The number of monthly active users (MAU) of WeChat grew by 3.3% YoY to 1,241.6 million in the first quarter of 2021, according to Tencent’s quarterly results. Smart device MAU of QQ decreased by 12.6% YoY to 606.4 million.
Tencent’s fee-based VAS registered subscription grew 14.3% YoY to 225.7 million in Q1 2021.
Video subscriptions increased 12% year-on-year to 125 million, benefitting from the adaptation of certain IPs, such as The Land of Warriors, into animated and live-action drama series. Music
subscriptions increased 43% year-on-year to 61 million.
Tencent is merging the Tencent Video and WeiShi teams to upgrade their algorithmic recommendations, bring integrated viewing experiences to users, and enrich short video clips adapted from the long form video library.
What you should know about WeChat in 2021
Online Gaming
The aggretgate user engagement and user spending increased year-on-year despite the high base due to stay-at-home impact in the first quarter of 2020.
Tencent released Honor of Kings’ biggest-ever update in January to improve its graphics and game experiences and then launched appealing marketing campaigns with top-tier skins during the Chinese New Year, which drove the game’s DAU and paying users to record highs in February.
Tencent reduced the application file size of PUBG Mobile and enhanced the local market operational capabilities, boosting PUBG Mobile’s DAU in EMEA countries.
League of Legends benefitted significantly from the release of bigger and better Lunar Revel content across PC and mobile devices, as well as across its core game mode and Teamfight Tactics.
Tencent is also cultivating emerging genres beyond these large audience games.
For example, the new titles Komori Life and The Walnut Diary ranked among China’s top ten life simulation mobile games by DAU in April 2021. The games’ pipeline covers a wide spectrum of genres, including Action, MOBA and Survival.
For China, many of the new games are adapted from popular existing games and literature IPs. Internationally, Tencent expects substantial prior investments in best-in-class PC, console, and mobile studios to begin contributing a range of genre-innovating games in the quarters to come.
China online gaming users hit 540 million
Online Advertising
Tencent enhanced the transaction capabilities of the advertising properties via integration with WeChat Mini Programs and upgraded marketing solutions for key industries including games, retail and automobile-related verticals.
Advertisers’ adoption of Mini Programs as landing pages increased substantially, demonstrating growing recognition of WeChat as a transaction-generating environment. Its mobile advertising network continued to benefit from increased video advertising inventories primarily within games, online reading, and utility apps.
Financial Results Highlights
Revenues increased by 25% to RMB135.3 billion for the first quarter of 2021 on a year-on-year basis.
Profit attributable to equity holders of increased by 65% to RMB47.8 billion for the first quarter of 2021 on a year-on-year basis. Non-IFRS profit attributable to equity holders of the Company increased by 22% to RMB33.1 billion for the first quarter of 2021.
Mobile reach in China: Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu, ByteDance, vs. Kuaishou