Back in November 2018, we wrote about Chinese technology firm Huawei’s claim that its Huawei Music streaming service had 100 million monthly active users – a surprise to many people in the west […]
Tag: China
Posted inNews
Tencent Music now has nearly 40m people paying for music
Chinese music streaming firm Tencent Music has published its latest financial results, and they reveal significant growth in its number of paying users, and a 60.1% increase in its music subscription revenues year-on-year.
The company’s total revenues in the fourth quarter of 2019 were RMB 7.29bn (around $1.05bn), up 35.1% year-on-year. RMB 2.14bn ($307m) of that came from Tencent Music’s three online music services, representing year-on-year growth of 40.7%. The bulk of the company’s revenue continues to come from social entertainment services – karaoke and live video apps for example – which saw revenues grow by 32.9% to RMB 5.15bn ($740m).
More stats: Tencent Music ended 2019 with 644 million mobile monthly active users of its online music services – that’s exactly the same as it had a year ago, so no growth at all. But the company’s paying users for online music grew by 47.8% to 39.9 million over the same period. Globally, that solidifies Tencent Music’s fourth place behind Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music – with the caveat that its figure combines three different streaming services: QQ Music, Kugou Music and Kuwo Music.
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Bytedance plans to increase headcount to 100k people this year
There’s a lot more to Bytedance than TikTok (Douyin in China) and its new Resso music-streaming service. From news app Toutiao to its reported expansion into games and office software, […]
Posted inNews
Chinese authorities suspend Tencent Music antitrust probe
Tencent Music’s share price enjoyed an upwards bump yesterday, as news broke that China’s State Administration of Market Regulation had suspended an investigation into the company’s licensing strategy. The probe […]
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Music’s global evolution: K-Pop, China, and Eastern Europe
The second morning at this year’s NY:LON Connect conference focused on ‘emerging international and influential markets’. Three territories in particular: South Korea, China, and Russia / Eastern Europe.
The track began with a keynote from Sun Lee, YouTube’s head of music content partnerships and subscriptions for Korea and Greater China. Lee was interviewed by Billboard K-Pop and Pop correspondent Tamar Herman.
“In 2018 it was the sixth largest market in the world, just five years ago it was tenth. You can imagine how quickly the Korean music market has grown,” said Lee, who added that thanks to K-Pop’s global popularity, exports are 37 times bigger than imports for South Korea’s music industry, with Japan and China the top markets in the former case.
Posted inNews
People spent $115bn using WeChat ‘mini programs’ in 2019
Tencent’s messaging app WeChat is already a huge moneymaker in terms of the way people in China use it to pay for all manner of goods and services. One of […]
Posted inNews
Composer Kerry Muzzey tweets tangled tale of Chinese licensing problems
If you want an insight into some of the challenges for composers in 2020, grab a large cup of tea and settle down to read this Twitter thread from Kerry Muzzey, […]
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Beijing hopes music will be a $17.2bn business for it by 2025
Given that the global recorded-music industry was worth $19.1bn in 2018, it may seem extremely ambitious for the government of Chinese capital Beijing to be hoping that its city’s music industry […]
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Bytedance’s Douyin app now has 400m daily active users in China
A day after app-analytics companies were speculating about TikTok’s revenues, its parent company Bytedance has published some official numbers for Douyin – its Chinese short-videos app. They’re big. Douyin now has 400 […]
Posted inReports
Music Ally Report 426: Trends of 2019
This year we’ve picked 42 (also the answer to life, the universe and everything as fans of Douglas Adams will know) of the trends and moments we found most significant in 2019. What are they? *takes deep breath* industry growth; the European Copyright Directive and Music Modernization Act; Spotify’s two-sided marketplace; Apple Music’s bundled future; […]
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Posted inNews
Bytedance hires former Tencent Music exec for Douyin role
Bytedance’s latest music hire will be focusing on its Douyin short-video app in China – the Chinese version of TikTok. The company has recruited Deng Linhai to lead Douyin’s music business, […]
Posted inNews
Tencent Music launches repurchase programme for $400m in shares
Tencent Music’s board of directors has approved a programme that could see the now-public company repurchase up to $400m of shares over the next 12 months. “The Share Repurchase Program reflects the […]