China’s iDreamSky begins trading at Nasdaq

Global Business

iDreamSky Technology is the first Chinese company to go public in the U.S. this month.
The Shenzhen-based gaming company partners with the makers of popular mobile games from abroad like “Temple Run”, “Subway Surfers” and “Fruit Ninja” and then localizes them for the Chinese market.
Karina Huber has more on how it did on its first day of trading.

Shares of iDreamSky started trading at the NASDAQ on Thursday. And there was a lot for the company to celebrate. Shares priced at $15 dollars a share, which is higher than the expected range, indicating strong demand. iDreamSky raised more than $115 million dollars.

Jun Zou, Chief Financial Officer, iDreamSky, says, “First recruit talents. And second, we do have a plan to invest in technology companies such as data analytic companies in Silicon Valley.”

The company that started in 2009 made a profit of $5.4 million dollars on more than $40 million in revenue last year. More than $97 million of its games were downloaded in 2013. That’s an 83 percent jump from the year before.

These are numbers U.S. investors are impressed by, according to Ari Zoldan of Quantum Networks.

IDreamSky’s games are free to download. It makes money by charging users for in-game services like avatars and certain gaming privileges. It currently has three of the ten most popular mobile games in China and has almost 100 million monthly active users.

iDreamSky’s Chief Financial Officer Jun Zou says in China only 40 percent of mobile users are using games whereas in the U.S. that number is closer to 70 percent, so he believes there is still a lot more room for mobile gaming to grow in China.

“Now you know we are rolling out 4G. Secondly, nine out of ten phones being sold today in China are smart phones. Phones are getting better. So overall, mobile Internet penetration are getting better and mobile gaming penetration are getting better as well.”

iDreamSky is also gearing up to take advantage of that growing market. It has several popular games from Disney, Marvel and others that are in the pipeline to launch in China next year.