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Renren’s Impressive IPO Isn’t That Impressive

Chinese social network Renren started off the first day of its initial public offering (IPO) in spectacular fashion. Its share price went up as high as $21.78 and eventually ended at $18.01, about 22 percent higher than its initial trading price at $14.

While the IPO is a success, it remains to be seen if Renren could match up to Facebook’s revenue per user ratio. The Financial Times reported that Facebook earns about $4 per user while Renren makes only $0.80. That’s a huge difference in monetization efficiency, but as many have pointed out over the past few days, Renren is no Facebook. In its latest SEC filing, Renren reported a lost of $1.1 million despite stating that its online advertising revenue increased by 100.5 percent and online gaming revenue by 11.3 percent on a Q1 year-on-year basis. Nonetheless, the loss is explained:

“There is a large financial charge related to the exercise of warrant by one of our largest investors Softbank… because we sold our shares too cheaply three years ago… so therefore we have a large charge.. going forward all that costs are gone,” said Joseph Chen, CEO of Renren in an interview. Renren’s user count stands at about 117 million but only 31 million are active monthly users. That isn’t especially impressive when compared to Facebook’s 500 million active users with 50 percent logging on to the social network in any given day. I’m not too excited about Renren’s IPO as the user statistics don’t really seem to suggest a bright future. At least in my opinion, Renren lacks the stickiness and sleek user interface that I’d like to see in a social network. I gave up using the site long ago. A social network thrives on a strong community and Renren doesn’t seem to be able to do that as well as Facebook or even China’s microblog, Sina Weibo. But then again, who can? I believe Renren’s impressive IPO is at best a speculative surge since it is the first social network to be listed on the NYSE. Let us know your thoughts.