Tencent to step up global games expansion after posting 13 per cent decline in quarterly profit

Third-quarter revenue increased 21 per cent to 97.2 billion yuan, but it was still below analysts’ estimate of 99 billion yuan

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A Tencent Holdings sign is seen at the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province, on October 20. Photo: Reuters

Published: 5:56pm, 13 Nov 2019Updated: 7:31am, 14 Nov 2019

Internet giant Tencent Holdings aims to step up international expansion through its growing video games empire, which could receive a boost with the roll-out of ultra-fast 5G mobile services that enable more advanced applications.

Tencent, which already runs the world’s biggest video games business by revenue, revealed plans to strengthen its presence in international markets, after the Hong Kong-listed company reported on Wednesday lower-than-expected earnings in the third quarter.

Martin Lau Chi-ping, president of Tencent, said at a conference call with analysts after the market closed that the company will sharpen its focus “on incubating our own ideas that are suitable for global audiences and broadening our partnership with international IP (intellectual property) owners”.

In addition, Tencent will pursue localisation of video games for multiple regional markets, Lau said. While the company has succeeded in pioneering this strategy, he said international markets still represent a small percentage of its video games business.

Tencent Holdings operates the world’s biggest video games business by revenue. Photo: Reuters

The latest example of Tencent’s market savvy in video games that Lau cited is Call of Duty Mobile, which had been downloaded 148 million times in its first month of release. That made it the second most downloaded mobile game in its debut month after Pokémon Go, according to app analytics firm Sensor Tower.