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Tencent Holdings Ltd delivered a striking 47% profit leap in Q3, reaching 53.23 billion yuan, with major boosts from gaming, AI tools, and high-demand ad services. Revenue rose to 167.19 billion yuan but fell slightly short of analyst expectations.
Gaming and Advertising Drive Tencent’s Impressive Q3 Profit Growth
The gaming, advertising, and cloud businesses contributed to Tencent Holdings Ltd's stronger-than-expected profit increase for the third quarter.
According to Reuters, shareholder profit jumped 47% year-on-year to 53.23 billion yuan ($7.37 billion), much above the 46.18 billion yuan forecasted by LSEG. Despite this, sales increased 8% to 167.19 billion yuan, which was just short of the 167.82 billion yuan predicted by analysts.
With a 14% year-over-year increase to 37.3 billion yuan, Tencent's gaming division remained a significant source of revenue. As Tencent emphasized the "evergreen potential" of both new and old titles, revenue from overseas games increased by 11% to 14.5 billion yuan in constant currency.
Marketing Services Surge Outside of Gaming
One of the fastest-growing segments outside of gaming, marketing services (previously known as internet advertising) experienced a noteworthy 17% increase to 29.99 billion yuan. Weixin in China and WeChat internationally are Tencent's messaging apps; the company said this was due to "robust advertiser demand" for the app's mini-programs, search capabilities, and short video content.
The gaming and social media behemoth announced 1.38 billion Weixin/WeChat MAUs for the quarter, up 3% year-over-year, Investing.com shares.
AI Tools Show Tangible Impact Across Tencent’s Platforms
As a sign of the industry-wide trend toward the emerging technology, Tencent also brought attention to the results of its own AI tools.
According to the company's earnings report, "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."
The company announced that its WeChat app's search feature saw an increase in commercial queries and click-through rates, thanks to the capabilities of its large language model (LLM).
