Kugou Music
Tencent Music's long running music player, with karaoke and live streams
First principle
People love the songs everyone sings, and singing along. Kugou began as download software on the PC and still gives a mass audience what it wants: many songs, easy to find, easy to sing.
The needs it meets
- EntertainmentCore
- Passing time and unwinding, carried off by stories, music and video.
- Being seen
- Making things and showing yourself; being seen and approved of.
Why it wins
- It shares Tencent Music, and most of the songs, with QQ Music; the difference is the listeners, who skew older, and an app shaped around them.
- Viper sound effects, surround sound and a landscape player make the same song sound and look different; these are its own signatures.
- Phone karaoke comes with a huge stock of backing tracks, and you can compete with singers in your city: a stage for people who want to be heard.
- Hosts sing live around the clock, taking requests and gifts: a way of listening with someone there.
What keeps it ahead
- Brand and IP
- People knew it already: the brand, the characters, the stars.
- Better product
- Clearly better at the core thing.
How it makes money
SubscriptionsIn app purchases
Its top in app purchases are nearly all memberships, music packs, Deluxe VIP, Super VIP and audiobook passes; it also sells virtual coins, used for things like tipping live hosts.
What a small team can take from it
Unfashionable needs can carry a big business: Kugou serves older, everyday listeners with hit songs, big sound and karaoke. A small team can pick a group trendier products ignore, older people for instance, and redo the same job for them.
This week
- China: top grossing apps, number 9
updated 29 October 2026
- Developer
- Guangzhou KuGou Technology CO. , LTD
- Category
- App · Music
- Stores
- App Store
- First in a list
- 29 October 2026
Sources
- 酷狗音乐（维基百科）
- 腾讯音乐vs网易云音乐，3.6倍差距的秘密（人人都是产品经理） 7 June 2025
This is our analysis and judgement, drafted by an AI agent from the store pages and public sources and read by a person before it went up. Every figure has a source; where there is none, we give no figure. Found a mistake? Write to [email protected].