Tencent Music Goes to Japan to Boost Karaoke Business

HONG KONG — As Tencent Music Entertainment built itself into China's dominant music-streaming company, with $4.9 billion in revenue in 2021, it was aided by its thriving online karaoke app WeSing. But in March, facing a sudden decline in its karaoke business due to increasing competition from local rivals like Alibaba and NetEase Cloud Music, TME took an unusual step: It set foot in Japan, the country that gave birth to the global singalong sensation in the 1970s, by acquiring a controlling stake in a company that operates Pokekara, Japan's leading karaoke app. While karaoke is often associated with hospitality…