China’s LeEco plans US listing in 2019 as part of global expansion
Chinese internet giant LeEco plans a US public listing in 2019 as part of a strategy to crack the US consumer market and eventually develop itself into a global brand, according to a company executive.
“Our strategy allows for us to globalise, and to be a global company we need to go for that US listing in the future,” said Winston Cheng, global head of corporate finance and development at LeEco Holdings.
“We’ve hired a great finance team who’ve come on board in the last months, putting financial control processes in place. It’s not easy work for us because we’re moving so fast … we’re a very capital-intensive, high growth business,” Cheng added.
Earlier this month, LeEco conducted a high-profile US launch in San Francisco, unveiling its hardware and ecosystem products to the world’s largest consumer market. LeEco hopes to become one of the few Chinese hardware makers to successfully mount its television sets in the living rooms of many North American consumers.
The company typically sells its televisions and smartphones at a subsidised price and bundles several months of free subscription to its OTT video-streaming platform, in the hopes that consumers will continue paying for a content subscription later on.
The US is a market with high average revenue per unit, and consumers are very willing to pay
In China, where LeEco produces much original content, the business model has proven to be lucrative. In 2015, the company had 12 million paid subscribers for its content platform.