The Tencent-backed Chinese video startup plans to list in the U.S. in 2020. Prior to that, it’s also raising over US$1 billion at a valuation of US$25 billion, mainly from Tencent. (Bloomberg)

Talking point: The planned IPO will fund its expansion in short video clips and help it better compete with ByteDance, the firm that owns the popular video app TikTok and its Chinese version, Douyin. ByteDance is the world’s most valuable startup, worth over US$75 billion. Tencent has put significant resources in Kuaishou, meant to keep users’ attention and boost ad revenue, but it hasn’t been able to catch up with ByteDance so far. In May, Kuaishou reported reaching 200 million daily active users (DAU) in China. But Douyin said it exceeded that mark months before, in November 2018; it said in July that it had over 320 million DAU in the country. Though TikTok’s audience base may be significantly larger, Kuaishou is known for being the app of choice for those in rural areas in China, including some farmers, who’ve been able to make fortunes off video-streaming. Kuaishou is working to expand to urban centres, adding content like people playing video games and lip-syncing songs.