Ximalay’s eye-popping subscriber number; Himalaya funding announcement under question

The Chinese podcast app Ximalaya, and the Himalaya offshoot app which mounted a presence at Podcast Movement last month, are both in the news recently.

Ximalaya has stated that the app has “about 500-million users,” according to this report in Abacus News. We noted this Friday, here. That is an eyebrow-raising figure, seemingly giving Ximalaya substantially greater reach than Spotify. Also notable is this metric: The average user spends 2.5 hours a day in the app — about 17 hours over a seven-day week. That is super consumerism of podcasts.

Ximalaya is a creation tool for would-be podcasters, in addition to its role as a podcatcher for listening.

Today, uneasy news reported by Axios, that Himalaya, which can be regarded as an English-language spin-off of Ximalaya, overstated its launch funding. The original fundraising figure was $100-million, as we reported here. Two of its backers were reported to be Ximalaya and global investor General Atlantic. Axios cites a General Atlantic spokesperson who clarified that her company invested in Ximalaya. Axios could not find an SEC filing or any other documentation of an investment directly into Himalaya.

Himalaya has taken its original launch announcement offline, Axios reports, and Himalaya Yu Want said that the PR language was unclear. Axios is still investigating, and waiting for clarifying documents that have been promised.

 

Brad Hill