Tencent’s Q1 Results

Tencent’s Q1 Results

Tencent’s Q1 net income rose by 60% to $1.04 billion USD, well higher than analyst estimates, boosted by mobile gaming revenue. The business division that houses the gaming revenue saw a 35% jump in revenue and saw significant impact from smartphone games distributed via wildly popular messaging app WeChat. There are now 396 million (!) monthly active users of WeChat.

Alibaba Launches Joint Service with ShopRunner

With all of the Alibaba IPO news it is important to note that not only is Alibaba competing most directly with Tencent in China, but the company also competes against other ecommerce giants such as Amazon. Amazon is a rising competitor in the digital games space. Alibaba has struck one of its largest deals with a US ecommerce company that competes against Amazon, ShopRunner, in order to bring ShopRunner to China (where Amazon launched services last year).

Nintendo’s Emerging Markets Consoles

Nintendo announced that it is in development of entirely new consoles for emerging markets, including China. The consoles will target those with lower income and less gaming experience, according to Reuters.

Tencent’s Tian Tian Xuan Dou

Tencent’s new game Tian Tian Xuan Dou has been doing really well since its launch on April 29. It is currently the #1 game by downloads and revenue. It is Tencent’s first self-developed action game on mobile, targeting a smaller audience of hardcore gamers. In less than a week the game attained nearly 25 million registered users (iOS + Android).