Mobile Wire reports Li-Ka Shing, the richest man in Asia, has decided to enrich his earnings by investing in the Asian telecom market via the online music streaming company Spotify. Shing is worth about $15 billion according to Forbes, and is estimated to have invested around $50m in Spotify with the ambition of taking the streamlining service worldwide with more services available to consumers.
Other previous investments of Shing include Skype via TOM Online his own venture, and a $120m investment in Facebook. He also owns Hutchinson Whampoa which operates Three, the mobile network, and INQ which manufactures mobile phones.
INQ has been behind many innovative specific mobiles such as Twitter phones, a Skypephone with an updated version on the way, and a Facebook phone.
It is rumored that the Spotify music streaming service will be incorporated into INQ’s mobiles and that INQ chairman Frank Meehan will sit on the Spotify board.
Spotify charges users to access for ad-free playlists. It can also be used as a free streaming source if users are willing to sit through ads into between tracks.
Spotify is currently waiting on approval for an Apple App that will allow the service to be used on the iPhone and is working on a Google Android application.
