Tencent posts better-than-expected earnings in Q3 on popularity of mobile games and social media apps
Tencent reported better-than-expected earnings in the third quarter after popular mobile games and social media applications helped drive revenue.
Profit in the three months ended September 30 jumped 69 percent to 18 billion yuan (US$2.72 billion), according to a stock exchange filing today.
Revenue also surged 61 percent to 65 billion yuan, beating previous estimates of 60.8 billion yuan.
By the end of September, the company added 17 million active users monthly on its smartphone messaging app WeChat and sister chatting software QQ from three months ago to a total of 980 million.
Online advertising income surged 48 percent to 11 billion yuan, Tencent said.
Honor of Kings, its flagship mobile game, drove income from smartphone games to surge 84 percent to 18.2 billion yuan while the older desktop gaming unit saw revenue grow 27 percent to 14.6 billion yuan.
Tencent is also actively seeking overseas revenue stream and alternative businesses outside of gaming and social media. Earlier this month, Tencent announced it would take 12 percent in Snapchat’s parent Snap Inc.
Tencent, which is also catching up quickly with rival Alibaba’s payment service Alipay, said that monthly offline payment volume soared 280 percent year on year, with more retailers adopting its integrated payment and customer loyalty management services.