Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the sixth common malignancies worldwide and the leading cause of death in Asian and African countries. Aberrant accumulation of lncRNAs is one of major causes of tumorigenesis in HCC. Small nucleolar RNA host gene 16 (SNHG16) is identified as an oncogene in multiple types of tumor. However, the role of SNHG16 in HCC is poor understood. Here, we showed that SNG16 was up-regulated and associated with poor prognosis in HCC. Then, we demonstrated that SNHG16 interacted with miR-302a-3p and depressed its expression. Moreover, our result indicated that SNHG16/miR-302a-3p axis regulated the expression of FGF19 in liver cancer cells. Finally, we investigated the biological function of SNHG16 in HCC and showed that SNHG16 promoted liver cancer cells proliferation via the SNHG16/miR-302a-3p/FGF19 axis. Collectively, these data suggest that SNHG16 might be a predictive biomarker and a potential therapeutic target of liver cancer.