Tencent saw balanced growth across all its core business segments, but its standout was international gaming, which grew by 43 percent.
Internet tech giant Tencent saw its growth slow slightly at the end of 2020. But solid performances across its core businesses led to a full-year revenue increase of 28 percent over 2019, reaching $73.9 billion. A fourth-quarter lift of 26 percent contributed $20.5 billion.
Tencent, founded in Shenzhen in 1998 and listed in Hong Kong since 2004, saw its four main divisions — social networks, online games, online advertising, and fintech/ business services — all perform at similar levels, but an extra focus on global gaming and social video could fuel future growth.
Chairman and CEO of Tencent, Ma Huateng, said in a statement, “We extended our leading position in the consumer internet space with enriched content and innovations across our products, while making notable progress in international expansion, starting with games.”
The company also invested in its communications and social platforms — such as Weixin, WeChat, and QQ — which connect more than 1.2 billion users, mainly in China, and give luxury brands and marketers access to valuable demographic targets.
In the final quarter of 2020, the take from online games hit $6 billion, up by 29 percent. Within that, international gaming revenue soared by 43 percent to $1.5 billion, as cloud gaming worldwide has become a colossal $150 billion market, attracting 2.5 billion players.
Smartphone games, such as “Peacekeeper Elite,” Honor of Kings,” PUBG Mobile,” and recently-launched titles such as “Moonlight Blade Mobile” have been the main driver for Tencent. Revenue from this segment (including smartphone games revenue attributable to Tencent’s social networks business) reached $5.6 billion in the quarter, more than three times that for PC client games. Continue to read the full article here
