Tencent Music Entertainment Group - Earnings Call - Q1 2025
May 13, 2025
Transcript
Millicent Tu (General Manager and Head of Investor Relations)
Good evening, good morning, and welcome to Tencent Music Entertainment Group's first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. I'm Millicent Tu, Head of IR. We announced our quarterly financial results earlier today before the U.S. market opened. The earnings release is now available on our IR website and via Newswire services. During today's call, you'll hear from Mr. Cussion Pang, our Executive Chairman, and Mr. Ross Liang, our CEO, who will share an overview of our company strategies and business updates. Ms. Shirley Hu, our CFO, will discuss our financial results before we open the call for questions. Before we continue, I refer you to the Safe Harbor statement in our earnings release, which applies to this call as we'll make forward-looking statements.
Please note that we discuss non-IFRS measures today, which are more thoroughly explained and reconciled to the most comparable measures reported under IFRS in our earnings release and filings with the SEC. All participants are muted at this time. After management's remarks, there will be a Q&A session. Please be advised that today's call is being recorded. With that, I'm very pleased to turn the call over to Cussion, Executive Chairman of TME, Cussion.
Cussion Pang (Executive Chairman)
Thank you, Millicent. Welcome, hello everyone, and thank you for joining our call today. We kicked off 2025 with a strong first quarter performance, demonstrating robust top-line growth and stronger profitability. This underscores the successful execution of our high-quality growth strategy. With the solid foundation we have built, a thriving music ecosystem, and a healthy financial position, we are well-equipped to navigate global uncertainties with confidence. As music becomes more accessible and personalized, we see user preferences becoming increasingly diverse. Our platform is uniquely positioned to inspire deeper and broader music consumption through enriching our ecosystem and expanding suites of services. Let me share some of the key highlights. First, we strengthened our partnerships with record labels to further enrich our classic music library. Notably, we renewed multi-year contracts with Sony Music Entertainment, bringing 360 Reality Audio sound privileges to SVIP members.
We also extended collaborations with Empire Entertainment Group and Rock Records, enhancing the listening experience with immersive Dolby Atmos sound. Also, we partnered with Dream Music Group, Zhongmeng Yingyue, to further broaden our selection of popular music rap, which has shown growing engagement and positive feedback from our users. Meanwhile, ourselves and co-produced proprietary content are gaining increasing traction among music fans, offering a differentiated user experience that sets us apart from other music platforms. As for some highlights, in the first quarter, we partnered with CCTV News to produce The Time, Jing Shi Guang, for Joe Sun, which ranked number one on the Google Mainland Chart and number four on the QQ Music Mainland Chart. We also produced One Foot to Eternity, Yin Yang Feng Shen, the theme song for the popular Tencent game Crossfire, [Foreign language] which quickly topped multiple charts and resonated with both music lovers and gamers.
Second, through our insights on content and user evolving preferences, we deepened and reverberated content consumption across different genres. While Chinese songs remain the mainstream choice, we are seeing increasing popularity of Korean, English, and Japanese tracks. In this regard, we renewed contracts with top South Korean labels Starship Entertainment and YG Entertainment, maintaining our leadership in Korean content while also launching merchandise collaborations, such as collectible star cards. Our extended partnership with Japan's top ACG label, Kado Kawa Corporation, added thousands of tracks, including popular anime theme songs, further expanding genre coverage for the fans. Third, we fulfilled the user's demand for collectibles and provided them new ways to express their passion and appreciation of artists.
Recent highlights included the 10-day head start pre-sale of Beyond Utopia, San Chong Lou, by Teens in Times, [Foreign language], which rose to number one on the 2025 Physical Album Bestseller Chart and number two on the All Time Chart during this period. Another example is the physical album produced for Silence Wang, Wang Sulong, 100,000 Volts, [Foreign language], which quickly became a favorite among his dedicated fans. We also collaborated with K-pop icon G-Dragon to pre-sale official light sticks and other products in Mainland China. For fans who purchased his digital albums, we offered the privilege to buy China-limited special edition merchandise, which achieved an impressive sales performance. Fourth, we offered the user a more engaging and interactive music experience, both online and offline.
In the first quarter, we stated nearly 40 well-known artists and groups, including JCT, Tan Jianshi, Roy Rang, Wang Yuan, Silence Wang, Wang Sulong, and Legends of Phoenix, Feng Huang Chuan Qi, in our annual Music for Passion, QQ Yingyue Chao Qi Dianfeng Zhiyue event in Chengdu, attracting tens of thousands of passionate fans. We debuted Aspers First Ever Exhibition and Baby Monsters Pop-Up Store in Mainland China, offering fans limited collectibles, interactive displays, and behind-the-scenes content to deepen fan connections with the artists. Online, we invited artists such as Xing Liu, Liu Yuxin, Song Tang, Tang Hanxiao, and Zhuo Yuan from Shi Ke Qingtian to engage directly with fans in the comment sections, sparkling waves of enthusiasm among their fans' communities. Before I conclude, I also want to briefly touch on our ESG progress.
In April, we released our 2024 ESG report to offer stakeholders enhanced transparencies and insights into our operations. The report details our practices and achievements in key areas, including intellectual property protection, user privacy and data security, product inclusion and accessibility, and the fostering of diverse music communities. As we continue to unlock the potential of music and technology, we remain committed to advancing sustainable growth and creating social value. In summary, our solid start to the year is a testament to the strength of our comprehensive content ecosystem and our operational excellence. These core capabilities, together with our strategic focus, ensure that we remain well-positioned for sustainable growth in 2025 and into the future. Now, I would like to turn the call over to Ross for more details on our overall platform development. Ross, please go ahead. Thank you.
Ross Liang (CEO)
Thank you, Cussion. Hello everyone. Our consistent focus on high-quality content and innovative product offerings has enabled us to build a dynamic music ecosystem that meets a wide range of user preferences. As a result, we have seen substantial enhancement in user engagement, illustrated by year-over-year growth in both paying user base and ARPPU in the first quarter. This positive trend was further supported by continued strength in SVIP adoption, reflecting the increasing recognition and engagement of our valued members. Here are some highlights to share. 1st, our premium sound quality and audio effect offerings remain a key attraction for SVIP members, penetrating about 15% of our SVIP user base. To illustrate, QQ Music introduced the industry-first Viper External Amplification Enhancement Sound Effect, [Foreign language], which intelligently optimizes sound depth and clarity when using external speakers.
We also launched a dedicated audio effect for AirPods, enabling users to enjoy the advanced audio performance of the new models without upgrading devices. 2nd, a range of unique perks have proven effective in driving SVIP conversions, including unique album discounts, special badges, early access to merchandise, and live events. As an example, at our new Music for Passion event, SVIP members enjoyed special privileges such as priority ticket purchase. Moreover, those who bought tickets through this channel were also provided with exclusive services such as reception and transportation. We also helped Xue Kaiqi stage her first 10,000-seat concert hall in Mainland China, offering SVIPs early ticket access and fan meeting and great opportunities. Additionally, we enhanced our system, enabling SVIPs to unlock expanded rewards, deepening their sense of identity and community. 3rd, long-form audio content, particularly top IPs, contributed to boosting SVIP retention.
In the 1st quarter, we curated the audio drama, The Gravel Robots,[Foreign language], and co-developed it with original author Nanpai Sanshu, star voice actors, and top-tier producers. Benefiting from interactive activities such as live streaming with author and in-character voice commentary by the leading voice actor, it quickly gained popularity, surpassing tens of millions of streams within just 14 days. On technology, we continued to use AI to elevate user engagement. One example was introducing an interactive commentary feature that transforms music charts into conversations, enhancing fan emotion. Users can also personalize music effects, switching between different vocals and instruments with one single click. In parallel, we adopted the DeepSeek LM to help evaluate content quality and improve recommendation precision with user preferences.
On the non-subscription side, advertising remains a key growth driver and continues to deliver solid year-over-year growth across the board, thanks to diversifying ad formats. In particular, our innovative ad-supported mode grew from strength to strength in the past quarter. We have also introduced a variety of interactive tasks for both paid and unpaid users, which saw an upward trend in engagement and adoption. Such positive trends provided us further confidence to continue to grow our advertising business as a whole, unlocking more potential in the future. Looking ahead, we remain committed to enhancing our competitiveness and pioneering new ways to inspire deeper and broader music engagement. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Shirley, our CFO, for a deep dive into our financials.
Shirley Hu (CFO)
Thank you, Ross, and greetings to everyone. Let me now turn to our financial results. In Q1 of 2025, our effective monetization of online music services and operational efficiency management continued to drive robust financial results. With strong performance in our music subscription and advertising business, revenues continued to grow momentum and reach RMB 7.4 billion, with a 9% year-over-year growth. Online music revenues increased by 16% year-over-year to RMB 5.8 billion. The increase was mainly driven by strong growth of our music subscription revenues and advertising revenues, supplemented by growth in revenues from artist-released merchandise and offline performances. Music subscription revenues in Q1 of 2025 reached RMB 4.2 billion, representing a 17% increase year-over-year and a 5% rise sequentially, driven by continued expansion of the SVIP membership program and reduced promotional activity. Monthly ARPPU increased to RMB 11.4 this quarter, compared with RMB 10.6 in Q1 2024.
To meet the evolving needs of our users, we keep enriched the rights and privileges of our SVIP members, such as premium audio content, enhanced sound quality and effects, and early access to artist-related merchandise and live events. Advertising revenues also achieved strong year-over-year growth, primarily due to the growth in AD-supported model revenues. With more interactive features and enriched benefits, we boosted the change rate for AD-supported model advertising, enhanced the ECPM, and attracted more advertisers. Meanwhile, sponsorship advertising remains attractive to brand advisors. The success of our flagship Music for Passion, QQ Yingyue Chao Qi Dianfeng Zhiyue event was a great example to evidence this. Through offline event sponsorships, we surged advertiser partnerships while driving ecosystem monetization. In addition to music subscription and advertising, we have also made good progress on artist-related merchandise sales and offline performance.
In Q1, we started shipping the physical album of Xiaozhan, released in Q4 2024, and the related revenues were recorded, resulting in a year-over-year revenue increase from artist-related merchandise sales. In addition, with the increased opportunities in the offline performance market, we've strengthened partnerships within the music industry and successfully hosted concerts, featuring renowned artists leading to revenue growth this quarter. Social entertainment services and other revenues declined 12% year-over-year to RMB 1.6 billion. Starting this quarter, we have ceased disclosing operating metrics for the social entertainment business on a quarterly basis, as we have shifted our strategic focus to our core music business, which has accounted for a growing dominant portion of our revenue. Operating metrics for the social entertainment business are no longer considered key drivers to our growth and prospects. Our gross margin improved to 44.1% and increased 3.2 percentage points year-over-year, driven by the following key factors.
1st, the strong growth of our subscription revenue, driven by increased monthly ARPPU and advertising revenues, has contributed to the growth of gross margin. Revenues from missing membership and advertising in social entertainment services have also positively impacted our gross margin. 2nd, the scaling of our own content further improved our gross margin. 3rd, for social entertainment services, the decline in revenue sharing fees outpaced the decrease in revenues. 4th, with years of dedicated efforts and investments, we have established win-win relationships with labels and artists. This has enabled us to explore more partnership opportunities and monetization models with them and further improve our cost efficiency. On the operating efficiency side, we have maintained strict financial discipline and our eye-focused promotional spending management while directing investments toward long-term growth areas.
Operating expenses as a percentage of revenue decreased by 15.5% in Q1 2025, compared with 16.8% in the same period of last year. Our effective tax rate for Q1 2025 was 9.2%, compared to 19.9% in the same period of 2024. The lower ETR was primarily due to the impact from gain on deemed disposal. We accrued withholding tax of RMB 118 million in Q1 of 2025. In Q1 2025, our net profit was RMB 4.4 billion, and the net profit attributable to equity holders of the company was RMB 4.3 billion. This quarter, we have received a 2% equity interest in UMG through a distribution income from an associate, which was designated as financial assets at a fair value through other comprehensive income, and have recognized a gain of RMB 2.37 billion on deemed disposal of the associate.
Non-IFRS net profit increased by 23% to RMB 2.2 billion, and the non-IFRS net profit attributable to equity holders of the company increased by 25% to RMB 2.1 billion, respectively. Our diluted earnings per ADS this quarter was RMB 2.77, and the non-IFRS diluted earnings per ADS was RMB 1.37, up by 26% year-over-year. This result underscored our effective monetization, enhanced operating efficiency, and the benefit from our share repurchase program. As of March 31, 2025, our combined balance of cash equivalents, time deposits, and short-term investments was RMB 37.7 billion, as compared with RMB 37.6 billion as of December 31, 2024. This combined balance was also affected by changes in the exchange rate of RMB to USD at different balance sheet dates.
In March 2025, we declared a cash dividend of $0.09 per ordinary share for $0.18 per ADS for the year ended December 31, 2024, and the cash payment for the dividend of $275 million was made in April 2025. Looking ahead, we will prioritize high-quality growth in our music business by expanding SVIP memberships, growing our advertising business, and diversifying our offerings across the music value chain. We will continue to invest in original content production, high-quality content, and innovative technologies globally to further improve user engagement, user experience, and strengthen our ecosystem. We remain confident in the health growth prospects of the music industry that we are a part of and are committed to delivering high-quality investment returns for our shareholders. This concludes our prepared remarks. Operator, we are ready to open the call for questions.
Millicent Tu (General Manager and Head of Investor Relations)
Thank you, Shirley.
If you are dialing in by phone, please press five to ask a question and then press six to unmute yourself. If you're accessing the call from the Tencent Meeting or VooV Meeting application, please click the resend button at the bottom left. For the benefit of all participants on today's call, please limit yourself to one question, and if you have an additional one, please re-enter the queue. If you ask your questions in Chinese, please read them in English. The first question comes to the line from Goldman Sachs, Lincoln. Lincoln, the line is open.
Thank you, Management, for taking my question. My question, congrats on the very solid first-quarter performance. Can Management share a bit more color around the outlook for our top-line profit growth for the next quarter, as well as for the full year 2025? Thank you.
Shirley Hu (CFO)
[Foreign language]
Thank you, Lincoln, for your questions. Actually, we did a good job and achieved a strong result in Q1, which gave us confidence in the 2025 outlook. With our reserved offerings and also the compelling product experience, as well as our long-term commitment in participating in the value chain of the music industry, we expect full-year, year-over-year growth rate to accelerate from last year, and we will continue to expand our margin as well. While the music subscriptions business remains our cornerstone with healthy growth, we continue to lead the way to encourage more music consumption, which has allowed users to engage with a wider range of music entertainment services. Our SVIP subscription program continues to inject new energy, and its unique offerings, such as the artist merchandise, long-form audio content, and concerts, etc., will further enhance our user engagement and ARPPU expansion.
All these achievements reinforce our confidence in the long-term potential of the music industry and also our commitment to ongoing investment. In the conclusion, I think for the year 2025, for our subscription businesses, we will continue to deliver high-quality growth driven by both the subscriber gains and the ARPPU expansion. For the non-subscription businesses, improved advertising performance and broader innovation will continue to drive the steady advertising revenue growth, while deeper partnerships with music labels and artists will boost the revenue for merchandise and concerts, etc. Thank you.
Millicent Tu (General Manager and Head of Investor Relations)
Thank you. The next question comes to the line from Citi, Alicia. Please proceed.
Alicia Yap (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)
Hi, good evening, Management. Thanks for taking my questions. Congrats on the solid results. Question is on how does Management think about the growth opportunity of podcasts in China? Can you also share a little bit detail the current, your long-form audio user metrics and also revenue contribution? Thank you.
Shirley Hu (CFO)
[Foreign Language]
Ross Liang (CEO)
[Foreign language]
Thank you very much. Thanks for the question. At least in domestic China market, when talking about podcast, it could be interpreted in narrow sense and broader sense.
[Foreign language]
When interpreting the podcast from the narrow sense, actually, it's just like the normal podcast we mentioned. It's still being conducted in single-person live streaming or multi-people dialogue. It is a way to voice one's own opinion, so it has everything to do with the KOLs.
[Foreign language]
We see that for podcast in the rest of the world, especially in the U.S., it was developing very fast, but still in China, its coverage quite limited, but still maintained some growth. We continue to keep an eye on podcast business. For sure, regarding its commercial value, still there will be some challenge.
[Foreign language]
Actually, for our company, we're going to emphasize we prioritize the long-form audio business, just like what has been done by Spotify. We really would like to continue to advance the long-form audio business.
[Foreign language]
Actually, regarding the long-form audio, we believe we continue to grow the user base. At the same time, it can also play a complementary role with our existing subscriber base. More importantly, regarding the long-form audio business, we are more focused on listening to the books, online literature, and children-related content.
[Foreign language]
With our concerted efforts regarding the long-form audio user, no matter for the user base or the subscriber base, we indeed registered a very nice performance, and it has also become a key driver to advance our SVIP business.
[Foreign language]
In one word, we do believe our musical content and the long-form audio are going to play a complementary role to each other. It is also going to help to further enhance the quantity and quality of our entire TME content library by providing our users a much better experience, even including the basic user.
Millicent Tu (General Manager and Head of Investor Relations)
Okay. The next question comes to the line from Macquarie. Ellie, your line is open.
Thank you, Melissa and Management, for taking my question. I just have a question on SVIP progress. Can Management share some kind of operating matrix or key KPIs for SVIP? What is the retention that we are seeing for the users that are being converted to the premium tier? Going forward, what would be the ultimate kind of ceiling for the ARPPU expansion? Thank you.
Shirley Hu (CFO)
[Foreign language]
Ross Liang (CEO)
[Foreign language]
Thank you very much. Thanks for your question. Actually, for the Management team, we are quite satisfied with SVIP business progress now. At the same time, we are pleased to see, at least from the content perspective, more labels and more artists, and even the live streaming platform, including those ones from overseas market, started to embrace the trend of SVIP.
[Foreign language]
SVIP as a high-end membership package not only provides users with diversified music and entertainment experience, it also allows artists to access their fans in multi-channels. It also increases opportunities for commercial value monetization.
[Foreign language]
Alicia Yap (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)
Nowadays you can see for SVIP penetration ratio and ARPPU all demonstrate very strong growth momentum. We will continue to improve and polish our membership system, where at the same time we will also going to launch more attractive privilege and tailor-made service to our users. Along with our very effective operational strategy, we believe our SVIP paying user and ARPPU will continue to grow. At least for this quarter, our paying user and ARPPU all demonstrate very good sequential growth.
Ross Liang (CEO)
[]Foreign language]
Alicia Yap (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)
Actually, rolling out SVIP business is strategically aligned with our overall strategy. When we launch SVIP, a key reason is because we really want to leverage SVIP to continue to improve the ARPPU of our overall business. From this perspective, SVIP started to play a driver role in demonstrating great resilience, and the growth is even faster than what we expected.
Ross Liang (CEO)
[Foreign language]
Alicia Yap (Managing Director and Senior Equity Analyst)
Looking into 2025, we believe for SVIP business, we still maintain a positive attitude for its future growth, where at the same time we will also increase investment for the high-value membership service, continue to forge in-depth cooperation with labels and artists, and continue to improve our product opinion and customer satisfaction.
Millicent Tu (General Manager and Head of Investor Relations)
Thank you. The next question comes from Morgan Stanley Liu Yang. Yang, your line is open.
Liu Yang (Executive Director and Equity Research Analyst)
Thanks for the opportunity. I would like to ask about the ARPPU growth. The 7.5% year-on-year growth looks pretty good. Could Management comment on the contribution from Super VIP and also the contribution from the less promotion activities to the overall ARPPU year-on-year growth? Thank you.
Shirley Hu (CFO)
[Foreign language]
Ross Liang (CEO)
[Foreign language]
Thank you very much. Thanks for the question. Actually, it's not appropriate for us to provide you the breakdowns, but let me just tell you, we are very clear: Q1 of every year would be a season with festivals and holidays, and we indeed continue to optimize our operations in Q1, where at the same time we also downsize the discount we provided to the market. From the actual result, it indeed helped to further improve the ARPPU.
[Foreign language]
From the actual result, you can see, as I have already mentioned, we are still expecting the indigenous growth of SVIP business that can play an even bigger driver role to our overall ARPPU, where for the marketing strategy itself, we have already started to further reduce the discount and continue to improve the ARPPU for our basic members.
[Foreign language]
In one word, we will still going to keep an eye on the feedback from the user and the dynamics of the market, because ultimately what we hope to achieve is to continue to grow the ARPPU, where at the same time guarantee the user experience and the subscriber size healthy growth.
Millicent Tu (General Manager and Head of Investor Relations)
Okay, thank you. The next question comes from Alex Yang from JP Morgan. Alex, please.
Alex Yang (Managing Director)
Thank you, Management, for taking my question and congrats on a solid quarter. My question is on the non-paying subscribers. Basically, as we shifted towards this high-quality growth strategy, we'll be, I think, at least implicitly de-emphasizing the price-sensitive consumers who often come just for deep discounts. Once we cut the discount, these price-sensitive users tend to be just churned out of the membership user base. The question is that now we probably need to de-emphasize more of those price-sensitive consumers. What is the monetization strategy on these non-paying users? In the past couple of years, we talked about advertising. Any updates on monetization of these non-paying members on advertising? Other than advertising, do we have any other strategy or thoughts to monetize these non-paying members? Thank you.
Shirley Hu (CFO)
[Foreign language]
Ross Liang (CEO)
[Foreign language]
Thank you very much. Thanks for your question. This question is indeed very complex, because we do have some measures to those so-called free users or the non-paying users.
[Foreign language]
From our operational perspective, our operational focus still hope to convert those non-paying users into the subscribers. This might demonstrate the great value of the company, and it is also the priority of the company, because indeed by so doing we will be able to build the loyal user group and continue to grow our revenue in a sustainable way.
[Foreign language]
For those non-paying users, what we're doing now is to leverage incentive-based advertisements. First of all, we may have some free-to-listen music model, while at the same time we also have the online learning measures. By the two measures, we will be able to make sure we still retain the non-paying user, but be able to have a good advertising revenue from them.
[Foreign language]
Where at the same time we also see other sources of the revenue related to the fan economy, for example like digital album or the fan merchandise or the single-song download and purchase. These are also ways to help us to monetize over those non-paying users.
[Foreign language]
Generally speaking, for those non-paying users, we do leverage the offline performance, for example like concert, like merchandise, like the play of the fancy economy, including the advertisement, to continue to generate good business opportunities from those non-paying users.
Millicent Tu (General Manager and Head of Investor Relations)
Okay, the next question comes from UBS Weixiong, please proceed.
Wei Xiong (Analyst)
Hi, good evening Management. Thank you for taking my question and congrats on the solid results. My question is about margins. Our gross margin continued to expand sequentially this quarter, and Management shared different drivers behind that in the prepared remarks. Just wondering, out of these drivers, which ones do we see have higher potential for future to further drive up the upside of gross margin going forward? Do we have a medium-term target for that? Also related to that, considering our efforts in cost discipline, could you please also talk about the plans for OpEx this year and how should we think about the net margin trend as well? Thank you.
Shirley Hu (CFO)
[Foreign language]
Thank you very much. Thanks for your question. Just to note, in the prepared remarks, we have already mentioned a few drivers for the ever-improving JP margin, and I think the most important driver is still the growth of the revenue, where at the same time we also see the revenue growth from the subscribers and the advertising, and especially in the growth of the subscribers. The SVIP growth would likely to be a key driver for our future business improvement.
[Foreign language]
Where at the same time, another very important factor we have to consider is a cost initiative. We continue to work on the cost, and the cost management methodology is also the key. We continue to adopt ROC in managing our content cost. At the same time, we make sure the cost growth is always lower than the revenue growth.
[Foreign language]
Another factor I have to mention is that we were deeply rooted in the music industry with huge investments being made. At the same time, we forged a very strong win-win partnership with the IP holder or the copyright owner. This investment has already generated very good yield, not only helping us to well control the cost, we will be able to forge a deep bond with labels and artists, and therefore it can help us to leverage multiple ways of monetization, which will also help to further improve our cost efficiency.
[Foreign lannguage]
Looking into 2025 for the whole year or even the year beyond 2025, I believe the factors being mentioned in our prepared remarks will continue to play their due roles. In other words, we believe our JP Margin will still have room to further grow.
[Foreign language]
For your second question regarding the operating expenses, for the year of 2025, to our planned sales expense, majority of them will still be made for the acquisition of the new users and promotion of the content.
[Foreign language]
We foresee there will be a slight increase in our sales expenses, but its overall growth should be lower than the growth of our entire revenue.
[Foreign language]
For the management expense, it will continue to maintain a flat growth.
[Foreign language]
Compared with last year, our net profit and the net profit rate will have room for further improvement.
Millicent Tu (General Manager and Head of Investor Relations)
Thank you. The next question comes from Barclays' Roger. Roger, your line is open. Can you hear?
Yes.
Sorry. Yeah, go ahead, please.
Thank you so much for taking my question and congrats on a very solid quarter. My question is on international opportunities, especially in Southeast Asia. We have a very small footprint there, the music app Jukes, and also we're going to host G-Dragon's Southeast Asia tour this year. Could management talk about your thoughts on the opportunities in the region, and would that be an area of investment you take a look at this or maybe next year? Thank you.
Shirley Hu (CFO)
[Foreign language]
Cussion Pang (Executive Chairman)
[Foreign language]
Thank you very much. Thanks for your question. International market is always a very important part of our overall strategy.
Ross Liang (CEO)
[Foreign language]
At now, our group does have a very strong overall strategy, and the strategy includes the content as well as the platform development. We are going to adopt the same strategy for international business.
Cussion Pang (Executive Chairman)
[Foreign language]
From the platform perspective, we will continue to advance the construction of our platform, and especially here now, we did a good performance in the Southeast Asia market. Besides the product and the service improvement, we are also going to build the content ecosystem and continue to engage in the content creation in the overseas market, along with the airflight[offlight]brackets performance opportunities being captured.
[Foreign language]
On one side, we continue to invest in our content ecosystem, which will help to deliver high-quality content to our overseas platform, where at the same time we also hope that we can engage in the music content and even artist management.
[Foreign language]
For the past few years, we continue to improve our operational capacity of the platform and also make huge investment on content. We will continue to engage the international market and make continued investment. Thank you.
Millicent Tu (General Manager and Head of Investor Relations)
Thank you. The next question comes from Mizuho Fang Wei. Fang Wei, your line is open.
Fang Wei (Director and Senior Equity Analyst)
Okay, thank you. Thanks for taking my question and congrats on a good point. I got one on advertising. If I look at the non-stop music segment, right, I recall last quarter there was some timing impact from offline events, and now this quarter we see a good acceleration, right? Of course, the macro condition has changed a lot. I was wondering if Management can share any thoughts on the outlook for your advertising and also the pipeline for offline events business for the rest of the year. It would be great if you could also comment on some of your initiatives in terms of expanding to, for example, newer advertising verticals and also optimizing your ad bidding system. Thank you very much.
Shirley Hu (CFO)
[Foreign language]
Ross Liang (CEO)
[Foreign language]
Thank you very much. Thanks for your question, and let me first talk about the advertisement, especially online advertising. As I have already mentioned, we do cover a wide range of the advertising format. For example, we do have the splash screen advertisement as well as the incentive-based advertisement.
[Foreign language]
In the past one to two years, our advertising revenue does register a very strong year-over-year growth. It's mainly attributed to our innovative incentive-based advertising business.
[Foreign language]
For the past two to three years, we continue to roll out a free to listen to the music business, which registered a very nice achievement. Starting from this year, we also started to launch the online earning business model, and the online earning business model can help us to access the larger user base with very strong motivations from the users. We find out the online earning model actually be able to continue to advance, which will help us to make sure advertising revenue continue to go beyond our expectation.
[Foreign language]
Regarding the advertising system, we're still adopting the advertising system from Tencent Group. No matter from its bidding capacity or from the advertiser expansion or the AI enabling, we do see the Tencent advertising system is making the industrial leading performance, and this can also help us to further grow our advertising related revenue.
[Foreign language]
Actually we also observed that the microeconomic picture is looking right. For the online advertising business, no matter in Q1 of this year or the full year, at least from the operational perspective, we still maintain a very positive attitude on the advertising revenue for the whole year.
[Foreign language]
Answer your second part of the question regarding the AirPods [offlight] brackets performance, especially the concept. For the past two to three years, we do see the AirPods [offlight] brackets performance continue to thrive.
[Foreign language]
We are with a very strong growth momentum for the airflight [offlight]brackets performance. I think the priority for Tencent Music Entertainment Group is continued to improve the quality of our performance business.
[Foreign language]
For the past two to three years, we are also very pleased to say many of our partners, including the strategic artists we are working with, as well as labels and partners, they supported us a lot. We also would like to say thank you to all of them.
[Foreign language]
At this moment, I think we have a few things that we need to do right and good. The first one is the tour of our artists, especially you mentioned in your question the G-Dragon tours as well as some of the artists we have strategic partnership with. We hope that we will be able to provide them good support, while at the same time offering the audience or the fans a good opportunity to appreciate high-quality airflight [offlight]brackets performance.
[Foreign language]
At the same time for our indigenous IP event, for example like QQ Music for Passion, we do hope that we will be able to improve its performance for this year.
[Foreign language]
We hope by organizing or helping to sponsor those airflight [offlight] brackets performances, we will be able to provide a comprehensive musical experience to all of our users, while at the same time to play the transcript of the SVIP privilege. In that way, we will be able to help to grow the SVIP subscriber base.
[Foreign language]
Ultimately we hope that the TME overarching strategy with one body to reach to be fully demonstrated. In that way, we will create a greater value to the market and the society as a whole.
Millicent Tu (General Manager and Head of Investor Relations)
Thank you, Cussion, and thank you everyone for joining us today. In the interest of time, this concludes today's call, and if you have any further questions, please feel free to contact the IR team. Thanks again, and look forward to speaking to you next quarter. Okay, bye.
Ross Liang (CEO)
Thank you.
Shirley Hu (CFO)
Bye.
Cussion Pang (Executive Chairman)
Bye.