Chinese short video app Kuaishou’s daily active users (DAUs) of its game-centric, live streaming service has exceeded 35 million, the company said in a press release.
Although Douyu claims to be the largest game-centric live streaming platform in China, with 159.2 million monthly active users (MAUs) during the first quarter of 2019, Kuaishou’s users may have a habit of logging on more often. Market research firm QuestMobile’s data shows that Douyu’s DAUs reached 15 million in early June, 36Kr reported, lagging far behind Kuaishou’s stated figure.
Douyu went public in the United States this week, raising USD 775 million in an initial public offering. It closed at USD 11.50 on Wednesday, edging back up to its debut price after a brief dip.
Kuaishou’s DAUs also outnumber those of Huya, another live streaming site in China that is listed in the US. The company said it had 123.8 million MAUs in the first quarter of this year. Questmobile’s data showed that its DAUs had reached 11 million in early June.
That is to say, although Kuaishou is mostly known as a short video app competing with Douyin, it has more users logging on each day to watch or live stream video game-related content than Huya and Douyu combined.
In addition, ten out of the top 50 most popular live streamers for Tencent’s Honor of Kings battle arena mobile game have been using Kuaishou since June 30, Kuaishou said in the press release, citing data from Xiaohulu, a third-party research firm that focuses on the live streaming sector.
Kuaishou’s DAUs and the number of top-level live-broadcasters on the platform suggest that it is a dark horse that remains unnoticed in the game-centric live streaming sector, said Cai Jin, CEO of Xiaohulu.
Kuaishou aims to catch up with Duoyin even though its founders earlier this year warned that the company may experience “slower growth.”
The company has set a target to acquire 300 million DAUs before the Chinese Lunar New Year, which starts on January 25, 2020.
It has also set a RMB 15 billion (USD 2.18 billion) revenue target for its ad sales business. Kuaishou told KrASIA on Wednesday that live broadcasting now makes up the largest part of its entire revenue, though the company did not reveal further details about this channel of income.
36Kr is KrASIA’s parent company.
