Consumer Staples Author：Zhenglei Shi Oct 29, 2019 12:19 PM (GMT+8)

The first of its kind to be listed in the US, Lychee FM is set to lead the race against China's audio-sharing platforms.

Lychee FM contents majority user generated. Image credit: DaCast.com

Lychee FM (or Lizhi FM) (荔枝) handed in their F-1 forms to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last night at 12 am. Credit Suisse and Citigroup are the lead underwriters for this IPO.

The popular audio-sharing platform has acquired more than USD 100 million in four rounds of funding already. The implication of this news is that Lychee FM has the potential to become China’s #1 audio sharing platform, as it is the first of its kind to go public in the United States.

According to their prospectus, Lychee FM established their mobile application in 2013, where users could document and share their own everyday lives as well as attract large followings. This allowed Lychee to gain the reputation of being the audio version of Instagram and YouTube.

Since June 2019, the user base of Lychee has uploaded approximately 160.6 million audio recordings, with the total number of plays over 6.1 billion times.

Nearly all of the content on Lychee FM is User Generated Content (UGC) and they encompass a wide variety of genres.

Lychee FM also has plans to further expand their business in the Middle East and Africa.

Similar audio-sharing companies to Lychee FM are iHeartRadio, TuneIn, Ximalaya FM, and Dragonfly FM, all of which remain private thus far.

Also falling under the 'payment-for-knowledge' (知识付费) business model that is trending in China currently, popular application Luoji Siwei (罗辑思维), will possibly soon be listed on Shanghai’s new STAR market.