A shot of Shenzhen, China, where Tencent Music is headquartered. Photo Credit: Charlie Fong
Tencent Music (NYSE: TME) achieved 18% year-over-year subscription revenue growth during Q4 2024, when paid users cracked 120 million and net profit increased by north of 47%, per a new earnings report.
The Shenzhen-headquartered streaming company posted its fourth-quarter and full-year financials this morning. Diving directly into those numbers, Tencent Music pointed to CNY 7.46 billion in Q4 revenue, up 8.2% YoY and representing $1.03 billion at the present exchange rate.
Within the sum, core streaming operations kicked in $806.01 million (CNY 5.83 billion), up 16.1% YoY and including the aforementioned 18% YoY growth for subscription revenue. Across its QQ, Kugou, and Kuwo services, now featuring approximately 260 million tracks, Tencent Music is said to have had 121 million paid users (up 13.4% YoY and two million quarterly) as of 2024’s end.
(Even so, the company confirmed a 3.5% YoY decline in on-demand streaming MAUs, which finished 2024 at 556 million.)
Regarding the Q4 growth-rate discrepancy between Tencent Music’s streaming and overall revenue, the latter was once again weighed down by a slip (13% this time around, for $225.43 million/CNY 1.63 billion total) on the “social entertainment” side.
Consisting of livestream concerts and more, the category has been experiencing declines for some time, in tandem with Tencent Music’s growing focus on streaming itself.
Consequently, TME confirmed Q4 dips in social entertainment’s mobile MAUs (82 million, down 21.2% YoY), paid users (7.7 million, down 3.8% YoY), and monthly average revenue per paid user ($9.73/RMB 70.4, down 9.7% YoY).
Lastly, in terms of Tencent Music’s fourth-quarter financials, the initially highlighted net profit, in jumping 47.3% YoY, hit $287.56 million (CNY 2.08 billion), the document indicates.
Shifting to a quick overview of TME’s full-year showing, 2024 is said to have delivered a comparatively modest 2.3% YoY revenue boost ($3.93 billion/CNY 28.40 billion). But subscription revenue hiked 25.9% YoY to $2.11 billion (CNY 15.23 billion), with net profit at $982.97 million/CNY 7.11 billion (up 36.2% YoY).
Elsewhere in the earnings report and the appropriate call, Tencent Music didn’t reveal any particularly groundbreaking information; among other things, execs are banking on continued revenue improvements, in part from an ongoing embrace of superfan offerings, during 2025.
However, with rival NetEase Cloud Music having apparently encountered SM Entertainment licensing hurdles, TME went ahead and touted its “renewed contracts” with both SM and Kakao Entertainment. (Cloud Music posted its own 2024 financials last month.)
Additionally, the business intends to repurchase up to $1 billion in TME shares under a newly revealed two-year buyback program. At the time of writing, Tencent Music stock was up 10.2% on the day (and almost 39% from the same point in 2024) at $14.39 per share.
Content shared from www.digitalmusicnews.com.