Bowing to Regulators, Tencent Gives Up Exclusive Audio Rights
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Tencent Holdings Ltd. said on Friday that it has relinquished the exclusive licensing rights tied to its digital audio content agreements following the Chinese market regulator’s conditional approval of its acquisition of online audio platform Ximalaya.
The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) on May 12 cleared the deal making Ximalaya a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tencent Music Entertainment Group (TME), but imposed five conditions to ensure fair competition in the online audio and music market. The regulator mandated that after the acquisition, Tencent must not raise service fees for the online audio platform and must maintain the current share of free content. The company is also prohibited from signing exclusive copyright deals and preventing creators from joining rival platforms.
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- Tencent relinquished exclusive licensing rights after SAMR conditionally approved its acquisition of Ximalaya.
- SAMR required no fee hikes, maintained free content, and prohibited exclusive copyright deals.
- Tencent faces competition from ByteDance's Fanqie Changting, which had over 100 million monthly active users.
- 英文名
- The article discusses Tencent Holdings Ltd., known in Chinese as 腾讯控股有限公司. It also mentions Ximalaya (喜马拉雅). The primary company is Tencent Holdings Ltd. (English) and 腾讯控股有限公司 (Chinese).
- June 2020：
- ByteDance Ltd. launched an audiobook app, Fanqie Changting.
- 2021：
- SAMR ruled that Tencent’s earlier acquisition of China Music Corp. constituted an illegal concentration of business operators.
- 2021：
- Tencent bought audiobook platform Lanren Tingshu for 2.7 billion yuan ($397 million).
- February 2022：
- Fanqie Changting had more than 100 million monthly active users.
- 2024 to first half of 2025：
- Fanqie Changting and Ximalaya were the only online audio platforms with average monthly active users of more than 100 million.
- Monday, May 12, 2025：
- SAMR cleared the deal making Ximalaya a wholly-owned subsidiary of TME, but imposed five conditions.
- Monday, May 18, 2026：
- TME told employees in an internal letter that the acquisition of Ximalaya had been formally completed.
- Friday, May 29, 2026：
- Tencent said it relinquished exclusive licensing rights tied to its digital audio content agreements; TME and Ximalaya announced continued work with business partners on a non-exclusive basis.
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