Tencent said it saw weaker seasonality in the second quarter for its IVAS business, citing fewer holidays in the period and students’ exams.

The company, China’s largest online game operator and instant messaging platform, reported 90.8 percent growth in revenue from online games. IVAS revenue totaled 3.39 billion yuan for the quarter.

IVAS contributed most of Tencent’s total revenue, online advertising contributing 4.8 percent and mobile services 14.6 percent.

Tencent said net profit rose to 1.78 billion yuan in the first quarter, from 1.035 billion yuan a year earlier. Revenue rose 68.8 percent to 4.23 billion yuan.

Last month, Tencent paid $300 million for 10 percent of Digital Sky Technologies, an investor in the Russian equivalent of Facebook, which also recently purchased chat messaging platform ICQ from Time Warner.

Tencent’s ambitions to expand overseas comes as China’s online game market becomes more cutthroat, with companies churning out similar games, jockeying for the attention of an audience whose tastes are becoming more sophisticated.

Online game revenue in China rose more than 40 percent in the first quarter to 7.82 billion yuan, said Beijing-based Analysys International.

Source : Konaxis