$1 billion in quarterly profits for Chinese game giant Tencent

Chinese games giant Tencent today reported significantly increased first quarter revenues and profits, thanks in part to a notable expansion for its mobile games business. For the quarter ended March 31, 2014, Tencent posted huge numbers, with revenues of 18.4 billion Chinese Yuan ($3.0 billion), up 36 percent year-over-year, and profits of 6.5 billion Chinese Yuan ($1.0 billion), up 60 percent year-over-year. Tencent owns a majority stake in League of Legends developer Riot Games, and a minority stake in Unreal Engine developer Epic Games. Games and virtual items are the company's main line of business, but it also generates revenue from a variety of web services, including popular messaging service WeChat. Tencent's online game revenues were mostly driven by smartphone game sales, said the company, although earnings from major PC titles were also a big factor. The company says that Blade & Soul in particular "made significant revenue contribution." Tencent says that its paying user base for mobile games more than doubled during the first quarter, while total revenues from mobile games approximately tripled as a result, to over RMB1.8 billion. Six of Tencent's mobile games were ranked in the top 10 grossing charts on China's iOS App Store during the quarter, including Candy Crush Saga and Taming Monster.