Tencent Music usually takes copyright procedures in stride, earnings conquer estimates

Aug 16 (Reuters) – Tencent Songs Leisure Group (TME.N) mentioned on Monday China’s copyright regulations were being not likely to have a large effect on its online subscriptions, and its main government believes regulators want to promote nutritious improvement of the music sector.

Tencent Music’s next-quarter income beat Wall Road anticipations on Monday, as its advertising and marketing organization rebounded and extra individuals subscribed to its tunes streaming platform.

Paid out subscribers for the firm’s on the web music company grew 41% to 66.2 million, a record substantial, boosted by investments in lengthy-sort audio and a refreshed audio library expanded by licensing bargains with Universal Music Group, Sony Audio and other labels.

Shares in Tencent Music rose 3.1% in prolonged trading right after its earnings release, paring back again losses that observed it slide 9% previously on Monday.

The shares have lost fifty percent their market place value this 12 months owing to Beijing’s crackdown on its tech giants and a ruling that barred the company’s mum or dad, Tencent Holdings Ltd (0700.HK), from distinctive tunes copyright agreements.

Tencent Music’s CEO Liang Zhu informed analysts that they believed Chinese regulators in the long run were eager to endorse the nutritious enhancement of the new music marketplace and the business thoroughly approved the government’s policies.

The company expects the choice on copyright agreements to have some impact on its functions, it explained in its report without having specifying a determine, but Liang reported they did not assume it would have a big effect on its online subscriptions.

Frank Zhao, a Beijing-based mostly unbiased music business analyst, reported Tencent Songs designed most of its earnings from social entertainment these as on the web Karaoke and livestreaming organizations.

“Tencent Music is now focusing on information generation and user expertise advancement,” Zhao stated. “They are on the suitable street as the combat around copyright is more than.”

Tencent Music’s social leisure services business, which includes karaoke platforms the place customers can reside stream concerts, posted a 7.4% rise in revenue to 5.06 billion yuan in the quarter and accounted for most of its revenue.

Total revenue rose by 15.5% to 8.01 billion yuan ($1.24 billion), but skipped a Refinitiv IBES estimate of 8.13 billion yuan.

The organization gained .66 yuan for every American depository share on an altered foundation, far more than estimates of .62 yuan.

($1 = 6.4742 Chinese yuan)

Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru Sophie Yu in Beijing Brenda Goh in Shanghai Editing by Jacqueline Wong

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