中國互聯網巨頭騰訊公布了七年內最快的收入增長速度，利潤也創下新高，超出預期35%，主要得益于其招牌砍殺游戲《王者榮耀》。

投資者認為，2017年，騰訊最為大膽的部分投資終將取得成功，使騰訊成為全球估值最高的公司之一。《王者榮耀》和其他熱門手機游戲約2億用戶的消費能力，使手機游戲的收入首次超過了臺式機游戲。信息應用微信上剛剛起步的廣告和理財業務，也讓投資者相信，騰訊終將成為可與行業領袖阿里巴巴集團（比肩的廣告巨頭。

RHB Research Institute駐香港的分析師李玉潔（音譯）表示：“得益于《王者榮耀》等游戲的增長，騰訊手機游戲收入增長迅速。廣告收入也超出了我們的預期，保持了健康的增長速度。”

今年，騰訊股價已經上漲了70%，而在紐約上市的阿里巴巴股價上漲了80%。騰訊的業績公布后，持有騰訊約三分之一股份的南非報業股價上漲了4.4%，創下了七個月內的最大日內漲幅。騰訊公布業績的當天，有消息稱騰訊和其他多家公司在中國第二大無線運營商投資了110億元，這一系列戰略合作將為建設全國高速5G網絡提供資金。

這筆投資或將促進騰訊朝著實現其促進互聯網應用的終極目標更進一步，但不會直接影響騰訊整合社交媒體與游戲業務的經營方式。《王者榮耀》用戶可以在微信上討論游戲策略，邀請新朋友，共同在游戲中爭奪更多榮譽。據稱，騰訊將把這款游戲推向其他市場，包括美國市場，而且《王者榮耀》的女玩家比例，是所有硬核游戲或戰術競技游戲中最高的。

在《王者榮耀》日益火爆的同時，騰訊還推出了更多游戲，包括《魂斗羅：歸來》。許多中國玩家小時候都曾玩過這款由科樂美開發的游戲，騰訊希望通過這款游戲喚起中國玩家的懷舊之情。騰訊通過微信和QQ向十多億用戶發行游戲，使手機游戲收入在本季度大幅增長了54%。

在截至6月份的3個月內，騰訊凈收入增長了70%，達到182億元（27億美元），遠超過外界估算的平均水平135億元。不過一大部分收入來自騰訊投資的初創公司股指上漲。騰訊在金融技術到共享單車等領域共投資了超過50億元，其中包括獨角獸公司摩拜單車。公司同期銷售額增長59%，達到566億元，也超出了預期。

騰訊并未解釋其收入的增加得益于哪些公司的市值增長（騰訊將該筆收入計入“其他收益”）。但騰訊持有微眾銀行的股份。微眾銀行通過微信平臺銷售貨幣市場基金。另外，有報道稱，騰訊投資的眾安在線財產保險股份有限公司可能在香港進行首次公開募股。另外，網石游戲的IPO也讓騰訊大賺一筆。這是過去七年韓國規模最大的一次IPO。

而騰訊的利潤增長來源卻完全不同：“牛虻”戰術

騰訊總裁劉熾平在電話會議中告訴分析師，其剛剛起步的支付與云業務在該季度實現了三位數的增長速度。這兩項業務是阿里巴巴和螞蟻金服的直接競爭對手。

網絡游戲和信息等增值服務的收入增長了43%，達到368億元。在線廣告收入增長55%，達到101億元。微信的月活躍用戶達到9.63億，較前一年增長了19.5%。但騰訊的另外一個支柱社交網絡QQ手機版用戶數量，截至季度末卻減少了3.9%。

銷售和市場營銷支出增加了55%至37億元，總體成本增長了54%，因為騰訊增加了對內容和人才的支出，并加大了對人工智能和技術研發的投入。劉熾平表示，與Netflix類似的視頻流媒體部門實現盈利“仍需要一些時間”。

在此次業績發布之前，摩根士丹利駐香港分析師陳星嘉和他的團隊在一篇報告中寫道：“騰訊現有的游戲與渠道將繼續吸引新玩家，帶來更多收入。”他們還預測“騰訊在效果廣告領域有巨大的增長潛力，支付業務的收入也將大幅增長”。（財富中文網）

譯者：劉進龍/汪皓

The Chinese internet giant posted its fastest revenue growth in seven years and a record profit that surpassed estimates by 35%, thanks to its marquee hack-and-slash title Honour of Kings.

Investors bet in 2017 that some of the company’s boldest investments would finally pan out, creating one of the world’s most richly valued companies in the process. It tapped the spending power of some 200 million players of Honour of Kings and other phone hits, helping mobile games revenue surpass that of desktops for the first time. The still-nascent advertising and finance business on messaging app WeChat has also boosted confidence it can eventually become an ad powerhouse alongside leader Alibaba Group.

“Mobile games revenue grew fast, benefiting from titles like Honour of Kings,” said Li Yujie, an analyst with RHB Research Institute in Hong Kong. “Advertising business also topped our expectations and grew at a healthy speed.”

Tencent’s shares have gained 70% this year, compared with an 80% rise for New York-listed Alibaba. Naspers Ltd., which owns about a third of Tencent, gained as much as 4.4% after the results, its biggest gain on an intraday basis in seven months. It reported results the same day news emerged it was investing 11 billion yuan in China’s second-largest wireless carrier alongside a host of other companies, in a series of strategic tie-ups that could bankroll the construction of a nationwide high-speed 5G network.

That investment may further Tencent’s ultimate goal of boosting internet usage but is unlikely to have immediate impact however on Tencent’s business of blending social media and gaming. Honour of Kings allows users on WeChat to discuss strategy, pull in other friends and work together in competing for gaming glory. Tencent is said to be taking the game to new markets, including the U.S., and the title now boasts the highest proportion of female players for a hard-core or battle-arena title.

With Honour of Kings going strong, the company is already adding more titles to its pipeline, including Contra Return, a bid to re-kindle the nostalgia of Chinese users who grew up playing the game developed by Konami. Games distributed to a billion-plus users on WeChat and QQ combined fueled a 54% surge in mobile gaming revenue in the quarter.

Tencent reported a 70% surge in net income to a record 18.2 billion yuan ($2.7 billion) for the three months ended June, exceeding the 13.5 billion-yuan average of estimates. A chunk of that however came from a jump in valuations of more than 5 billion yuan from its investments into startups in fields from financial technology to bike rentals, including unicorn Mobike. Sales rose 59% to 56.6 billion yuan, also topping projections.

While Tencent didn’t elaborate on which companies’ mark-ups helped it boost income -- which it recorded as “other gains” -- the company owns a stake in WeBank, which distributes money-market funds via WeChat. It’s also a backer of Zhongan Online P&C Insurance Co., which is said to be filing for a Hong Kong initial public offering. It also booked a gain from the IPO of Netmarble Games Corp., South Korea’s biggest coming-out party in seven years.

Tencent’s Profit Growth Came from a Very Different Game: Gadfly

Tencent’s nascent payments and cloud businesses -- both of which compete directly with Alibaba and its Ant Financial affiliate -- stood out, both growing by triple-digits in the quarter, President Martin Lau told analysts on a conference call.

Revenue from Value Added Services, which includes online games and messaging, climbed 43% to 36.8 billion yuan. Online advertising sales rose 55%to 10.1 billion yuan. WeChat had 963 million monthly active users, up 19.5% from the previous year. But the mobile version of QQ, Tencent’s other mainstay social network, had 3.9% fewer users at the end of the quarter.

Selling and marketing expenses rose 55% to 3.7 billion yuan, while general costs rose 54%, as Tencent shelled out for content and talent while sinking more money into artificial intelligence and technology research. The Netflix-like video-streaming division will “take quite some time” to become profitable as content costs inflate, Lau said.

“Tencent’s existing games and pipeline continue to draw new gamers and revenue,” Morgan Stanley analysts led by Hong Kong-based Grace Chen wrote in a report ahead of the results release. They also foresee “strong growth potential in performance advertising and surging revenue growth in the payments business.”