BRIEF: Tencent Music’s profit jumps 43% in second quarter

Online music platform Tencent Music Entertainment Group (TME.US; 1698.HK) saidon Tuesday that its revenue rose 17.9% year-on-year to 8.44 billion yuan ($1.17 billion) in the second quarter, while its net profit jumped 43.2% to 2.41 billion yuan.

The company’s online music service revenue climbed 26.4% to 6.85 billion yuan, driven by strong growth in music subscription revenue, as well as higher income from advertising, artist merchandise and offline concerts. Revenue from social entertainment services and others fell 8.53% to 1.59 billion yuan. The company’s gross margin improved by 2.4 percentage points to 44.4%.

Its monthly active users for online music services dropped 3.2% year-on-year to 550 million during the quarter, while paying users increased 6.3% to 120 million. Monthly average revenue per paying user rose from 10.7 yuan a year earlier to 11.7 yuan in the latest quarter.

The company’s stock opened 12.8% higher on Wednesday in Hong Kong, closing at HK$101.7 by the midday break, up 15.18%.

By Lee Shih Ta

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