Tencent Music revenue rises to $1.15 billion as it adds more paying listeners

China's Tencent Music Entertainment Group on Tuesday reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue as it added more paying users to its music streaming service, at a time when people are largely homebound due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The crisis has made users rely heavily on social media and entertainment apps to stay connected.

Tencent Music has in recent months also signed and renewed licensing deals with international and regional labels like Kobalt Music Group and Merlin Network to add artists such as The Weeknd and Paul McCartney to its library.

Tencent Music, which is controlled by the Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings Ltd, said that paid subscribers for its online music service rose 46% to 51.7 million.

Revenue rose to 7.58 billion yuan ($1.15 billion) in the third quarter ended September 30, from 6.51 billion yuan ($910 million) in the year ago.

Excluding items, the company earned 0.80 yuan per American depository shares, above estimates of 0.71 yuan per ADS.

Analysts had expected revenue of 7.47 billion yuan, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.