China approves Tencent's Ximalaya acquisition with strict conditions

China's antitrust regulator has granted conditional approval for Tencent Holdings to acquire online audio platform Ximalaya, nearly a year after the deal was announced. The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) cleared the transaction on Tuesday but imposed five conditions to mitigate potential negative impacts. Tencent and Ximalaya are banned from raising service fees, must maintain current free content levels, cannot enter exclusive copyright deals, cannot bundle audio and music services for carmakers, and cannot restrict creators from joining rival platforms. Tencent announced its plan to acquire Ximalaya last June through subsidiary Tencent Music Entertainment Group, offering US$2.4 billion in cash and stock to make Ximalaya a wholly-owned subsidiary. Ximalaya operates China's most popular long-form audiobook and podcast platform, controlling over 45% of the domestic audio app market in 2025 according to iiMedia Research. Over 70% of China's audio app users had paid for content, iiMedia data showed. The acquisition adds long-form audio to Tencent's music ecosystem, strengthening its position in China's competitive digital content market where Tencent Music already holds the highest revenue share in paid digital music.