Tencent Music posts 66% profit rise as revenue grows

Tencent Music Entertainment Group reported 2025 revenue of 32.9 billion yuan (US$4.7 billion), up 15.8% year-on-year, and net profit attributable to equity holders of 11.06 billion yuan (US$1.6 billion), up 66.4%. On a non-IFRS basis, net profit increased 25% to 9.59 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion).

Revenue from online music services rose 22.9% to 26.73 billion yuan (US$3.8 billion), making 81.2% of total revenue.

Music subscription revenue rose 16%, while non-subscription music revenue jumped 39.2%, driven by offline performances, merchandise, and advertising.

Online music paying users reached 127.4 million by end-2025, up 5.3% year-on-year.

Tencent Music also announced an annual cash dividend of about US$368 million for fiscal 2025.

🔗 Source: TechNode

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Tencent Music’s growth comes from charging more, not from adding users

Paying users rose 5.3%, yet online music monthly active users slid 3.2% year-over-year in Q2 to 553 million 1.
Music subscription revenue climbed 16%, driven in part by higher spend per payer. Average revenue per paying user increased 9.3% year-over-year in Q2 1.
Upgrades to higher-priced plans played a role, with the Super VIP (SVIP) subscriber base topping 15 million 1.
The shift also includes a planned pullback in the social entertainment business (a live-streaming and online karaoke-style segment). Revenue in that segment dropped 8.5% in Q2 2.

The company’s playbook shows how mature platforms can escape the user growth trap

In saturated markets, Tencent Music leans on existing loyal users spending more rather than chasing new accounts 3.
The profit jump came from a changed mix. Higher-margin subscriptions and ads grew, while social entertainment shrank. This created operating leverage.
Price increases bring risk. Investors question durability in a weak economy, which helps explain the discount to global peers 3.
Missing targets can rattle sentiment. A fourth-quarter earnings-per-share miss sparked a negative investor reaction and a stock drop 4.