Brieifing: NetEase Cloud Music raises over $600 million
网易云音乐完成新一轮6亿美元融资 百度参投 – Tech Web
What happened: NetEase’s music streaming platform, NetEase Cloud Music, has completed its previously announced funding round, raising over $600 million from strategic partner Baidu, General Atlantic, Boyu Capital, and other investors. NetEase remains the controlling shareholder of its music streaming business. In October, Baidu announced that it was leading a new round of investment in NetEase to bolster mobile content services.
Why it’s important: On NetEase’s second-quarter earnings call, CFO Charles Yang revealed that its music unit had over 500 million registered users. In terms of the number of monthly active users, NetEase Cloud Music is only the fourth largest service provider in China’s competitive music streaming industry—behind Tencent-affiliated Kugou Music, QQ Music, and Kuwo Music and ahead of Alibaba’s Xiami. NetEase’s biggest rival, Tencent Music, recently postponed its US IPO due to adverse market conditions.