After the merger of Huya and Douyu was banned, Tencent encountered antitrust supervision again.

On July 24, the State Administration for Market Regulation issued an order to Tencent Holdings Co., Ltd. to lift the exclusive copyright of online music and other penalties: Tencent and its affiliated companies were ordered to lift the exclusive copyright of music within 30 days and stop high advance payments. Measures to restore market competition include payment methods such as royalties, and not requiring upstream copyright parties to provide conditions that are better than those of competitors without justifiable reasons.

In this regard, Tencent issued an announcement saying that today, Tencent received the "Administrative Penalty Decision" issued by the State Administration for Market Regulation regarding Tencent Holdings Co., Ltd.'s illegal acquisition of China Music Group's equity and the illegal implementation of concentration of operators. .

The company will conscientiously abide by the decision, strictly implement regulatory requirements, operate in compliance with laws and regulations, earnestly fulfill its social responsibilities, and maintain healthy competition in the market. Tencent will consolidate its responsibilities, work with Tencent Music and other affiliated companies to formulate rectification measures within the prescribed time limit, and complete them fully and faithfully in accordance with the requirements of the penalty decision to ensure that rectifications are in place.

The beginning and end of the exclusive copyright competition:

The merger that was punished this time originated from July 2016, when Tencent reached an agreement with China Music Group (CMC) to merge QQ Music with CMC , became the major shareholder of the new music group (Tencent Music) through asset swap equity. In December 2018, Tencent Music was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in the United States, with Tencent’s shareholding ratio being 50.08.

In fact, as early as July 2015, the National Copyright Administration issued the "strictest copyright order" requiring all uncopyrighted music works to be offline before July 31 of that year. Within the specified time, various online music service providers removed more than 2.2 million unauthorized music works.

The "strictest copyright order" not only cracks down on piracy, but also reshapes the online music landscape. The copyright competition has officially begun, and major online platforms are spending money to purchase exclusive copyrights.

Xiong Qi, a professor at the Law School of Huazhong University of Science and Technology, explained that whether the copyright authorization is exclusive or not is a judgment made by the parties to the digital music copyright contract based on the market conditions at the time of conclusion of the contract, and is the result of a revenue-cost measurement.

The so-called exclusive refers to an exclusive license in law, that is, the licensee can prohibit all other subjects, including the copyright owner, from exercising the right. This means that the digital music content channel is unique and can As one of the expressions of market competitiveness, it is the same as exclusive agency and exclusive operation in other industries. It will always be one of the core competitiveness of digital music platforms.

When Tencent Music merged with China Music Group (CMC), China Music Group’s two major platforms, Kuwo and Kugou Music, were already industry leaders. Data released by iiMedia Research in 2016 shows that Kugou is China’s largest mobile music service with a market share of 28; QQ Music ranks second with a share of 15; Kuwo Music ranks third with a share of 13, and the combined share reaches 56.

The merger directly pushed Tencent Music to the top of the industry, and its copyright resources and market share jumped to the top of the industry. Reports from that year showed that the combined company accounted for more than 60% of all available music rights.

Since then, in the "competition" for copyright on various platforms, Tencent Music has successively won the exclusive music copyrights of the three major music labels Warner, Sony and Universal, and also won the exclusive copyright of Jay Chou's music. Jewel Company songs are also regarded as a big bargaining chip in the hands of Tencent Music.