Mediaboss Marketing

Chinese Internet company Tencent Holdings is hungry for more deals with global entertainment producers, as competition heats up in Chinas potentially lucrative market for online video and music services.

On Tuesday, Tencent, a giant in online games and social networks, said it has signed an exclusive agreement with Sony Music Entertainmentto manage its online distribution in China.

Tencent runs QQ and WeChat, two of Chinas most popular messaging and social networking services. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Tencent Senior Executive Vice President Dowson Tong, who oversees social networking services, discusses how the Sony Music deal fits into the companys bigger plans in online entertainment. Edited excerpts:

WSJ: Why is the online entertainment market becoming so attractive to Tencent?

Tong: Thats driven by the appetite of Chinas Internet users. On our social networking and messaging platforms we can see that our users are constantly demanding quality entertainment content. The latest music, the latest movies tend to be hot topics within the social platforms. We see a lot of music and videos being shared through social platforms. Social media and entertainment can complement each other very well, one being the catalyst for the growth of the other.

We are not only committed to the music market. We aspire to be a distributor of content of all sorts in China. We work with many gaming companies and video producers, and music is the next step. We are trying to become a distributor that works with global quality content owners.

WSJ: How is Tencent different from other Chinese online music distributors?

Tong: In addition to our music streaming service, our social networking platforms are what other service providers will not be able to match. All of our licensed music content can be shared among friends in our social networks. On QQ, artists have their fan club pages. For example, Chinese boy band TFBOYS is extremely popular in our QQ communities. We constantly see fans posting pictures and sharing music. We have over a million QQ groups dedicated to artists of all kinds. These are discussion groups where people can chat about the artists they love.

WSJ: How does Tencent promote musicians?

Tong: In addition to distributing their music online, we do a lot of campaigns, online concerts and offline activities jointly with artists. We have tours of campuses of major universities across China. Weve also done song contests for students. Students are definitely one of the most enthusiastic groups of music lovers.

Continue reading here:
Q&A: Tencents Bigger Plans Beyond Sony Music Deal