One of China's most prominent selfie app developers, Meitu Inc, made its debut on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HK) on Thursday. The listing marked the biggest initial public offering in HK by a tech company since Alibaba's listing.

Meitu's stock opened at the price of HK$8.78 ($1.13), marginally higher than the initial offering price. The public issue helped the Fujian-based tech company to raise $629 million and now its market valuation stands at $4.6 billion.

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The beauty app has so far clocked 456 million monthly active users with the promise to beautify their faces via its plethora of selfie editing tools. These tools enable users to slim faces, change the color of complexions, and widen eyes.

The company said that its business model is to use fermium model for attracting large user base with innovative products and services, followed by the implementation of various monetization strategies after reaching a certain scale.

Meitu's president and founder, Cai Wensheng, revealed that the firm plans to monetize money from other streams like online advertising, e-commerce, and games in future.  

Its business model, however, has been termed as unsustainable in the long run by several business analysts. The most cited reason for this apprehension is that Meitu app operates in a niche market that is highly competitive.  

There are also doubts over whether the beauty app company can capitalize on its new ventures like games and e-commerce.

Lu Zhenwang, an internet analyst in Shanghai, said that these new business areas have no cohesion with current business model, adding that the firm faces enormous challenges ahead.     

TagsMeitu, Meitu APP, Meitu IPO, Hong Kong Stock Exchange