Chinese streaming-music service Tencent Music files for a US IPO

Visitors
are seen at a booth of Tencent Music Entertainment at the Beijing
Music and Life Show in Beijing, China, May 7,
2017.
Stringer/REUTERS

• Tencent Music, the largest streaming-music platform in
  China, filed Tuesday to go public in the US.
• The company said it earned RMB1.32 billion ($199
  million) on revenue of RMB10.98 billion ($1.66 billion) in
  2017.
• 
  “We are pioneering the way people enjoy online
  music and music-centric social entertainment services,” Tencent
  said in the statement.
  

Tencent Music Entertainment filed a
document on Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange
Commission to go public in the US.

The China-based streaming-music service backed by tech
giant Tencent didn’t reveal a target amount it hopes to
raise. According to The Wall Street Journal, the initial public
offering could value the business
in excess of $25 billion, making it it one of the
biggest IPOs ever for a technology company.

Tencent Music
 
operates
several popular music brands in China — including QQ
Music, Kugou, Kuwo and WeSing — and had more
than 800 million unique monthly active users in the second
quarter of 2018, according to the filing.

For the year ended December 31, 2017, Tencent Music
said it earned RMB1.32 billion ($199 million) on revenue of
of RMB10.99 billion ($1.66 billion) revenues.

The company also said it generated a profit of RMB2.11
billion ($320 million) in the first half of this
year, 
almost three times as much as its RMB732
million profit during the same period in 2017.

To put Tencent Music into context, Spotify, which went
public in February,
said it had a net loss of 1.2 billion euros ($1.5 billion) in
2017, on revenue of 4.09 billion euros ($5 billion). Spotify
was reportedly valued
at $19 billion in the private markets prior to its
IPO. It is now worth about $32 billion.

“We are pioneering the way people enjoy online music and
music-centric social entertainment services,” Tencent said in the
filing.

“We have demonstrated that users will pay for personalized,
engaging and interactive music experiences. Just as we value our
users, we also respect those who create music. This is why we
champion copyright protection—because unless content creators are
rewarded for their creative work, there won’t be a sustainable
music entertainment industry in the long run. Our scale,
technology and commitment to copyright protection make us a
partner of choice for artists and content owners.” 

Tencent music had applied for listing on both the New
York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq, and it will be trade under ticket
“TME.”

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