After missing several opportunities, Chinese daily deals company Wowo Ltd. (or 55Tuan) has finally went to IPO (NASDAQ: WOWO). After pivoting to become a local lifestyle e-commerce platform earlier this year, Wowo pussyfooted around having an IPO, with the company filing but delaying several times. Now Wowoโs pledge to go to IPO plans to raise US$40 million from the offering.
At the companyโs market debut, the IPO initial price was fixed at US$10 per American depositary shares (โADSsโ), ahead of trading today on NASDAQ. Commencing trading at US$10 on Beijing time April 8th, Wowoโs stock price fell slightly to US$9.81, having hovered around the US$10 level.
Wowo claims to be the first Chinese O2O service to have gone public. It shifted to a local lifestyle e-commerce platform ahead of its NASDAQ debut, as the O2O concept is not popular in the U.S. Regardless of the positioning, Wowoโs poor performance failed to grab investor attention. Stock analysts watching Snowball, the popular financial social media platform for Chinese investors, suggested that Wowoโs listing has attracted little attention.
Recent data show that the Chinese group-buying market is dominated by Meituan, with 50% of gross merchandise volume, followed by Dianping (20%) and Nuomi. Lashou and Wowo, previously market pioneers, have a single digit market share percentage between them.
Image Credit: Wowo
Editing by Mike Cormack (@bucketoftongues)
