Chinese rocker Cui Jian in performance organized by QQ Music. (Photo provided to China Daily)
Recalling those years, Ng, who has been with Tencent for five years, said: "There wasn't much hope then when we were seeing everything pirated. There was no business model at that time.
"So, it is hard to believe that we have over 10 million paying users now. And, I guess, there is still room for growth."
The market took a turn for the better in 2011, when QQ Music worked out a partnership with a lot of music labels, including major companies－Warner Music, Sony Music and Universal Music－as well as independent labels.
The move allowed QQ Music to become these labels' sole distributor in the Chinese market and helped them fight piracy.
Also, by building a system which enabled the internet company to monitor piracy sites, Tencent, according to Ng, managed to persuade the government to change the rules.
Meanwhile, the paid services began to take off only after China's National Copyright Administration issued a notice in 2015 that online music delivery platforms had to remove all unauthorized songs.
