Record quarterly profit for WeChat parent Tencent Holdings

Marrying social media with mobile gaming has helped Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings post its fastest revenue growth in seven years for a record profit.

It tapped the spending power of about 200 million players, including a solid female representation, of Honour of Kings and other games, boosting mobile-game revenue past that of desktops for the first time.

Its flagship game, Honour of Kings allows WeChat users to discuss strategy as well as co-opt friends to join their team. Tencent is reportedly taking the game to new markets.

Games distributed to more than a billion users on QQ and WeChat combined fueled a 54 per cent surge in mobile gaming revenue in Tencent’s latest quarter. It had a 70 per cent leap in net income to a record RMB18.2 billion (US$2.7 billion) for the three months to the end of June. Sales soared 59 per cent to RMB56.6 billion yuan.

Tencent’s payments and cloud businesses both grew by triple digits in the quarter, says president Martin Lau.

Revenue from value-added services, including games and messaging, rose 43 per cent to RMB36.8 billion. Online advertising sales increased 55 per cent to RMB10.1 billion yuan.