HYBE’s superfan platform Weverse is making vital inroads into China by strategic partnerships with two of the market’s digital giants: Tencent Music Leisure and Alibaba.
The strikes mark a pivotal second in HYBE’s worldwide growth technique, because it confirms that Weverse reached a file excessive of 11.6 million month-to-month energetic customers (MAUs) globally in Q3 2025.
Final Thursday (November 6), Weverse confirmed its new collaboration with QQ Music, China’s largest music streaming platform owned by Tencent Music Leisure.
The partnership allows Chinese language customers to subscribe to Weverse DM — a premium service providing one-to-one messaging with artists — immediately by the QQ platform. The tie-up will remove obstacles that beforehand sophisticated entry for Chinese language followers.
The second a part of Weverse’s China growth is the launch of Weverse Store on Tmall, the e-commerce platform operated by digital large Alibaba, earlier this 12 months.
The Tmall Weverse retailer, which launched in June, sells official merchandise and lightweight sticks for 17 Weverse artists, offering Chinese language customers with authenticated merchandise by one of many nation’s most trusted retail channels.
The Tmall enterprise has already confirmed profitable: in simply 5 months of operation, the Weverse Store earned Tmall’s “2025 Supernova Model” award, a recognition given to abroad manufacturers demonstrating sturdy gross sales efficiency, speedy development, excessive search quantity, and optimistic buyer evaluations.
Chinese language followers can now buy Weverse merchandise by a number of channels, together with Tmall, the Weverse app, or immediately by way of PC.
HYBE CEO Jason Jae-sang Lee defined the corporate’s measured method to the Chinese language market throughout an earnings name with traders right this moment (November 10).
The corporate’s method in China minimizes direct funding and operational challenges whereas leveraging the established infrastructure and consumer bases of Tencent and Alibaba.
“Reasonably than placing in our sources immediately, now we have been using company partnerships. And so now we have not been attempting to maximise earnings coming from China, however we perceive that there are such a lot of Chinese language followers who love and help our artists.”
Jason Jaesang Lee, HYBE, chatting with traders right this moment (November 10)
“Reasonably than placing in our sources immediately, now we have been using company partnerships,” Lee stated. “And so now we have not been attempting to maximise earnings coming from China, however we perceive that there are such a lot of Chinese language followers who love and help our artists.”
He added: “We determined to accomplice with QQMusic, the strongest streaming platform in China, in addition to Tmall in order that extra Chinese language followers can have interaction with our artists extra actively. So it was extra of a company-to-company partnership. And such partnerships are already receiving very optimistic responses.”
Lee additionally revealed that “along with the at present accessible Weverse DM” HYBE is “discussing extra providers to be accessible on these platforms”.
He defined that “these [additional Weverse services being made available on platforms in China via partnerships ]may have a direct contribution to our earnings as a result of these are subscription-based. So in China, we’re not aggressive but, however we’re persevering with to search for and implement options that may greatest serve our followers in China.”
The agency’s growth comes as Weverse continues to expertise sturdy development globally.
HYBE CEO Lee attributed Weverse’s latest MAU uplift primarily to BTS members actively returning to the platform following their navy service obligations, mixed with various world actions by artists on the platform.
China represents a vital marketplace for HYBE’s growth ambitions – and the stats inform us why.
China’s two greatest music streaming suppliers, Tencent Music Leisure (TME) and NetEase Cloud Music (NCM), counted round 171 million paying customers between them on the shut of 2024.
That was almost double the amountof subscription streaming accounts in the US on the similar juncture: 100 million (supply: RIAA).
China added over 25 million paying music subs in 2024, in response to senior business sources; the USA added simply 3.2 million.
China can be quickly gaining world market share of music streaming subscription revenues.
In response to IFPI information, China’s annual streaming subscription commerce revenues surpassed USD $1 billion in 2024, up 18.9% YoY.
In doing so, China surpassed Germany to develop into the world’s third-largest music streaming subscription market.
MBW has beforehand predicted that China could leapfrog the world’s second-largest subscription market, the UK, by 2026.
China was the world’s fifth-largest territory for recorded music commerce income in 2024 throughout all codecs, in response to IFPI statistics, overtaking France – with Germany now in its sights (picture supply: UMG’s annual report).
Earlier this 12 months, HYBE formally launched HYBE China, a subsidiary launched in Beijing to help artist actions within the nation.
And as Billboard‘s International charts start incorporating information from QQ Music (following a latest deal between Luminate and Tencent Music Leisure), HYBE’s new partnership within the area may present extra visibility for the agency’s artists within the Chinese language market.Music Enterprise Worldwide
