Tencent's annual revenue 2008-2021

The Chinese internet services giant Tencent, one of the leading internet companies in the world, reported a total annual revenue of over 560 billion yuan in 2021, an increase by more than 16 percent compared to the previous year.

Tencent Holdings Limited

Founded in 1998, today Tencent is the largest listed internet company in China based on market valuation, surpassing Alibaba Group for the first time since 2019. The company’s first product was a free PC-based messaging platform OICQ, later renamed as QQ. The release of other internet service products followed once QQ became profitable in 2001. Ten years later, WeChat, the country’s most popular mobile app, was born. With over one billion monthly active users, WeChat is an everyday necessity for many; it’s used for messaging, calling, video and photo sharing, mobile payments, shopping, dating, hotel bookings, loans, taxi hailing – literally any online daily activity. Though best known for WeChat, video games are what has been generating most of Tencent’s revenue and profits. It is the largest online gaming company worldwide.

What’s behind Tencent’s revenue numbers?

The tech firm generated a majority of its revenue from online games. While the total revenues have been growing, albeit slower than usual, the online game revenues showed a dramatic stagnation in the last quarter of 2018. The company described the situation as “stable”, however, the media called 2018 “a brutal year” for Tencent. The reason for the sluggish online gaming revenues was a nine-month long game licensing freeze from China’s State Administration of Press and Publications. That said, licensing approvals have been resumed in early 2019, and Tencent might expect accelerating revenue growth once again.