Monthly active users of leading music apps in China 2024

In September  2024, Tencent's music apps - QQ, KuGou,and Kuwo - were the three most popular music streaming apps in China. The monthly active users of QQ Music totaled to around 332 million, whereas Baidu's rebranded Qian Qian amassed around 5.6 million monthly active users. 

The music arena of Tencent

Globally, Tencent is one of the biggest music streaming providers. The Chinese tech behemoth owns the largest music company in the country – Tencent Music Entertainment (TME). With roughly 60 percent of the local music market share, TME had reported a profitable financial status since its founding in 2016. Besides, its monthly active users rose to 600 million – capturing most of the mobile music userbase in the country. Among its music apps, KuGou Music was found to be favored by those who aged between 19 and 28, while QQ Music was more preferred among older users.

The dilemma of online music

Although the usage of music streaming is high among Chinese netizens, most of them are not familiar with paying for the services. Music streaming platforms, such as those owned by Tencent Music Entertainment, can hardly generate high revenue per user. They are more likely to opt for free sources to access their choice of music. The subscription rate remained below 25 percent. To address the problem, industry experts suggested raising public awareness of copyright protections.