Xinhua, China’s official news agency, is planning to raise Rmb1.5bn ($242m) in an initial public offering of its online operations, as the government mouthpiece seeks to gain market share in the country’s competitive, fast-growing online media sector.

The Xinhuanet IPO would follow the 2012 debut of People.cn, the website of People’s Daily – the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist party – which raised Rmb1.4bn.

Xinhuanet publishes news in 10 languages, drawing on Xinhua’s stable of 4,500 journalists in 180 bureaux in China and around the world. But like People.cn, Xinhuanet has not shied away from attracting clicks with racy photos and celebrity gossip, content likely to have raised eyebrows among the Communist revolutionaries who founded Xinhua in the 1930s.