We all know that WeChat is one of the world’s most popular messaging apps, having recently surpassed WhatsApp, Instagram, and Twitter in popularity, but just how good is it for the company that makes it?
Tencent Holdings Ltd., the company behind WeChat as well as China’s largest Internet company by market value did post a 19 percent increase in profit, making 3.68 billion yuan, or about $601 million. A year ago, this number stood at 3.1 billion. Profits would have been a little higher without the company’s recent boost in marketing for WeChat.
Tencent has added games and other new services to its WeChat messaging service, which has more than 400 million registered users. The company also recently released a collaborative SIM service with China Unicom.
Online advertising revenue climbed 53 percent from the previous quarter to 1.3 billion yuan, while e-commerce gained 15 percent to 2.2 billion yuan. The cost of revenue, which reflects merchandise sold and content, rose 11 percent, it said. Selling and marketing expenses in the June quarter rose 28 percent from the three months ended March to 1.2 billion yuan as the company boosted activities in international markets and targeted customers in the U.S., Hong Kong and Taiwan. Tencent is investing the most since 2009 on research and development, building games and other mobile applications to lure customers who are spending more time on their smartphones and tablets.
Competition between Internet companies is intensifying after Alibaba bought an 18 percent stake in Sina’s Weibo microblogging service. Alibaba then suspended access to WeChat applications at the beginning of August.
Active users of WeChat rose to 235.8 million in the June quarter, almost triple the 85.2 million of a year earlier, the company said, and it hopes to have more than 400 million by year’s end. Users outside of mainland China rose to 70 million in early July, a number that is said to number into the 100 millions at this time.
WeChat is currently available for download for Android, iPhone, Windows Phone, and other major operating systems. Find out more on our official WeChat page.