QQ Music Had RMB Billions in 2015 Revenue and Is Profitable: Maybe Spotify Just Isn't Doing it Right?

Spotify showed a net loss of close to US$200 million last year, but, according to a July 29th, 2016 post to Mashable, "China's version of Spotify, QQ Music, is actually making money."

How?

Well, first, back in 2014, Tencent, owner of QQ, used its vast active user base (in 2014, around 500 million active monthly users, now - mid-2016 - that number is roughly 700 million active monthly users) "to its advantage, striking exclusive Chinese distribution deals with large music producers the likes of Sony, Warner Music and South Korea's YG Entertainment." 

Second?

"[T]he majority of Chinese users are [already] plugged into [QQ's] ecommerce system, where they already buy tickets and book cabs cashlessly through WeChat. This allows QQ Music to offer products like concert tickets, providing an additional line of revenue to its freemium model of advertisements and paid subscription."

Third?

Per a March 17, 2016 Tencent Press Release: QQ plans on building their paid services by maintaining "traffic leadership in multiple online media categories, such as video, sports, music, news and literature, via partnering with premium content providers, such as the NBA, HBO, Paramount, Warner Music, and Sony Music, and investing in original content."

And in the future?

Expect Tencent to grow their digital content subscription services via continued leveraging of its social platforms and stores and by expanding its dominance in premium digital content (that already includes video, sports, music, news and literature) by merging QQ Music with two other bigtime Chinese music services, Kugou and Kuwo.