Tencent’s Joox music streaming service proves a hit across Asia

Following its success with QQ Music on the mainland, Chinese internet titan Tencent Holdings has quickly established a beachhead in key Asian markets with its popular Joox digital music-streaming service, according to a study by global consulting firm McKinsey.

“The Joox app was downloaded more than 50 million times last year, accounting for more than 50 per cent of all music-streaming app downloads in Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia,” Alan Lau, the Asia-Pacific head at McKinsey Digital and co-author of the study, told the South China Morning Post.

Lau said there was plenty of room for Tencent and Joox to grow, as Asia-Pacific currently accounts for only 14 per cent of global digital music revenue.

The McKinsey study estimated that the region clocked up US$900 million in total digital music revenue last year, compared with US$3.3 billion in the United States.

It said connectivity is a prerequisite for digital music consumption, especially for on-demand music streaming, so the rapid mobile infrastructure developments in Asia were likely to foster more significant demand over the next few years.