2017-11-15

Bestseller: China Literature's IPO

① It looks to be a love story.

② Today China's most popular provider of fiction-for-phones will book over $1bn in a flotation on Hong Kong's stock exchange.

③ Retail stock was subscribed 600 times over; investors expect a valuation of above $6bn.

④ They hope to help write the next chapters of China Literature—as affluent young Chinese become more willing to pay for them.

⑤ The novel platform, where every month 200m feast on a library of close to 10m novels on their smartphones, offers the first pages of some works for free, then charges to read on.

⑥ The 6m authors who write for the repository serialise works and adapt plotlines based on readers' comments.

⑦ And there is a real-life twist: its majority stakeholder is Tencent, a gaming-and-social-media behemoth that wants to expand its entertainment empire.

⑧ Bestselling novels are already being made into hit games, films and dramas, reaping juicy licensing fees.

⑨ Expect a page-turner.

▍生词好句

IPO: 首次公开募股 (Initial Public Offerings)

flotation /fləʊˈteɪʃ(ə)n/: n. 发行股票

subscribe /səbˈskrʌɪb/: vt. 订购、认购 (股票等)

affluent /ˈaflʊənt/: adj. 富裕的

feast on: 尽情享用

feast /fiːst/: n. 盛宴；(感官) 享受

repository /rɪˈpɒzɪt(ə)ri/: n. 存放处；信息库

serialize /ˈsɪərɪəlʌɪz/: vt. 连载

behemoth /bɪˈhiːmɒθ/ /ˈbiːhɪˌməʊθ/: n. 庞然大物

hit /hɪt/: n. 风靡一时

reap /riːp/: vt. 收割；收获

juicy /ˈdʒuːsi/: adj. 多汁的；利润丰厚的

licensing fees: n. 许可费；知识产权费