Tencent-owned international music streaming platform, JOOX, witnesses an increase of usage in its karaoke services. Accordingly, the company stated that the figure escalates by up to 50%.
Poshu Yeung, VP of Tencent’s International Business Group, said that there is a significant increase of the platform usage during the coronavirus pandemic. The increase, furthermore, varies, depending on the countries.
“It’s exactly during this period of time the usage of karaoke jumped like 30% to 50%, depending on the countries. A lot of users are actually staying home, listening to music,” he elaborated.
With JOOX’s karaoke feature, users can sing along with friends and receive online gifts purchased using virtual coins in the app. The feature, moreover, has been considerably successful in helping JOOX acquire more premium members.
Despite Tencent Music’s users are mostly using its music streaming services, revenues come from its features such as the karaoke. JOOX karaoke’s business model has proven to be profitable for Tencent.
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Tencent to Expand JOOX to a Wider Market
Since its establishment in 2015, JOOX has been widely gaining popularity in Asia. It even becomes tight competitors for giants like Spotify and Youtube Music.
The platform’s users are mainly from Hong Kong, South Africa, and Southeast Asia, with the significant numbers in Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia. Its myriad users in Asia has been signifying that the company succeeds in expanding its reach in the continent.
Following its success in the most populous continent, Tencent is planning to expand JOOX influence in Africa. Additionally, having an already-established base in part of the continent might be valuable to its expansion.
Besides being the second most populous continent the world, Africa’s mobile population is also among the world’s fastest-growing. The tech leviathan also sees opportunities in the continent with nearly no competitors.
“There are a lot of local labels and artists that are big in Africa, but the whole digitization journey is not even there. Rather than go fighting for the pie, it’s better to build a pie,” Yeung said.