Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » Oak Pacific Interactive

Chinese Social Network Renren Files For U.S. IPO Under The Symbol “RENN”

Amit Chowdhry — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 04:11:07 +0000

In late February I wrote about how Chinese Facebook clone Renren.com has filed for an IPO in the U.S. Some additional details about the IPO has been disclosed now. Renren.com plans on raising up to $573.1 million in the IPO.

Renren.com is owned by Oak Pacific Interactive. Renren has about 117 million registered users and just like Facebook, there is location-sharing, a “like” feature, and status updates. Renren.com and some of their shareholders are offering 52.1 million American Depository Shares (ADS) in the U.S. stock market.

Renren.com is expecting their IPO to be priced between $9 and $11 per ADS. Renren.com plans on listing under the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “RENN.” Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank Securities, and Credit Suisse plans on underwriting the IPO.

In 2010, Renren.com made $76.5 million in revenues. They had a net loss of continuing operation of about $61.2 million plus charges.

[Reuters]

Oak Pacific Interactive, Chinese Company Behind Renren and Nuomi, Is Considering A U.S. IPO

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 23:08:37 +0000

[Renren Screenshot]

Oak Pacific Interactive is a Chinese Internet company that has created the “Facebook of China” called Renren and the “Groupon of China” called Nuomi. Oak hired Creduit Suisse Group AG and Deutsche Bank AG to underwrite the IPO. The IPO is expected to take place sometime next year. This year there were 35 Chinese IPOs in the U.S, including Youku and DangDang. [Fast Company]

Chinese Facebook Replica Xiaonei Changing Name To Renren In Preparation For Scalability

Amit Chowdhry — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 15:25:41 +0000

Chinese social network Xiaonei.com was bought out by Oak Pacific in October 2006 and even raised $430 million in May 2008. The name Xiaonei translated to “in campus” in the Chinese language. Essentially this limits people to believe that the social network is only limited to college and university students in China. The name Renren actually means “everyone” in Chinese.

Apparently the name change will open up the possibilities for “everyone” to join. Similar to Facebook, the service started only intended for college students but gradually opened up for everyone. Renren is taking the same approach.

Joe Chen of Oak Pacific decided upon the name change and is rumored to be merging the company’s other social networks under the Renren brand. The other social networks include MOP and Kaixin.com. Renren.com used to be a hot web property in 1999, but it went bankrupt in 2001. Then Joe Chen bought the domain name in 2005. Renren was made into a classifieds website in 2006, but then it was shut down again in 2007.