By Emmanuel Lergrand
China's internet giant Alibaba Group will be phasing out its music streaming platform Xiami Music on Feb. 5 and shut down its servers on March 5, due to “business development-related adjustments.”
The company said it plans to transform Xiami into a music industry service provider, but without providing any details about the new plans. “After 12 years of being together, it’s very hard to say goodbye,” said the platform in a message on social media.
"Over the past 12 years, with each iteration and update of the product, Xiami hoped to allow users to discover a new world of music," wrote Xiami. "However, it must be said that we have missed some key opportunities in the development process. In the acquisition of music publishing rights and contents, we have not been able to meet the diverse musical needs of users. This is our biggest regret. Looking forward to the future, we believe and expect the emergence of richer music content services."
Lack of licensed content
Xiami launched in 2006 as EMUMO, and was renamed Xiami in 2007. It was acquired by Alibaba in 2013 and became the premier music destination for Chinese consumers before competition from Tencent Music and NetEase marginalised the streamer. Alibaba was also victim of the government's crackdown on unlicensed music on streaming platforms, while Tencent and NetEase were aggressively pursuing licensing rights to music catalogues.
According to recent data, Xiami only has 7 million average monthly active users, which translates in a 1.8% market share, according to Chinese research firm MobTech. By comparison, Tencent's services Kugou Music, QQ Music and Kuwo Music have a combined 430 million monthly active users and NetEase Cloud Music has 99 million users.
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