Tencent Music charges for more content as paying users drive profit beat
Beijing — China’s Tencent Music says it has started charging for more of its content in the first quarter as the popularity of its pay-for-streaming services helps drive up profit to above expectations. The company, controlled by Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings, reported results for the second time since it went public in December and said paid users of its online music service jumped 27.4% to 28.4-million in the three months ended March 31. Shares of the company, however, fell 3.6% in after-hours trading, in tandem with a sell-off in the broader market triggered by an escalation in the US-China trade dispute. “As our users increasingly consume music content through streaming services, we are riding on this trend to gradually transition into a pay-for-streaming model over the coming years,” CEO Cussion Pang said on Monday. Unlike Western peers such as Spotify, Tencent Music generates only a fraction of revenue from music subscription packages, and instead relies heavily on...
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