Renren shares surge on NYSE debut
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Renren, the largest social-networking website in China, debuts in New York Stock Exchange Wednesday. [CFP] |
Renren, considered as Chinese version of Facebook, has surged 29 percent Wednesday on the first day of its listing on New York Stock Exchange, after raising 743.4 million US dollars in its initial public offering.
The first social-networking site to go public in the U.S, Renren is often dubbed a Chinese version of Facebook and compared with the latter.
But unlike Facebook, Renren has a slight chance to go global even though its valuation is twice as much as Facebook when price multiple over sales, according to Gu Wei, columnist with Reuters Breakingviews.
"There is a small opportunity (for Renren) outside of China, which is connecting people who want to connect with people within China," Gu Wei said during an interview with CRI.
Gu Wei thinks the valuation of Renren is high, but it doesn't mean the money it raised is really big.
"It's much smaller than Facebook has been getting from the grey market," said Gu Wei.
"So from that sense, money itself isn't that big. Even with all that money, how do you challenge Facebook's already established base," added Gu Wei.
"Facebook has already dominated the world. If your friends are all over there, why would you start with something new from China?"
Renren has sold some 53 million American depositary receipts at 14 US dollars each, the high end of the proposed range. The shares have risen from just over 4 US dollars a share to just over 18 US dollars. At one point Renren shares reached 24 US dollars.
The influx of cash has pushed the company's market value above 8 billion US dollars.
Despite seemingly promising prospects, Gu Wei warns the huge risks involved with social networking, as there is uncertainty of profitability.
"Currently, many people are banking on it, because social networking, true it has been gaining popularity, and people do spend a lot of time, in America, about a quarter of internet surfing time is on social networking. The biggest problem with that is really how to make money out of it."
According to Gu Wei, Renren also faces challenges in the domestic market.
"Renren in China is nothing like Facebook in the world. It's the No.1 but its competitors look solid and their market shares are quite even. So in that way, I think Renren is behind."
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