It is rumored that Renren is looking to sell all businesses except Renren Games, the only profitable business the company has. All the unprofitable include the Facebook clone Renren.com, the rest of Nuomi Baidu hasnโt taken, and online video service 56.com. Another rumor says the one that will take over all of those is Baidu.
Joseph Chen, CEO of Renren, responded with a post on Renren hinting those rumors are not โreliableโ.
Mr. Chen acquired Xiaonei.com, a pixel-by-pixel clone of Facebook, in 2006. Posing as โthe Facebook of Chinaโ helped it raise $740 million in IPO debut. Display advertising accounted for the majority of the total revenues when Renren went public in the U.S.. Renren claims itโs the largest real name social network in China, but itโs only popular among college students.
Baiduโs acquisition of 59% of Nuomi, a group-buying service, is expected to be closed this quarter. Launched in 2010, Nuomi never turned a profit.
Renren acquired online video site 56.com in September 2011 for $80 million. Itโs one of the least expensive deals in Chinaโs online video industry, but it seems the video service hasnโt brought the effect in revenue to Renren as online video did to other players like Sohu.
Renren Games turned out to be the only one under Renren that grew fast and generated profits. Joseph Chen had said at various occasions that Renren Games would go public as an independent company.
Leave a comment