Chinese tech firm s, the country’s most valuable technology giant, beat analysts’ forecasts with a 15 per cent rise in third-quarter revenue, as its artificial intelligence efforts continued to drive growth.
Revenue for the Shenzhen-based firm, which runs China’s most popular super app WeChat, reached 192.9 billion yuan (US$27.1 billion), up from 167.2 billion yuan in the same period last year.
Net profit increased 19 per cent to 63.1 billion yuan in the September quarter, which surpassed the 55.9 billion yuan estimate from a Bloomberg poll of analysts.
“Our strategic investments in AI are benefiting us in business areas such as ad targeting and game engagement, as well as in efficiency enhancement areas such as coding and game and video production,” founder, chairman and CEO Pony Ma Huateng said in a statement on Thursday.
As the capabilities of Tencent’s own AI model Hunyuan continued to grow, Tencent’s efforts in boosting its chatbot app Yuanbao and the AI functions within super app WeChat “will gain further traction”, Ma said.
The company’s Hong Kong-listed shares fell 0.15 per cent to HK$656 on Thursday, ahead of the results.