Tencent Music Entertainment surpassed second-quarter revenue expectations on Tuesday, driven by strong subscriber growth in online music services and rising engagement with long-form audio content such as podcasts and audiobooks.
U.S.-listed shares of the company rose 3.3 per cent in premarket trading.
The Chinese streaming giant has ramped up investments in long-form content and other music-related services, including advertising, concerts and artist merchandise. Its Super VIP program, which has about 15 million subscribers, bundles high-quality audio, online karaoke and access to exclusive events to boost engagement.
In June, Tencent Music agreed to buy domestic long-form audio platform Ximalaya for about $2.4 billion in cash and stock, a move aimed at deepening its catalog, strengthening creator partnerships and drawing more paying users across its apps.
The company’s total revenue rose 17.9 per cent to 8.44 billion yuan ($1.17 billion) during the quarter, compared with analysts’ average estimate of 7.96 billion yuan, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Revenue from music subscriptions grew 17.1 per cent to 4.38 billion yuan, while that from social entertainment services decreased 8.5 per cent to 1.59 billion yuan.
Tencent Music’s adjusted profit of 1.66 yuan per American depository share also came above the estimate of 1.46 yuan.
($1 = 7.1903 Chinese yuan renminbi)
