TENCENT ANNOUNCES 2025 FIRST QUARTER RESULTS

Sustained High Quality Revenue Growth
Operating Leverage to Support Strategic AI Investments over Longer Term

HONG KONG, May 14, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Tencent Holdings Limited (HKEX: 00700 (HKD Counter) and 80700 (RMB Counter), “Tencent” or “the Company”), a world-leading Internet and technology company in China, today announced the unaudited consolidated results for the quarter ended 31 March 2025 (“1Q2025”).

Mr. Ma Huateng, Chairman and CEO of Tencent, said, “During the first quarter of 2025, our high-quality revenue streams sustained their solid growth trajectory. AI capabilities already contributed tangibly to businesses, such as performance advertising and evergreen games. We also stepped up our spending on new AI opportunities, such as the Yuanbao application and AI in Weixin. We believe the operating leverage from our existing high-quality revenue streams will help absorb the additional costs associated with these AI-related investments and contribute to healthy financial performance during this investment phase. We expect these strategic AI investments will create value for users and society, and generate substantial incremental returns for us over the longer term.”

1Q2025 Financial Highlights
Revenues: +13% YoY, gross profit: +20% YoY, non-IFRS^[1] operating profit: +18% YoY

• Total revenues were RMB180.0 billion (USD25.1 billion^[2]), up 13% over the first quarter of 2024.
• Gross profit was RMB100.5 billion (USD14.0 billion), up 20% YoY.
• On a non-IFRS basis, which is intended to reflect core earnings by excluding certain one-time and/or non-cash items:
  • Operating profit was RMB69.3 billion (USD9.7 billion), up 18% YoY. Operating margin increased to 39% from 37% last year.
  • Profit for the period was RMB 62.7 billion (USD8.7 billion), up 22% YoY.
  • Profit attributable to equity holders of the Company for the period was RMB61.3 billion (USD8.5 billion), up 22% YoY.
  • Basic earnings per share were RMB6.735. Diluted earnings per share were RMB6.583.
• On an IFRS basis:
  • Operating profit was RMB57.6 billion (USD8.0 billion), up 10% YoY. Operating margin decreased to 32% from 33% last year.
  • Profit for the period was RMB49.7 billion (USD6.9 billion), up 17% YoY.
  • Profit attributable to equity holders of the Company for the quarter was RMB47.8 billion (USD6.7 billion), up 14% YoY.
  • Basic earnings per share were RMB 5.252. Diluted earnings per share were RMB5.129.
• Capital expenditure was RMB27.5 billion (USD3.8 billion), up 91% YoY.
• Total cash was RMB476.0 billion (USD66.3 billion) and free cash flow was RMB47.1 billion (USD6.6 billion), down 9% YoY. Net cash position totalled RMB90.2 billion (USD12.6 billion).
• As at 31 March 2025, fair value of our shareholdings^[3] in listed investee companies (excluding subsidiaries) totalled RMB653.4 billion (USD91.0 billion) and the carrying book value of our shareholdings in unlisted investee companies (excluding subsidiaries) was RMB337.9 billion (USD47.1 billion). 
• During the first quarter of 2025, the Company repurchased approximately 43.0 million shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for a consideration of approximately HKD17.1 billion.

1Q2025 Business Review and Outlook

• We provided more onboarding support for Mini Shops merchants, in order to enrich the range of branded product listings, contributing to rapid year-on-year growth in GMV.
• We rolled out AI features within Weixin to provide more interactive user experiences and increase productivity for content creators and developers. For example, we integrated our AI service Yuanbao as a Weixin contact, powered Weixin Search with large language models (LLMs), and provided a text-prompt image generating tool for Official Accounts.
• Tencent Video maintained its leading position in China’s long-form video market with 117 million^[4] video subscribers. Tencent Music sustained its industry leadership in China’s music streaming market with 123 million^[5] music subscribers.
• Several of our evergreen games, including Honour of Kings and CrossFire Mobile, achieved record high levels of gross receipts during the seasonally strong first quarter.
• Delta Force‘s domestic user base reached a post-launch record of 12 million peak DAU in April 2025. Delta Force became the sixth most popular mobile game by average DAU industry-wide^[6], and the highest-DAU new game released in the last three years industry-wide.
• We upgraded our advertising technology platform with enhanced generative AI capabilities, such as improved image generation and video editing to accelerate advertisement creation, digital human solutions to facilitate live streaming activities, and deeper understanding of merchandise and user interests to deliver better recommendations.
• Tencent Cloud‘s audio and video solutions ranked first by revenue for the seventh consecutive year in China^[7]. We enhanced the audio and video solutions’ content generation, media processing and real-time interaction experience by integrating LLM capabilities.

Operating Metrics 

1Q2025 Management Discussion and Analysis

Revenues from VAS increased by 17% year-on-year to RMB92.1 billion for the first quarter of 2025. Domestic Games revenues were RMB42.9 billion, representing a 24% year-on-year increase from a low base in the same period last year, driven by growth in revenues from Honour of Kings and Peacekeeper Elite, as well as contributions from recently released DnF Mobile and Delta Force. International Games revenues were RMB16.6 billion, reflecting a 23% year-on-year increase (22% increase on a constant currency basis), driven by growth in revenues from Brawl Stars, Clash Royale and PUBG MOBILE. Social Networks revenues rose by 7% year-on-year to RMB32.6 billion, driven by growth in app-based game virtual item sales, music subscription revenues and Mini Games platform service fees.

Revenues from Marketing Services^[8] were RMB31.9 billion for the first quarter of 2025, reflecting a 20% year-on-year increase. This growth was primarily due to robust advertiser demand for Video Accounts, Mini Programs and Weixin Search inventories, supported by higher user engagement, ongoing AI upgrades to our advertising platform, and improvements to the transaction ecosystem within Weixin. Marketing Services revenues increased across most major industry categories during the quarter.

Revenues from FinTech and Business Services increased by 5% year-on-year to RMB54.9 billion for the first quarter of 2025. FinTech Services revenue growth was due to higher revenues from consumer loan services and wealth management services. Business Services revenue growth was driven by an increase in cloud services revenues and eCommerce technology service fees.

For other detailed disclosure, please refer to our website https://www.tencent.com/en-us/investors.html, or follow us via Weixin Official Account (Weixin ID: TencentGlobal).

About Tencent

Tencent uses technology to enrich the lives of Internet users.

Our communication and social services, Weixin and QQ, connect users with each other and with digital content and services, both online and offline, making their lives more convenient. Our targeted marketing services helps advertisers reach out to hundreds of millions of consumers in China. Our FinTech and business services support partners’ business growth and assist their digital upgrade.

Tencent invests heavily in talent and technological innovation, actively promoting the development of the Internet industry. Tencent was founded in Shenzhen, China, in 1998. Tencent has been listed on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong since 2004. 

Investor contact: IR@tencent.com
Media contact: GC@tencent.com 

Non-IFRS Financial Measures

To supplement the consolidated results of the Group (“the Company and its subsidiaries”) prepared in accordance with IFRS, certain additional non-IFRS financial measures (in terms of operating profit, operating margin, profit for the period, profit attributable to equity holders of the Company, basic EPS and diluted EPS) have been presented in this press release. These unaudited non-IFRS financial measures should be considered in addition to, not as a substitute for, measures of the Group’s financial performance prepared in accordance with IFRS. In addition, these non-IFRS financial measures may be defined differently from similar terms used by other companies.

The Company’s management believes that the non-IFRS financial measures provide investors with useful supplementary information to assess the performance of the Group’s core operations by excluding certain non-cash items and certain impact of investment-related transactions. In addition, non-IFRS adjustments include relevant non-IFRS adjustments for the Group’s major associates based on available published financials of the relevant major associates, or estimates made by the Company’s management based on available information, certain expectations, assumptions and premises.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements relating to the business outlook, estimates of financial performance, forecast business plans and growth strategies of the Group. These forward-looking statements are based on information currently available to the Group and are stated herein on the basis of the outlook at the time of this press release. They are based on certain expectations, assumptions and premises, some of which are subjective or beyond our control. These forward-looking statements may prove to be incorrect and may not be realised in the future. Underlying these forward-looking statements are a lot of risks and uncertainties. In light of the risks and uncertainties, the inclusion of forward-looking statements in this press release should not be regarded as representations by the Board or the Company that the plans and objectives will be achieved, and investors should not place undue reliance on such statements.