With its 2016 acquisition of China Music Corp., Tencent was poised to dominate China's music streaming business — until Beijing stepped in.
Tencent Music Entertainment executives at the New York Stock Exchange for the company's IPO, December 2018. Credit: Mark Lennihan/AP Photo
Last month, China’s market regulator barred the technology giant Tencent from holding exclusive music streaming rights and fined the company for anti-competitive behavior.
The announcement was a major setback for Tencent, which in 2016 had acquired a controlling stake in the China Music CorporationCMC was backed by Spotify, EMI, Sony and a state-backed government fund called China Investment Corporation Financial Holdings, or CICFH, according to SEC filings and merged it with its own music division, QQ Music, to create the country’s dominant online music platform. With Beijing now stepping up its regulation of China’s biggest internet companies, and promising to root out monopolistic behavior, the spotlight has been cast on Tencent’s enormous reach in gaming, entertainment and social media apps.
In online music, Tencent wields its power through Tencent Music Entertainment Group, a company that it spun off and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2018. While Spotify an
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