As of 3 p.m., users online reported that the mobile and web apps could open but were unable to play music. Instead, they received messages such as “data error” or “unable to retrieve playback information.” The web version displayed a “502 Bad Gateway” error.

NetEase Cloud Music said in a statement on its official Weibo account that the outage was caused by “infrastructure failures.” The company said the outage had been fully resolved by 6 p.m. As compensation, NetEase is offering its users a free seven-day membership, which they can take advantage of on August 20.

NetEase did not immediately respond to an emailed query from the South China Morning Post about the exact cause of the outage.

NetEase Cloud Music, a subsidiary of China’s second-largest video game company, was independently listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2021. According to its revenue, as of December 2023, the platform had 206 million monthly active users, of which 44.12 million were paying subscribers. The average revenue per paying user was 6.9 yuan (US$1) per month.

The company posted its first annual profit last year, when annual net profit reached 734 million yuan on net revenue of 7.9 billion yuan. NetEase Cloud Music will announce its results for the first half of 2024 on Thursday.

In comparison, Tencent Music Entertainment — which operates rival apps QQ Music, Kugou Music, Kuwo Music and karaoke app WeSing — reported a 17.7 percent year-on-year increase in paying subscribers to 117 million in the second quarter, with music subscription revenue reaching 3.74 billion yuan.

NetEase Cloud Music shares rose 2.9 percent today to HK$94.25 (US$12), giving the company an enterprise value of HK$19.8 billion.