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By Bloomberg

Tencent Holdings Ltd., Asia’s second-largest Internet company, will distribute Sony Music Entertainment songs from artists including Beyonce Knowles in a drive to capture a greater share of China’s online music business.

The songs will be distributed via Tencent’s QQ Music platform, both through a free mode and a subscription mode, Tencent and Sony Music said in a joint statement today. Tencent will promote Sony Music’s artists and also allow other local online music service providers to sub-distribute the songs, according to the statement.

Tencent is on a spree to introduce overseas content in China to capture more of the nation’s online music and video market. The Internet company, with 820 million monthly active users of its QQ social media platform, signed distribution deals with Warner Music Group Corp., Fox International Channels, YG Entertainment Inc. and HBO in the past few weeks.

“We’re seeing very nice organic growth with our offerings right now,” Dowson Tong, president of the Shenzhen, China-based company’s social network group, said today by phone. “By strengthening our relationship with content providers like Sony, we are going to continue to see tremendous growth.”

Tencent’s competitor Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. said in October it was seeking partners in Hollywood. A team of Alibaba executives including billionaire co-founder Jack Ma met with representatives from some of the biggest Hollywood studios to seek rights to distribute U.S. shows, people familiar with the matter have said.

Content Deals

Tencent began announcing a string of distribution agreements in November, including a deal to bring the hit TV show “Game of Thrones” to China after it won exclusive rights to air HBO content online in the country. China’s online video market could more than double to 40 billion yuan ($6.5 billion) by 2017, estimates IResearch.

Shares of Tencent fell 3.5 percent to HK$108 at the close in Hong Kong trading, before the announcement. The stock has gained 9.2 percent this year, while the city’s benchmark Hang Seng Index has declined 2.7 percent in the period.

Users of Tencent’s music platform will be able to access songs provided by Sony Music for free through a streaming service. Subscription users can download songs and get access to events including meetings with artists, Tencent said in a separate e-mail.