Tencent’s mobile gaming growth continues

Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. posted double-digit revenue and profit increases as it continued to grow its mobile-gaming, social-media and advertising businesses in the second quarter.

Tencent, one of China’s largest publicly traded companies and the world’s biggest videogame publisher by revenue, also operates the popular social-media app WeChat.

Mobile-game revenue grew 54% and exceeded computer games revenue for the first time. Computer-game revenue grew 29%, but the company warned that future PC revenue growth rates would decline. The company posted 14.8 billion yuan ($2.21 billion) in mobile revenue and 13.6 billion yuan in computer revenue.

Its share price has rose 70% so far this year.

The company said its WeChat app, known in China as Weixin, saw 963 million monthly average users in the quarter, growing 19.5% from a year earlier.

Another of the company’s social-media networks, QQ, saw a 5.4% decline in monthly active users to 850 million. Still, Tencent said the decrease was due to fewer casual users while engagement with core users increased. QQ also saw smart-device growth among younger users.

Online advertising revenue grew 55% to 10.15 billion yuan, driven by increased mobile video views as TV dramas and variety shows attracted users.

In all, profit grew 70% to 18.23 billion yuan, or 1.9 yuan a share, compared with 10.74 billion yuan, or 1.13 yuan a share, a year prior. Revenue grew 59% to 56.6 billion yuan. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected 53.03 billion yuan in revenue and profit of 1.52 yuan a share.

Chester Yung contributed to this article.

[Source”indianexpress”]