Alibaba to shut down Xiami music app on Feb 5

Beijing, Jan 5 (IANS) Alibaba Group on Tuesday announced that it will close down its streaming platform Xiami music on February 5.Xiami was once one of China's most popular and taste-making music streamers, but it has fallen to the wayside since it was acquired by Alibaba in 2013, reports Variety.Alibaba acquired the music service to compete in China's online music market, which is dominated by Tencent Holdings.However, it now holds a market share of only about 1.8 per cent, with around 11.9 million average monthly active users between May 2019 and April 2020.Xiami's closure also comes after Chinese regulators announced that they had launched an antitrust investigation into Alibaba and at a time when the conglomerate's co-founder Jack Ma is rumored to be missing.While users will lose access to the app and all their data, Xiami is not totally dead. Its copyrights-focused segment Yin Luo (Conch Music) will continue to operate.
--IANS wh/sdr/