Tencent games not a focus of antitrust initiative, president says, as firm posts 89 per cent rise in quarterly profit
- The internet giant reported a net profit of US$5.8 billion in the third quarter, beating analysts’ estimates
- Revenue rose 29 per cent to US$18.9 billion
“Tencent’s business, strategy and philosophy fit very well with the spirit of the regulatory framework,” said Tencent president Martin Lau Chi-ping in a conference call with analysts on Thursday after the market closed. “As you can see our platforms are open in nature, we work with a lot of partners.”
“For games, we essentially have individual products rather than platforms, I think they are less of the [draft guidelines’] focus,” he said.
Lau’s comments come after Tencent, which runs the world’s largest video games business and China’s largest social network, reported a better-than-expected 89 per cent jump in net profit for the quarter to September 30.
“Our observation is that such regulation is not new, and it’s also not unique to China,” he said. “As technology companies become bigger and more important to the economy, I would say more regulation reflects the new reality as needed. It’s not just the case for China, but it’s also the case globally … The intention is to prevent misconduct, and also ensure long term healthy growth for the industries.”
“We’ll work very constructively with the regulators to ensure our compliance with the paper,” he added.