The Winner Of Social Media IPOs Is... China? (YOKU, DANG, BIDU, SINA)

Chinese social networking website Renren.com announced plans to go public in the American markets this Spring, making it potentially the first social media company to file its IPO. Renren.com, which translates to "everyone," plans to raise about $500 million with investment firms Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, and Morgan Stanley. Renren.com has a self-reported 160 million users and is known as the largest social network of its kind in the country. Other Chinese spin-off brands of popular American websites have faced success from going public in America, such as Youtube-esque Youku YOKU, shopping site Dangdang DANG, and digital search engine Baidu BIDU. Besides becoming, possibly, the first social networking company to reach the IPO finish line, Renren.com is reaching it prior to its original American counterpart, the ubiquitous Facebook. Those eager to jump into the growing sector of social media may want to try their hand at this historic stock, but try not to get hasty. LinkedIn announced its proposed IPO on January 27, 2011. Furthermore, as Benzinga readers know, Facebook received $500 million from Goldman Sachs Group GS and Digital Sky Technologies in January. The deal valued Facebook at $50 billion, according to the report. Rumors of the two social powerhouses going public (and in Facebook's case, it appears to be inevitable) will make the social media sector a vibrant trading place in the future. In the short-term, many desiring to invest in social media may continue to play it safer in private exchanges such as SharesPost. Since Facebook and Twitter aren't public yet, Sina SINA might be worth a look, since it owns the Chinese version of Twitter, Weibo.