HONG KONG (Reuters Breakingviews) - A Chinese streaming app’s market debut is being photobombed. China’s Kuaishou Technology is eyeing a valuation of up to $62 billion in its Hong Kong initial public offering. But TikTok-owner ByteDance, backed by SoftBank, is making an unwelcome appearance. A costly battle between the pair looms large over Kuaishou’s future prospects. The Tencent-backed company is set to raise up to $6.2 billion in what will be the city’s largest IPO in more than two years, according to Refinitiv’s IFR. Nicknamed the “platform of the people”, Kuaishou’s apps have built up a huge following mostly in China’s smaller cities thanks to viral short videos starring truck drivers, farmers and more. By September, the company boasted 305 million daily active users on its apps. The impressive viewer base has helped the offer secure high-profile international backing. Cornerstone investors including Singapore’s Temasek and GIC, as well as the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, are buying around half the shares up for grabs. Thanks to advertising dollars and sales of virtual gifts that fans buy for their favourite hosts, the streaming company is forecast to ring in 11.4 billion yuan ($1.8 billion) of adjusted EBITDA this year, according to Arun George, who publishes on SmartKarma. At the top of the price range and including an over-allotment option, Kuaishou’s enterprise will trade at 33 times, compared to the average 12 times multiple peers like Momo and Joyy trade on. Kuaishou risks being outshone by its top competitor, however. Douyin, which is ByteDance’s Chinese version of TikTok, is a late entrant to the booming industry but the four-year-old app had a whopping 600 million daily users in August, Reuters reported. To address the threat, Kuaishou spent over $3 billion in sales and marketing expenses in the nine months to September, pushing the company into the red. There are other signs of trouble. Kuaishou is squeezing less money out of its users. Monthly average revenue per paying user has fallen to 47 yuan as of September 2020 for its live-streaming business, down from 53.6 yuan at the end of 2019. Against that backdrop, the company’s effort to attract more advertising dollars makes sense. But with ByteDance appearing to dominate screen time, investors may not be star-struck with Kuaishou for too long.