Happened Earlier this Year
Do you guys remember WeChat? They were a company that tried to go against Viber here in the Philippines 2 years ago. They even tapped Vice Ganda to be their celebrity endorser. They eventually shut down operations in the PH though but don’t think for a second that they’re a small time player. WeChat is a tech giant in China where they are the reigning messaging and commerce mobile application. The company behind them, Tencent, is valued at a whopping $380 billion. Yes, that’s a “B”.
That same company, according to a report on Techcrunch, tried to buy Spotify earlier this year. Tencent has their own music streaming services where they have over 600 million users in China. The play for Tencent is to be able to expand outside of China and Asia by getting into the 60 countries where Spotify is already present, including the Philippines.
Unfortunately for Tencent, Spotify wasn’t interested in the deal. The report says that Spotify rejected the deal, adding the Chinese tech giant to a list of disappointed suitors which include no less than Google.
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