Thank you, Melissa. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining our call today. 2024 is off to a great start. Strong execution of our dual-engine content and platform strategy is yielding impressive results and pushing vitality industry-wide. In the first quarter, the number of music-paying users increased to $113.5 million, totaling 43% of the overall growth in online music revenues.
Our high-quality growth strategy also drove a robust net profit margin expansion. Subscriber growth in this quarter significantly exceeded our expectations, which in a quarterly historic high of 6.8 million net adds was more, we maintained the ARPPU at a healthy level. All the achievements demonstrate our keen understanding of users' needs and our neck for anticipating and meeting their demands operationally.
As you have seen in our earnings release, supported by our strong fundamentals, we are very pleased to announce an annual cash dividend policy and USD 210 million in cash dividends for the year of 2023. On top of our ongoing buyback program, this reflects our confidence in future growth and commitment to sharing our success with shareholders.
Next, I would like to share an overview of this quarter's content development efforts. Through a balanced combination of copyright music and original content, we enable users to discover the latest and trendiest content and enjoy a superior experience on our platform. Let me go over a few highlights. First, we renewed and reinforced the partnership with record labels to broaden our music library's comprehensiveness and popularity. Our innovative value-added features and promotion services expand from licensing, further unlocking the value of music content industry-wide.
We renewed our cooperation with Time Fengjun Entertainment, featuring 30-day head start benefits on new songs and adding Dolby Atmos upgrades for popular groups like TFBOYS and Tintin Times. We also expanded our agreement with HIM International Music, incorporating an industry-first component authorizing PME to use licensed AI features to promote HIM's iconic C-pop content. This will ensure the authentic and responsible use of AI, showcasing TME's commitment to protecting artists rights and interests in the ITC era.
Active benefits from TME's tech-powered promotions and copyright protection, while users enjoy the latest in interactive features, which is a win-win. [indiscernible], is one recent success for its primary on our platform, we connect our AI thing on a long feature and TME Live off-line concepts, spurring fan interaction within new scenarios. We enriched our K-pop content and relining offerings with various artisan activities, digital albums, and active merchandise for new generation groups like ILEC, Baby Monster, and Rice in the first quarter.
K-pop user engagement and streams both grew year-over-year. Next, we expanded our original content, a key differentiator to attract users and enhance engagement. Based on our key graphs of trends, we delivered an array of features catering to users' ever-changing tastes this quarter. We produced original contracts for hit TV dramas, The Legend of Shen Li, including 17 songs and 30 expos, featuring coptraks by TME's strategic partner artists, such as Jesse, Itai, and Wangjing. These [indiscernible] create a massive social media bust that boost the streams and viewerships. Their outstanding performance showcases our ability to support and set content trends while maximizing the value of content.
Our OST for the region of SME produced by Tencent Video, also highlighted the power of collaboration within the Tencent ecosystem. It's matched to webcasts with over 150 million streams within 30 days of release, making it the #1 OST debut for this year. We also partnered with strategic artists and Indian musicians on music production and promotion to build our performance quality music offering. Our cell produces [indiscernible], became the top rate is on social media this quarter.
Moving on to our commitment to social responsibility. We cooperate with Tencent Charity for the third consecutive year on our FIM program to drive autism awareness. If Music has a shape this year, [indiscernible], more than 60 other renowned artists and groups, including [indiscernible] also share songs in support of children with autism. We then host an exhibition featuring artwork by children with autism inspired by these musical works, leveraging multimedia to amplify our carrying message and boost music's social value.
In conclusion, by expanding content and introducing more tailored platform offers that resonate deeply with users, we continue strengthening our rivency to drive industry development. We are confident that our powerful content and platform dual engines and ever-deepening understanding of content will propel our sustainable growth in 2024 and beyond.
Now I would like to turn the call over to Ross for more color on our platform development. Ross, please go ahead.