The number of monthly active users (MAU) of WeChat grew by 5.2% YoY to 1,225 million in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to Tencent’s quarterly results. Smart device MAU of QQ decreased by 8.1% to 594.9 million.
Tencent’s fee-based VAS registered subscription grew 21.9% to 219.5 million in Q4 2020.
Social Media
Users are increasingly uploading personal videos and sharing them with friends, in WeChat Moments and chats.
They can now share informative videos publicly through Video Accounts. Video Accounts also enable brands and enterprises to broaden their audience reach and drive transactions, especially via integrations with Mini Programs.
Within QQ, Tencent focused on enhancing interactive experiences in vertical communities. It increased stickiness among young users by enriching communal experiences such as playing AI-powered social games and watching Tencent Video together in video calls.
QQ’s video and image feed services, Mini World, increased its user engagement as it added hashtag features and initiated trending topics that resonate with Generation Z. Tencent launched joint promotions and celebrity eSports events for its popular games such as Honour of Kings and Call of Duty Mobile.
Tencent provided interactive learning experiences such as quiz challenges through partnering with educational institutions. Looking forward, it will seek to provide live chat experiences and to facilitate users in sharing content with broader communities.
What you should know about WeChat in 2021; Search MAU reached 500 million
Online Gaming
Tencent strengthened its global leadership in mobile and PC games via self-developed franchises and IP collaboration with partners and investee companies. Its leadership spans multiple genres, including MOBA, shooter and MMORPG, as well as multiple platforms, including mobile and PC.
Honor of Kings was the top-grossing mobile game worldwide for the second consecutive year and continued as the most popular mobile game in China by MAU.
In January 2021, Tencent released the biggest-ever update for Honour of Kings with a new hero, skins, and user interface. Burberry co-created mobile game skins for Honor of Kings with Tencent
Tencent upgraded its rendering technology, which enhanced visual effects with a minimal performance overhead, enabling more compelling content and game experience in future upgrades.
The launch of Call of Duty Mobile in China drew hardcore players with a fast-paced and competitive first-person-shooting experience, complementing Peacekeeper Elite and CrossFire Mobile within the shooter genre.
The release of Moonlight Blade Mobile demonstrated its capabilities in the MMORPG genre. Aurora Studio extended this IP from PC to mobile while retaining its distinctive oriental style and semi-sandbox open world design.
Moonlight Blade Mobile ranked as the top grossing MMORPG on iOS in China during the fourth quarter of 2020.
Tencent’s partnership with Nintendo extended its home entertainment offerings to consoles. By the end of 2020, Tencent has distributed over 1 million Switch consoles and published a dozen popular Switch titles in China.
To maintain a healthy gameplay environment for teenagers in China, Tencent made ongoing upgrades to the Healthy Gameplay System, which aims to help parents manage younger users’ in-game playtime and spending.
During the fourth quarter of 2020, minors aged under 18 accounted for 6.0% of its China online game gross receipts. Among these, minors aged under 16 accounted for 3.2% of its China online game gross receipts.
League of Legends attracted over 45 million peak concurrent viewers for its 2020 World Championship Finals, setting a record viewership for a games eSports event. The rollout of League of Legends’ mobile version, Wild Rift, further expanded its franchise user base.
PUBG Mobile ranked as the most popular mobile game in international markets by MAU for the second consecutive year, according to App Annie. The PUBG Mobile Global Championship became the most viewed eSports tournament of mobile games
Digital Content
Its fee-based VAS subscriptions grew 22% year-on-year to 219 million.
Tencent is the leader in the long-form video industry with 123 million video subscriptions, benefitting from the release of popular anime IPs and drama series. Tencent has extended its IP value across literature, anime, games, and long-form video services to create appealing content and attract paying users.
Tencent is also building vibrant short-form video communities to encourage interaction between viewers and creators, and to deliver knowledge-based video content.
The mini drama series Tencent showed on Weishi gained great popularity, generating billions of video views and social media posts. Tencent sustained music subscription growth with the pay-for-streaming model.
At China Literature, Tencent has sought to enrich free and paid content, community features, and an IP-centric ecosystem
Online Advertising
Tencent integrated its advertising platforms, strengthening its own properties as well as mobile advertising network as preferred choices for advertisers.
In WeChat Moments, Tencent enabled performance-oriented advertisers to link their advertisements to Mini Programs, boosting their sales conversion.
Its mobile advertising network offered customized in-app advertising solutions, ramping up in-game advertising revenue from third-party game companies and Internet services providers.
Looking forward, Tencent will continue to strengthen its recommendation algorithms and analytic services to increase user acquisition efficiency and sales conversion for advertisers.
FinTech
The strategic focus for Tencent’s FinTech business is to work closely with regulators and collaborate with industry partners to deliver compliant and inclusive FinTech products while prioritizing risk management over scale.
As consumption rebounded and payment digitalization accelerated, its payment transaction volume increased healthily year-on-year, driven by more daily active consumers and higher payment frequency in multiple verticals, such as retail, public services, and groceries.
Its commercial take rates remained stable. For wealth management service, aggregated customer assets grew robustly year-on-year.
Financial Results Highlights
Total revenues were RMB133,669 million (USD20,486 million) in Q4 2020, an increase of 26% over the fourth quarter of 2019. Full-year revenues were RMB482,064 million (USD73,881 million), an increase of 28% over 2019.
Profit attributable to equity holders of the company for Q4 was RMB59,302 million (USD9,089 million), an increase of 175% YoY. The full-year profit reached RMB159,847 million (USD24,498 million), an increase of 71% YoY.
