Ahead of its IPO, TouchPal co-founder says the company has 180 million users

Chinese mobile internet company CooTek (触宝)—the firm behind virtual keyboard TouchPal—has 180 million users in 240 regions and countries around the world, chairperson Zhang Kan told employees in an open letter this week.

Zhang made the comments ahead of the company’s listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) yesterday (September 28), reports local media (in Chinese). However, he did not go into detail about how the number of geographical locations was measured.

CooTek filed for its US listing last month, initially hoping to raise $100 million. However, the company priced its shares at the low end of its range and raised $52 million. Additionally, its shares were trading 18% lower than their opening price of $11.50 at the end of its first day on the NYSE.

The company said it has 132 million daily active users (DAUs), a 75% increase compared to last year. The company’s primary revenue source is mobile advertising. It also claimed to have seen 453% total ad revenue growth in the first six months of the year.

Founded in 2008, the company took an international approach from its inception. 95% of the company’s users are outside of China. While it believes keyboards may not be “sexy” tech, they are something that all owners of smartphones use. Its TouchPal keyboard includes a glide feature, error correction, predictive typing, and a personal assistant, and is available in over 80 languages. The keyboard has 125 million DAU and 171 million monthly active users (MAUs), according to the filing.

“The more we developed innovative keyboard features, the more we believe it’s related to AI, natural language processing and how the machine can understand and see the world,” Michael Wang, CEO and co-founder of CooTek told attendees at TechCrunch Hangzhou in July. In line with this, the company says it intends to use its IPO financing to develop these technologies in the future.

CooTek also offers a range of other apps that cover fitness, healthcare, and gaming. Combined, these products have 7 million DAUs and 22 million MAUs.