Although the coronavirus is affecting multiple businesses and industries for the worse, it looks like the Chinese mega-corporation best known as Tencent is beating quarterly expectations. According to a new report that Tencent issued out regarding its Q1 2020 results, it has “blown past estimates” despite China being on lockdown.
As many know by now, many events and conferences related to the games industry have been impacted by the ongoing pandemic. This year’s Gamescom will not have a physical exhibit but a digital one instead, while E3 2020 is fully canceled.
Multiple titles have been pushed back, much like Koei Tecmo and Gust’s Fairy Tail due to coronavirus measures. However, standing tall through all of this is Tencent.
Currently assisting both PlatinumGames and OtherSide Entertainment with System Shock 3, the mega-corporation reports on its performance as of the first quarter of this year, and things aren’t looking bad for the ever-growing Chinese conglomerate.
As per publication site The Motley Fool or fool.com, we learn the following information:
“Tencent just reported its results from the first quarter of 2020, a period during which the majority of China was locked down due to the coronavirus. Yet Tencent’s main businesses showed resilient results — if not better — even amid nationwide stay-at-home orders. In response, the stock rose nearly 4.5% yesterday on an otherwise down day for the markets, showing that Tencent still remains one of the safer businesses in the world right now.”
In addition to the stock rising by nearly 4.5%, the website reads off info related to Tencent’s Q1 2020 report and notes the entire growth of the mega-corporation:
“During the quarter, Tencent as a whole grew revenue 26%, with non-IFRS (adjusted) operating profit growing 25% and non-IFRS net profit up 29%. The bright spots fueling Tencent’s growth were its online gaming empire and its dominant WeChat social media platform. Online gaming revenue grew 31%, an acceleration over the prior quarter’s 25% growth.”
The website also highlights Tencent’s empire in the games industry isn’t alone in that it’s accompanied by the dominant WeChat social media platform, as noted below:
“Tencent’s crown jewel WeChat social network also reported impressive metrics. Though already counting much of the Chinese population as devoted users, WeChat managed to grow monthly active users 3.2% quarter over quarter and 8.2% year over year to 1.2 billion.
Incredibly, WeChat’s social media advertising segment grew a whopping 47% in the quarter, accelerating over the 37% growth in the fourth quarter, due to increased inventory from Weixin Moments, the Chinese equivalent of Facebook’s (NASDAQ:FB) news feed.”
The only thing that the current pandemic has affected for the worse regarding Tencent’s performance is lower revenue related to TenPay.
Lastly, Tencent has plans on pushing its portfolio of triple-A games forward. This will be done by hiring well-known developers to churn out blockbuster titles from its California based studio — Tencent America.