BEIJING: Chinese tech giant Tencent on Wednesday posted an eight percent year-on-year expansion in third-quarter revenue, driven by what it called “robust” growth in its gaming business.
The Shenzhen-based firm is one of the top players in China’s expansive technology sector, operating the WeChat “super-app” with other offerings across gaming, content streaming and cloud services.
Tencent recorded revenue of 167.2 billion yuan ($23.2 billion) during the three months ending on September 30, up eight percent from the same period last year, a filing at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange showed.
“During the third quarter of 2024, we delivered robust revenue growth in our games business, underpinned by consistent performance of evergreen games globally and contributions from new games with evergreen potential,” the filing stated.
Net profits in the period stood at 53.2 billion yuan ($7.4 billion), jumping 47 percent year-on-year, the announcement showed.
Last year saw Tencent bring in its lowest annual profit since 2019, but the firm has bounced back, recording an 82 percent year-on-year surge in second-quarter net profits.
Tencent’s latest results are expected to be followed this week by those of fellow tech titans JD.com and Alibaba, all of which are being closely monitored by investors for signs of an improvement in Chinese domestic consumption.
China’s economy has struggled to fully rebound from the pandemic, with sluggish spending among the hurdles faced by companies in pursuit of stable growth.
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Compounding the challenge has been a tougher regulatory environment following Beijing’s 2020 crackdown on the tech sector, which imposed closer scrutiny on competition and the handling of personal data after years of relative leniency.
Since 2021, Chinese authorities have also imposed a strict weekly limit of three hours of online gaming for those under 18 to curb addiction among younger people.
Tencent – among the world’s top game providers – has recently sought to build its presence in the promising field of artificial intelligence, like other major Chinese tech firms such as Baidu, Huawei, Alibaba and ByteDance.
Wednesday’s filing said that the firm is “increasingly seeing tangible benefits of deploying AI”, adding that its investment in the technology would continue.
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