchange suspended state-backed telcos China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile.

"Homecoming" listings have not always generated the same level of excitement from investors as some other tech listings.

Shares of the internet search giant Baidu only edged slightly higher when they listed in Hong Kong last week, while ecommerce giant JD.com also had a lacklustre secondary launch last year.

After pricing shares at $104 each last week, Bilibili raised $2.6bn, which was short of the $3bn it had anticipated.

The company's launch is the weakest major share market offering in Hong Kong since Yum China Holdings shares shed 6.3% on debut in September last year, according to Refinitiv data.

Premium content


Currently, Bilibili is a loss-making company, although its prospectus says its revenues have nearly tripled since 2018.

According to the prospectus, the video platform had 202 million monthly average users in the last quarter of 2020, an increase of 55% over the same quarter in 2019.

That's less than a third of rival video platform Kuaishou, which surged nearly a 190% at its share market launch last month before paring back some of those gains.

Bilibili also faces increasingly stiff competition from a range of other home-grown Chinese video platforms.

However, the company hopes to follow in the footsteps of Netflix, and turn a profit by offering premium content to subscribers.

Already, the company has 14.5 million subscribers, and has plans to convince more of its users to pay for content.

The company also makes money from advertising, mobile gaming and e-commerce.

Newsletter

Related Articles

PanamaTimes
0:00
0:00
Close
Advertising trick: Pepsi’s Harrier Jet Commercial Led to a $700,000 Court Fight
Why 2027 Could Be a Strong Year for Stocks—and Why the Forecast Is Fragile
Trump’s Top General Seeks an Exit Strategy From Iran War, Report Says
Brock Lesnar Retires From Wrestling, Closing a Career of Rare Athletic Range and Lasting Controversy
Trump-Era Policy Shifts Test the Boundaries of U.S. Institutions
Weight-Loss Drug Boom Tests the Limits of Prescription Advertising Rules
Breaking With the Past: One of the World’s Smallest Countries Changes Its Name
AI Is Remaking the US Economy, From GDP Growth to iPhone Prices
Cuba’s Grid Fails Again as Fuel Crisis Deepens
Nazca Lines Flight Crash Kills Thirteen as Peru Suspends Aerodiana
OpenAI Faces Demands for Full Disclosure After Models Breach Hugging Face
FIFA’s Private-Investment Plan for World Cup Rights Draws European Revolt
Why Americans Queue for $15 Ice Cream and a $100 Caviar Pint
OpenAI Sued After ChatGPT Allegedly Discouraged Emergency Care Before Near-Fatal Embolism
Miliband Sets Climate and International Law at Centre of UK Diplomacy
Trump Readies New Tariffs as Temporary Global Levy Nears Expiry
Morgan Stanley Builds a Wall Street Lead in AI Infrastructure Finance
High Prices Push Coffee Drinkers Toward Whole Beans and Home Brewing
Spain Defeats Argentina in Extra Time to Win Second World Cup
Venezuela’s Earthquake Devastation Turns U.S. Investment Opportunity Into a Thirty-Seven Billion Dollar Reconstruction Challenge
Ukrainian Drones Strike Wildberries Warehouses Deep Inside Russia
The Ledger Will Not Trust on Faith
Trump Administration Pressures Banks to Restrict Financial Access for Undocumented Immigrants
The Ten World Cup Finals That Defined Football History
Smartphones Are Getting More Expensive, Sales Are Collapsing, and Even Apple Admits: "Prices Will Rise"
The AI Race Enters Its Infrastructure Era
Colombia Influencer Dies After Cosmetic Procedure at Unlicensed Bogota Salon
A Quiet Bastille Day: France Grapples with World Cup Heartbreak and Leftover Fireworks
Spain in Ecstasy: "We Feel Unbeatable, We Taught the Whole World a Lesson"
On the Island That Did Not Yield to Trump, There Is No Electricity, and 10 Million Live in Darkness
World Cup Visitors Turn American Big-Box Stores Into Souvenir Stops
Anthropic Reengineers Agentic Architecture to Shift Autonomous Workplace Automation to the Cloud
Global Crisis Alert: Escalating Middle East Tensions and UK Political Upheaval
Japanese Technology Firm Fujitsu Launches Advanced Artificial Intelligence Tool for Corporate Disclosures
South Africa Officially Launches Nationwide Campaign for Highly Contested Local Government Elections
United Kingdom Commits Additional Funding for Unexploded Ordnance Clearance in Laos
Singapore Announces Stringent New Greenhouse Gas Regulations for Commercial Cooling Systems
Cambodia and Thailand Hold High-Level Border Security Talks at United Nations Headquarters
Myanmar Military Government and China Sign Major Agreement to Upgrade Media and Cultural Cooperation
Knife Attack at Swiss Train Station Leaves Three Injured in Suspected Act of Domestic Terrorism
Transnational Extortion Gang Threatens Canadian Police With Army of One Thousand Armed Operatives
Australia Imposes Forty-Two-Day Quarantine on Cruise Ship Passengers Following Deadly Hantavirus Outbreak
International Monetary Fund Unlocks Seven Hundred Million United States Dollars for Sri Lanka Following Economic Reforms
Australia Launches Record One Point Four Billion Dollar Lawsuit Against Chemical Giant 3M Over Contamination
China and Canada Foreign Ministers Meet in Ottawa in Effort to Stabilize Strained Diplomatic Ties
Indonesia Demands Urgent United Nations Security Council Reform Amid Escalating Global Conflicts
Extreme Weather Patterns Trigger Severe Drought in Madagascar and Destructive Flooding in East Africa
Indian State of Karnataka Faces Political Upheaval as Chief Minister Siddaramaiah Abruptly Resigns
Philippines and Japan Reaffirm Defense Ties as Crucial for Indo-Pacific Regional Stability
Norway Joins French Nuclear Deterrence Initiative in Major Shift for European Security Architecture
×