TENCENT Music Entertainment Group beat quarterly revenue estimates on Tuesday (Mar 21), helped by continued growth in paying users and a recovery in advertising.

The platform, China’s answer to Spotify, has seen torrid paid user growth as it invested heavily into music licensing deals and offering live shows and concerts on the platform.

Tencent likely saw a recovery in advertising sales on its platform too, after a slowdown earlier last year due to economic effects of China’s Covid-19 lockdowns.

Total revenue of the company, controlled by Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings, stood at 7.43 billion yuan (S$1.4 billion) in the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, compared with analysts’ average estimate of 7.34 billion yuan, according to Refinitiv data.

Net profit attributable to equity holders rose 114.7 per cent to 1.15 billion yuan from a year ago. REUTERS