(Yicai Global) Dec. 31 -- Chinese mobile app developer and advertising platform Newborn Town's shares [HKG:9911] have doubled in value on their first trading day.

Newborn Town was priced at HKD1.68 (USD0.22) per share but rose to HKD3.37 half an hour after trading began to hit a new market capitalization of HKG3.37 billion (USD430 million). The share price then slipped to close at HKD3.29, up almost 96 percent.

The Beijing-based firm has been oversubscribed 1,441.83 times by private investors, breaking the record 752 times set by Ascentage Pharma Group International and scoring the highest greenshoe ratio among Hong Kong listings this year.

The AI-driven information distribution startup's revenue was CNY137 million (USD19.62 million), CNY182 million and CNY277million from 2016 to 2018, respectively, an increase of 42.2 percent. Its revenue reached CNY184 million in the first half, up 58 percent from a year earlier. Gross profit was CNY123 million, up 118 percent. 

Founded in 2011, Newborn Town was hailed as one of the world's fastest-growing startups in the mid-2010s. It listed on the Hurun China Future Unicorns 2019 list, which predicts which startups could reach a USD1 billion valuation, and which appeared in the first quarter.

Newborn Town's consumer apps encompass user systems, fitness, media and entertainment and games and have attracted almost 800 million users from over 200 countries and regions. Its business apps provided monetization services for more than 1.29 million publishers in the first half.

Huawei Cloud signed an overseas expansion agreement with Newborn Town recently, which helps startups tap into the global market.

The scale of the world mobile app market, including advertising revenue and in-app purchase revenue is estimated to continue growing at a CAGR of 20.7 percent from 2018 to 2023, and reach USD 935.2 billion in 2023, according to a report by market data firm iResearch Consulting Group.

The total advertising expenditure in China's mobile advertising overseas market is expected to reach USD35.8 billion in 2023, growing at a nearly 27 percent compound annual growth rate from last year to 2023.

Editor: Ben Armour