(Yicai) Aug. 13 -- Shares of Tencent Music Entertainment Group soared after the owner of China's biggest online music platform said its earnings beat expectations in the second quarter of the year.

Tencent Music [HKG: 1698] was trading up 14.3 percent at HKD100.90 (USD12.85) as of 2.20 p.m. in Hong Kong today, after earlier climbing as much as 17.8 percent. Its New York-listed stock [NYSE: TME] rose 12 percent to USD25.39 yesterday.

Net profit widened over 43 percent to CNY2.4 billion (USD336 million) in the three months ended June 30 from a year earlier, the Shenzhen-based firm announced yesterday. Diluted earnings per American depository share were CNY1.55 (22 US cents), up from CNY1.07 in the period and beating analysts' expectations for CNY1.42.

Revenue climbed 18 percent to CNY8.4 billion (USD1.2 billion), exceeding the previously forecast CNY8 billion. Tencent Music attributed the revenue increase to strong growth in revenue from online music services, which was partially offset by a decline in revenue from social entertainment services and others.

"Our focus on product innovation to deliver immersive user experiences has driven solid growth in our online music business," said Ross Liang, chief executive officer of Tencent Music. "This is reflected in the continued expansion of both our subscriber base and average revenue per paying user, along with deeper user engagement."

The monthly active users of Tencent Music's online music services dropped 3 percent to 553 million in the second quarter from a year earlier, but its paying users rose 6 percent to 124.4 million, and monthly ARPPU jumped 9 percent to CNY11.70 (USD1.63).

As a result, the company's revenue from online music services surged 26 percent to CNY6.9 billion (USD957 million). Meanwhile, revenue from social entertainment services and others fell 9 percent to CNY1.6 billion (USD222 million).

Tencent Music made more efforts to build its content ecosystem in the second quarter. It acquired a 9.4 percent stake in Korean agency SM Entertainment for KRW243.3 billion (USD175.9 million) in May, becoming the second-largest shareholder of the Seoul-based company after Korean internet giant Kakao.

On June 10, Tencent Music announced it would acquire leading Chinese audio content platform Ximalaya for a total of USD2.9 billion to expand its footprint into audiobooks, podcasts, and radio broadcasts.

Editor: Futura Costaglione