Over on Technode Sherman So is reporting that children’s social networking site Taomee (淘米网) will go public on the Nasdaq in the next few days, citing a banking source. Taomee, which uses the domain 61.com, is a children’s social networking website that claims 180 million registered users.
This comes at a time when Chinese internet companies are everywhere in tech news headlines. Other major players such as Kaixin and Sina Weibo are expected to IPO. In addition, search giant Baidu is rumored to have come to an agreement with Facebook to bring the social network to China.
Last week Financial news site imeigu.com included Taomee on a list of 17 Chinese companies likely to go IPO in 2011. Gang Lu (also of Technode) presented them in English as did iChinaStock. As with many popular online activities for kids, there have been concerns that Taomee – particularly the game Moore Park – is too addictive for children. Though personally I’m more concerned with the animated characters’ striking resemblance to Japan’s famous Anpanman cartoon. See the video clip below of another Taomee game, Kung Fu Wars, which looks like a pretty standard smash-em RPG.
The 61.com domain was purchased by the Shanghai-based Taomee back in 2009 to bring together a range of sites under one umbrella. June 1st (or 6/1) is International Children’s Day which is celebrated in many countries including China, hence the significance of the name.
We’ve contacted Taomee regarding the report that it will go public, but at the time of writing have we not received any comment.
Photo: wallss.cn
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