Tencent Music’s Earnings Fall for Second Quarter Running as Antitrust Crackdown Bites

What’s new: China’s largest online music platform, Tencent Music Entertainment Group (TME), has reported a year-on-year drop in its third-quarter profit, after the firm was forced to give up its exclusive music licensing rights in the recent antitrust crackdown.

TME’s quarterly net profit plunged 34.5% year-on-year to 740 million yuan ($115 million), while its revenue rose 3% to 7.81 billion yuan, according to Monday’s earnings report. Its gross profit margin fell to 29.6% from 32.4% in the same period last year, mainly due to the firm’s new focus on user-generated original products that demanded revenue sharing fees and additional investment.