Tencent's climbing revenue driven by online games

Chinese holding company Tencent reported a 36.6 percent increase in revenue for the second quarter of its 2013 fiscal year, attributing the rise in profits to its growing games sector, according to the company's recent financial report.

For the second quarter ending June 30, 2013, total revenue was 14.384 billion yuan ($2.328 billion USD), a 6.2 percent increase from the first quarter ending March 31, and a 36.6 percent increase from the same period in 2012.

According to Tencent Chairman and CEO Ma Huateng, the increase in revenue was the result of continued sales of online games and its advertising business, as well as the growth of its mobile sector. Online games revenues increased 1.6 percent quarter-over-quarter, reaching 7.594 billion yuan ($1.24 billion USD) "despite weaker seasonality in China as a result of school examinations." The company's major titles, including MOBAs Dungeon and Fighter and League of Legends, and increased localization of western games were named as driving sources behind the growth.

"The second-quarter performance was driven by our online games and advertising businesses, resulting in a solid financial performance, including healthy profits and free cash flow growth on year-on-year basis," Huateng said in a statement accompanying the report. "Our mobile and platform investments have enabled us to achieve deep mobile engagement, as demonstrated by rapidly increasing usage of our apps such as Mobile QQ, Mobile Qzone, Weixin, and WeChat on smart phones. Our recent launch of the first mobile game integrated with Mobile QQ and Weixin generated widespread user excitement, exhibiting our platform strength, highly engaged social community and game execution capability.

"We will continue to increase our investment in mobile apps in order to reinforce our position in China, and to extend our presence to international markets through WeChat," he added.

Last month, Tencent announced it was joining the Entertainment Software Association.