Tencent Music Entertainment may have came stateside for its IPO, but the company is still keeping plenty of ties to its home country of China. The company recently made a strategic investment in Chinese streaming service Douban FM. The platform is a competitor to Tencent’s own streaming properties: QQ Music, Kugou and Kuwo. Sources said the Tencent investment is in copyright rather than money, so Douban FM now offers much of Tencent’s music library in exchange for equity in the business.
Douban FM launched in 2009, and was one of the earliest streaming platforms in China. The service is part of parent company Douban.com, a social media platform that formed a music segment in April 2018 with the merger of V.Fine Music and Douban Music.
“Content, products, services and teams are very important for music streaming,” said Tang Ziyu, CEO of the DNV Music Group. “Thanks to TME and Yuxin Capital for their very important support in terms of copyright, products and funds.”