Tencent reports profit beat on games growth, touts AI benefits

Chinese social media and gaming company Tencent on Wednesday reported better-than-expected profit in the third quarter, spurred by growth in games, advertising and cloud services.

Tencent reported profit attributable to shareholders surged by 47% year-on-year to 53.23 billion yuan ($7.37 billion) in the third quarter, compared with a LSEG estimate of 46.18 billion yuan for the period.

The company’s revenue rose by an annual 8% to 167.19 billion yuan, short of the 167.82 billion yuan analyst forecast.

Gaming remained the company’s backbone, with the unit’s domestic revenue up 14% year-on-year to 37.3 billion yuan, while that for international games shot up by 11% to 14.5 billion yuan on a constant currency basis.

The company noted that existing and new games had “evergreen potential.”

Marketing services revenue, previously called online advertising, surged by an annual 17% to 29.99 billion yuan, making it one of the fastest-growing categories outside gaming. Tencent attributed the growth to “robust advertiser demand” for its short-videos, mini programs and search features within its messaging app — called Weixin in China and WeChat overseas.

Global monthly average users for the messaging app rose by 3% from a year ago to 1.38 billion in the third quarter.

The company also boasted the benefits of employing artificial intelligence, amid a broader global boom in the AI space:

“We are increasingly seeing tangible benefits of deploying AI across our products and operations including marketing services and cloud, and will continue investing in AI technology, tools and solutions that assist users and partners,” Tencent said in an earnings release.

This breaking news story is being updated.