TENCENT Holdings Ltd, China's biggest provider of instant-message services, reported yesterday that profit more than doubled in fourth-quarter 2006 as a result of strong growth in online advertising.
　　 
Net income for the period rose 113 percent from the year before to 264 million yuan (US$34 million), or 0.145 yuan per fully diluted share. Despite the rise, profit slipped 6.7 percent from the third quarter partly because measures to enhance user account security negatively impacted the Internet value-added services.

The theft of some accounts offered by Shenzhen-based Tencent's QQ instant-message service was rampant on the Internet, partly because of the popularity of the Q coin, a virtual currency that QQ account holders use to buy Tencent services and virtual items. Some Websites not affiliated with Tencent also accepted Q coins as payment for music and software downloads. The virtual money, together with other QQ products like virtual icons and accounts, were traded on major e-commerce sites in large volume.

Internet value-added services, such as QQ show, based on virtual icons and QQ games, grew 67 percent from a year ago but fell 11 percent from the previous quarter because of the security system upgrades. Sales from online advertising grew 116 percent, due mainly to in-game ads and the QQ.com portal.

The company also plans to launch two new leisure games this year and a multiplayer online game to exploit its massive user base. Tencent had 580 million registered users in the fourth quarter.

Source:佚名