Cheetah Mobile, China's largest mobile tool developer and second-largest Internet security provider, listed its shares on the New York Stock Exchange on May 8 last year. The company is a merger between two companies, Kingsoft Security and Conew Image. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY

Chinese Internet security company listed on NYSE enjoys surge in mobile revenues, Fan Feifei and Hu Yuanyuan report.

Fu Sheng, CEO of Cheetah Mobile, a NYSE-listed Internet company, said the company's success in exploring the overseas market could be emulated in short order by emerging Chinese enterprises.

"The era for China to enter the international market has already arrived," Fu told China Daily. "It is possible for Chinese enterprises to become global companies because mobile Internet has allowed the split regional market to combine into a global market."

Fu said the Chinese Internet model has its own advantages in the world, and the stage has been set for Chinese-made mobile apps.

Fu Sheng, CEO of Cheetah Mobile, a NYSE-listed Internet company

Born in 1978, Fu worked for five years at Qihoo 360 Technology as general manager of the software group, leading the development of the 360 safeguard products that became the cornerstone of Qihoo 360. In addition, he served as vice-president of Matrix Partners China, joining the company in 2008, and founded Conew Image, where he served as the chairman and CEO, in 2009.

Fu founded Cheetah, the largest mobile tool developer and second-largest Internet security provider in China, in November 2010, as a merger between two companies — Kingsoft Security and Conew Image. Fu led the successful listing of the company on the New York Stock Exchange in May last year.

The company's first quarter financial statement showed that its mobile and overseas revenue surged. The mobile income has reached 370 million yuan ($60.2 million), soaring 584 percent year-on-year and taking up 55 percent of the total revenue, which was also the first time that the company's mobile business, driven by mobile advertising services, contributed more income compared with that from desktops.

The overseas income totaled 260 million yuan, accounting for 38 percent of its total revenue and 70 percent of the mobile income.

"Our mobile monetization, especially in overseas markets, has already become our main source of revenue and a key growth engine for us," said Fu, explaining that overseas income had grown rapidly considering it was zero in May last year.

Fu estimated the overseas income will soon account for more than half of the total revenue.

Cheetah said its mobile products have been downloaded more than 1.34 billion times worldwide, with about 443 million monthly active users. Seventy-one percent of monthly active users are from Europe, the United States and other overseas markets, according to its first quarter financial statement.

Its mission critical applications, including Clean Master, CM Security, Battery Doctor and Duba Antivirus, make the Internet and mobile experience speedier, simpler, and safer for users, the company said.

"One of our biggest advantages compared with American enterprises is that we could hire about 1,000 engineers within a year, but it is very difficult to do that in Silicon Valley, only Google and Facebook have that kind of charisma. Moreover, our free-of-charge mode is really attracting users."

Fu pointed out the competition of the domestic IT industry is much fiercer than overseas, which also provides a good opportunity for Chinese enterprises' overseas expansion.

"When we set out to go overseas, we saw each app on the category of Google Play tools. Interestingly, I found the No 1 app on the image-ranking list is developed by several programmers in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. This means you don't need to possess a strong overseas background, as long as users feel your product is good, then you can still acquire large amount of users," Fu said.

However, Chinese Internet giants such as Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent heavily depend on the domestic market.

The success of Cheetah Mobile in overseas markets lies in its asset-light firm, requiring no offices overseas. It is not a separate case and its mode can be copied by other companies, Fu said, suggesting the successors should view the globalization with a differentiated thought, looking for a point which is often neglected by others.