Tencent Holdings Ltd's plan to spin off its music-streaming unit and list shares in the United States marks the fresh revival of an industry that has often been plagued by piracy, industry experts said.
Hong Kong-listed Tencent said on Sunday that it was planning to sell shares in Tencent Music Entertainment on a US bourse, a move that will help cement the internet giant's dominance in online music at home.
The company is still working on the terms of the spinoff proposal, whose offering size, price range and entitlement of Tencent Music Entertainment's securities for the company's shareholders are yet to be finalized.
Tencent has "secured monopoly" status in China's mobile music industry, with its QQ Music, KuGou and Kuwo platforms each claiming more than 100 million monthly active users, according to market research firm QuestMobile in January.
"Tencent Music owns the highest number of digital music copyrights in China and has the most vibrant online music communities," He Saiyi, an analyst with Huatai Securities, said in a research note on Monday.
Travis Lundy, an analyst at investment research platform Smartkarma, said an Intellectual Property Office would give Tencent Music new funds that it could use to buy more content for its platforms.

Source: China daily