Tencent Holdings Ltd, Chinaʼs biggest social network and online entertainment firm, beat analyst estimates with a third-quarter revenue rise of 34 percent, its fastest rate in five quarters, partly due to a surge in advertising income.
Overall July-September revenue reached 26.59 billion yuan ($4.18 billion), compared with the 25.26 billion yuan average estimate of 15 analysts in a Thomson Reuters poll.
Revenue in the firmʼs value-added services category grew 28 percent year-on-year to 20.55 billion yuan, boosted by new smartphone and PC games, as well as social network income.
Tencent attributed its 102 percent rise in advertising revenue to 4.9 billion yuan to an enlarged advertiser base, with 65 percent of that revenue generated on mobile platforms.
The operator of Chinaʼs most popular messaging app, WeChat, recently ramped up advertising sales, following the lead of US social media peer Facebook Inc. Conversely, Facebook is making its messaging apps more like Tencentʼs, which offers services from mobile gaming to taxi hailing and personal wealth management.
Tencentʼs net quarterly income hit 7.45 billion yuan, versus an average estimate of 7.67 billion yuan, representing year-on-year growth of 39 percent.
