Ho Chi Minh Metropolis-headquartered VNG Company, the expertise firm behind numerous Vietnamese video video games in addition to the Asian nation’s main music streaming service, has formally filed for an IPO within the U.S.
19-year-old VNG only in the near past submitted its registration assertion and prospectus, searching for to listing on NASDAQ as VNG Restricted roughly 21.69 million shares; the Cayman Islands-based listed entity would possess a 49 % curiosity within the overarching VNG Corp.
Moreover creating a number of video games (and licensing titles together with PUBG Cell from “principal shareholder” Tencent), the enterprise operates cellular messaging platform Zalo (which is claimed to boast 75 million month-to-month energetic customers) and the above-highlighted Zing MP3 streaming service.
Zing, for its half, was conceived in 2007 and had 28.7 million month-to-month energetic customers (MAUs) as of Q2 2023, based on VNG’s submitting. For reference, Vietnam is dwelling to about 100 million people, and Zing’s recognized Q2 2023 usership truly marks a slight dip from that which VNG connected to 2020 (30.5 million MAUs) and 2021 (29.1 million).
In any occasion, the seldom-discussed streaming providing has licensing offers in place with the NetEase Cloud Music investor Sony Music Leisure in addition to Common Music Group, execs emphasised – albeit with out mentioning the ultimate Large Three label. On high of a seemingly in depth music library, the platform offers entry to an array of podcasts, a cursory take a look at Zing MP3 exhibits.
On the pricing entrance, Zing MP3 options each an ad-supported model and a premium tier, with the latter enabling followers to take away adverts, keep a bigger offline library, and “stream tracks with greater audio high quality,” per the regulatory useful resource. (Spotify’s July of 2023 worth hike in over 50 markets didn’t lengthen to Vietnam, the place a month of premium presently prices 59,000₫/$2.46.)
Lastly, by way of the pertinent particulars put out by VNG, execs acknowledged an ongoing stateside copyright infringement lawsuit levied by California-based Vietnamese music firm Lang Van. About 14 months again, an appellate court docket overturned the criticism’s prior dismissal.
Concerning the operational significance of Tencent titles for VNG – and, in flip, its affect over the Vietnamese enterprise’s operations – the prospectus disclosed the works’ income contributions as a proportion of whole revenue. “In 2020, 2021 and 2022, video games from our high two third-party recreation builders, associates of Tencent and Kingsoft, contributed 30.6%, 40.7% and 29.4% of our income,” the F-1 reads partly.
Extra broadly, it’ll be value monitoring the expansion trajectory of Zing MP3 shifting ahead – particularly given Tencent’s stake in VNG in addition to the historic problem that worldwide gamers like Spotify and Apple Music have had unseating well-entrenched regional streaming platforms. Earlier in August, Tencent Music (NYSE: TME) reported having roughly 100 million paid customers as of Q2’s conclusion in addition to record-high common income per subscriber.