{"text":[[{"start":8,"text":"This article only represents the author's own views."}],[{"start":11.9,"text":"In a park in western Shanghai’s leafy Changning district, the Romomo Live Streaming Center is a showcase of livestreaming technology that’s all the rage these days on China e-commerce scene. The facility features 150 broadcast studios in two buildings and 300 resident hosts, who, on any given day, are likely to be pitching high-end international fashion and footwear brands. Those brands are all customers of Romomo’s parent, Shanghai Buy Quickly BMax Technology Services Group Co. Ltd."}],[{"start":45.25,"text":"Now, BMax is bringing its e-commerce services story to the capital markets with its application last week for a Hong Kong IPO, aimed at raising cash to expand the company’s fast-growing livestreaming business. The listing boasts an all-star cast of Citic Securities and CLSA as underwriter and coordinator, respectively, with HSG, formerly Sequoia China, as a major backer, indicating it’s likely to be relatively large, perhaps raising $100 million or more."}],[{"start":74.55,"text":"BMax is no run-of-the-mill e-commerce services provider, focused squarely on the mid- to luxury-end of the market. Its clients last year included 70% of the world’s top 20 high-end fashion brands, earning it a reputation as a “gondolier” steering names like LVMH and Estée Lauder to online shoppers."}],[{"start":94.05,"text":"It ranks second nationally in terms of gross merchandise value (GMV) handled through its e-commerce services, with 39.7 billion yuan ($5.82 billion) in GMV last year, giving it 2.7% of the domestic market. Only Baozun (9991.HK, BZUN.US) was larger, with 5.3% of the market, according to third-party data in the company’s prospectus."}],[{"start":120.19999999999999,"text":"But BMax faces stiff competition from not only Baozun, but also names like Weimob (2013.HK), Qingmu (301110.SZ) and Bicheng Digital, among others vying for a piece of the huge market. The result is price pressure. Brands that are the chief customers of these service providers are shopping for companies that offer the lowest service fees and commission rates, and are also setting up their own in-house e-commerce teams. At the same time, China’s overall e-commerce market is rapidly maturing, dampening growth for everyone and sending many service providers into the red."}],[{"start":159.25,"text":"Reliance on traditional e-commerce services"}],[{"start":162.5,"text":"Traditional e-commerce services continue to make up the bulk of BMax’s business, at about two-thirds of its revenue last year. By comparison, newer livestreaming services made up 21.9% of the total. But the latter grew 30% year-over-year in 2025, compared to just 12.6% growth for BMax’s traditional e-commerce services business."}],[{"start":187.9,"text":"BMax’s revenue has been rising at a steady, if not overly impressive, clip over the last three years, growing about 20% from 1.32 billion yuan ($194 million) in 2023 to 1.59 billion yuan last year. But growth for its core business was slowing notably over that time. BMax’s traditional e-commerce services, offered for brands selling on traditional e-commerce platforms like Tmall and JD.com, grew by just over 10% between 2023 and 2025. Livestreaming services grew by a much faster 64% over that time."}],[{"start":226.3,"text":"The slowdown in BMax’s core business has taken a toll on its gross margin and profits. Its gross margin fell from 37.2% in 2023 to 33.4% last year, while profit fell by 18% from 250 million yuan to 204 million yuan over that time."}],[{"start":245.35000000000002,"text":"The good news is that BMax has emerged as the leader in the fast-growing market for livestreaming e-commerce services. In 2025, it had 4.6% of the Chinese market for “interest” based e-commerce, which refers to people who buy products sold over social media channels like Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, and RedNote, also known as Xiaohongshu."}],[{"start":268.8,"text":"Selling over social media, often via popular hosts and celebrities using livestreaming, has become all the rage in China these days, encroaching on traditional e-commerce buying from shops in online malls like Pinduoduo, JD.com and Tmall. Livestreaming services in China grew by 37.5% annually between 2021 and 2025, compared to 15% for traditional e-commerce services over that time, according to independent research in BMax’s prospectus."}],[{"start":301.55,"text":"Livestreaming business is also taking a bigger slice of BMax’s revenue pie, growing from 16.1% in 2023 to 21.9% last year, according to its IPO filing."}],[{"start":314,"text":"Livestreaming campus"}],[{"start":316,"text":"A studio complex in Shanghai’s Linkong Park, one of 20 livestreaming campuses in the city, served as BMax’s entry to the livestreaming market in 2021. “Four years ago, we were just a small studio next to a supermarket on the first floor,” Zhao Meiling, BMax’s head of government relations, told Chinese media in a recent interview. “Now we’ve grown into an industry leader with 300 live streamers and 150 professional livestreaming rooms.”"}],[{"start":346,"text":"BMax has a distinct edge in livestreaming over Baozun, which started later in the game, and Weimob, which specializes in social media through its close ties with Tencent’s WeChat but lacks a capacity in other online channels. Baozun only began developing a livestreaming business in 2023, with its “Creative Content to Commerce” studios and acquisition of Location, a Douyin partner. But that investment has yet to pay off, with revenue from the services side of its business, which includes livestreaming, up just 2.4% last year to 6 billion yuan."}],[{"start":380.35,"text":"BMax also has a competitive advantage in its model that has provided services over multiple channels from the beginning, unlike Baozun, which is closely tied to Alibaba and its massive Tmall platform, and the much smaller Weimob, which is deeply integrated with WeChat."}],[{"start":396.55,"text":"By comparison, BMax has provided services across multiple e-commerce platforms over its 15-year history, initially for brands selling their products over traditional e-commerce platforms like Tmall and JD.com, as well as official company websites and WeChat mini-programs. The company points out in its prospectus that it “strategically evolved into social media channels” to keep up with the latest trends in Chinese e-commerce."}],[{"start":421.75,"text":"BMax launched its proprietary multi-channel digital retail operating system, called Futail, in 2023. It connects data from all mainstream platforms, integrating management from supply chain to marketing. BMax also caters to the design needs of its premium customers, with its own design center, internal creative center and a livestreaming team of 208 in-house streamers."}],[{"start":445.15,"text":"While Hong Kong’s IPO boom has provided a bonanza for many tech firms, e-commerce and related services have yet to catch the wave, probably due to the market’s relative maturity compared with sexier emerging areas like AI and robotics. Baozun is typical of the group, currently losing money as its stock trades more than 91% below its secondary listing price in Hong Kong from September 2020. Weimob is also money-losing, and its shares trade 50% lower than their IPO price from January 2019."}],[{"start":478.34999999999997,"text":"BMax looks better than both of those due to its profitability and leading position in livestreaming e-commerce. Still, a price-to-sales (P/S) ratio of 5, which would top Weimob’s 2.9 and Baozun’s meager 0.11, would value BMax at just over $1 billion, which put it into the league of tech “unicorns.”"}],[{"start":505.99999999999994,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1778147754_3546.mp3"}