ByteDance is shutting its music streaming service Resso in India by the end of this month, people familiar with the matter told Moneycontrol, marking the latest exit by the Chinese technology giant from the world's second-largest internet market.
Sources tell Moneycontrol that this decision comes after Resso was removed from Google Play and Apple App Store following an order by the Indian government. The app was taken down from these mobile app marketplaces in mid-December 2023, Moneycontrol has learnt.
At the time of writing this article, the streaming service is still functional and we were able to stream songs on the mobile app as well as the desktop website, although we were not able to buy subscriptions either on the app or the website.
"Unfortunately, owing to local market conditions, we can no longer continue to serve users of Resso in India. We have therefore decided to shut down Resso and its associated operations on January 31. Users will be offered a refund of their remaining subscription fees" said a ByteDance spokesperson in response to Moneycontrol's queries.
ByteDance, which is most famous for the short video app TikTok, launched Resso in India, Indonesia and Brazil in March 2020. The app enabled users to stream music tracks across various genres and languages through free and paid subscription plans.
Paid subscriptions offered ad-free listening, high-quality audio, the ability to download songs for offline listening and unlimited skips, apart from a range of social features. The service was available for prices ranging from a weekly plan of Rs 25 per week to monthly plans of Rs 99 per month for individuals or Rs 119 per month for families and annual plans of Rs 749 per year.
In May 2023, Resso scrapped the free tier, becoming a premium-only service. At the time, the company said this move would enable them to develop a better user experience for music fans while increasing opportunities for rights holders and artists.
ByteDance, the world's most valuable startup, has had a turbulent journey in India in recent years. The Indian government had previously banned several of its apps including TikTok, Helo and CapCut citing national security issues in the first wave of Chinese app bans in June 2020. Following this order, the apps were taken down by Apple and Google from their respective mobile app stores. The ban was made permanent by the government in January 2021.
Resso, however, has escaped this ban so far and even become the top-grossing mobile app in the music and audio category on the Play Store in India. It has been among the top-grossing mobile apps on Google Play Store in the country in the past year or so, according to the app intelligence firm Sensor Tower. The firm also noted that India was the biggest market for Resso in terms of downloads and monthly active users. The app had clocked over 250 million installs since launch, as of May 2023.
That said, ByteDance also appears to have taken down the app in Indonesia and Brazil earlier in 2023 and shut down the service in these markets on September 5, 2023. The Chinese technology giant launched a new standalone subscription-based music streaming service called TikTok Music in Brazil and Indonesia in July last year, which has since been expanded to countries such as Australia, Mexico, and Singapore.
Sources told Moneycontrol that ByteDance has no plans to bring TikTok Music to India. This is likely because TikTok Music shares the same app publisher as TikTok. Resso was instead published by a company called Moon Video Inc, that is based in the British Virgin Islands.
In India, Resso competed with a range of domestic and international players such as Spotify, YouTube Music, Gaana, JioSaavn, Wynk, and Amazon Music among others.
Around 208 million people streamed music online in 2022, of which the paid subscriber base was just around 4 to 5 million due to a plethora of free options available in the country, as per a recent EY-FICCI media and industry report. The paid subscriber base is projected to cross 8 million by 2025, it said.
The report also added that revenues of the segment increased by around 15 percent to Rs 1,600 crore in 2022, of which over 80 percent was advertising revenues.
Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
