SCMP – June 13 – Momo, whose net income rose 60% to a record $129.9M in the March quarter, now has a higher market capitalisation than Sina Corp. Momo's share price increase almost fourfold since its IPO in Dec 2014, when its shares sold at $13.50 each. That pushed up Momo's market capitalisation to $10.8B. Snapchat, by comparison, has a market value of $16.6B. Launched in 2011, Momo started as a hook-up app for young Chinese people. The company entered China's live-streaming market in Nov 2015 after spotting the shift to video as a new medium for young people to interact and share content. Live streaming video has enabled Momo to make social networking more diverse in the app. In the past few years, Momo has introduced karaoke, audio chat room, short video and a collection of interactive social games, including popular party game Werewolf, to its users. A recent Deloitte report forecast the Chinese live-streaming market to have viewer numbers topping 456M this year. Tantan, the rival Tinder-like online dating app acquired by Momo last month, is expected to be the company's new growth engine, according to Momo.
by Iris Deng
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