Shenzhen-based Tencent Holdings, the mainland's largest internet services provider by market value, posted an 85per cent leap in net profit for 2009 as demand for its online services continued to record strong growth.
However, its other businesses saw weaker growth, and the outlook for mobile services remains uncertain.
Net profit reached 5.22 billion yuan (HK$5.93 billion), compared with 2.82 billion yuan the year before.
Revenue surged 73.9 per cent year on year to 12.44 billion yuan, with over two-thirds of that, or 9.53 billion yuan, deriving from internet value-added services, a 93.8 per cent increase. Tencent's internet offerings include the QQ internet chat program and online games.
The number of QQ instant messaging accounts reached 522.9 million by the end of last year.
Despite exponential growth in internet value-added services over recent years, the segment faced challenges as mainland internet users, particularly gamers, became increasingly savvy and demanding, Tencent president Martin Lau said. He said providers would need to spend more on research and development to produce better-quality games to retain existing and attract new users.
Mobile value-added services saw a more modest increase in revenue, up 36 per cent from the previous year to 1.91 billion yuan.