Tencent enjoys profit boost
Tencent exceeds expectations with a 35 percent growth in profit in the second quarter of the year.
Tencent posted a 35-percent growth in profit in the second quarter to 24 billion yuan (US$3.4 billion), against a Bloomberg estimate of 21.1 billion yuan thanks to strong performance of new game titles.
Revenue in the April-June quarter increased 21 percent to 88 billion yuan compared with an estimate of 93.4 billion yuan.
Online games revenues grew by 8 percent following the release of 10 new games in the second quarter with new popular launches such as Peacekeeper Elite while the personal computer business saw decline.
FinTech and businesses service sectors, including the cloud computing unit, saw revenue increase 37 percent to 22.9 billion yuan from climbing commercial payment and cloud services income.
The average transaction and total payment volume also picked up thanks to a wider merchant network for accepting mobile payment via WeChat.
The company has been pushing for a restructuring to get better prepared for industrial shifts as many companies are embracing digital transformation, whereas the age for exponential growth of the consumer Internet market might be over.
The gaming and social giant is recovering from a nine-month regulatory hiatus on releasing new game licenses which had put pressure on its profits in the second half last year.
Online advertising income rose 16 percent to 16.4 billion yuan.
Tencent is also adding content from Zhihu, a Chinese online question-and-answer site, to its social content to draw more users to spend more time on its popular smartphone social application WeChat.
