China’s answer to Vine gets new funding, now valued at over $1b

Ready for my close-up. Image credit: SteveC.

China’s answer to Vine, an app named Miaopai, has secured US$200 million in series D funding, the startup has revealed.

The funding was announced at an event yesterday, reports Sina Tech (hat-tip to TechCrunch for spotting this), where the figure “$200,000,000” was splashed across a huge screen. Because why the hell not.

LOOK AT MAH MONEY. Image source: Sina Tech

The funding for Yixia, the startup behind Miaopai, comes from Weibo, Sequoia Capital, and Korea-based YG Entertainment. Weibo and parent company Sina have long been investors in the video app. The huge new round values Yixia at over US$1 billion, the startup claimed.

It’s unclear how much of a stake Weibo and Sina have, but the tech giant has heavily promoted Miaopai over the years, and to casual observers it kind of looks like it’s a Weibo spin-off app. Weibo’s 222 million monthly active users have helped Miaopai get quite a bit of traction. The startup claims its app gets 1 million video uploads per day along with 510 million video views on the average day. It has 5 million daily active users.

Miaopai app.

The app’s biggest rival is not Vine (surprisingly not blocked in China), but Tencent’s Weishi. Tencent’s video app integrates closely with its popular WeChat.

Weibo and Miaopai said yesterday they plan to collaborate on Periscope-style live video streaming.

Source: Sina Tech