Chinese internet group Tencent said revenues for the first quarter leaped 48 percent year-on-year to CNY 73.528 billion. All businesses contributed to growth, with revenues going up 340 percent at Value Added Services, and rising 26 percent at online games. The increase there was mainly driven by growth at smartphone games, including existing titles such as Honour of Kings and newly launched titles MU Awakening and QQ Speed Mobile. PC client game revenues were broadly while social network revenues advanced 47 percent, pushed primarily by growth from digital content services such as live broadcast, video streaming subscriptions and music service WeSing, as well as from in-game virtual item sales. Finally, revenues from the online advertising business increased by 55 percent, with social and other advertising revenues up 69 percent and media advertising revenues lifting 31 percent.
The operating profit surged 59 percent to CNY 30.692 billion while the net profit going 61 percent higher to CNY 23.290 billion. Basic earnings per share went to CNY 2.470, with diluted EPS at CNY 2.435. EBITDA went 46 percent higher to CNY 29.247 billion. Capex jumped 200 percent to CNY 6.318 billion. Free cash flow meanwhile fell 46 percent to CNY 13 billion.
Monthly active user accounts (MAU) declined to 805.5 million, down 6.4 percent from the year before and from 783 million in the previous quarter. Smart device MAU of QQ lifted 2.4 percent to 694.1 million year-on-year and from 683 million in Q4. The combined MAU of Weixin and WeChat amounted to 1.040 billion, up 10.9 percent year-on-year and from 989 million sequentially.
Looking forward, Tencent CEO Ma Huateng said the company will continue to invest in improving its own products and enabling services for its partners.
