Tencent Posts Rise In Q1 Profit

Chinese company

reported a 7 percent gain in its net profit in the first quarter. Tencent's quarterly net profit surged to 6.88 billion yuan ($1.1 billion), versus a year-ago profit of 6.46 billion yuan. Its revenue climbed 22 percent to 22.4 billion from 18.4 billion yuan, while operating profit gained to 9.37 billion yuan from 7.79 billion yuan. In March, the company's WeChat app had 549 million monthly active users. The company's revenue from smartphone games jumped 82 percent year-over-year to around 4.4 billion yuan in the quarter, while online advertising revenue jumped 131 percent to 2.72 billion yuan. Tencent shares fell 1.38 percent to close at $20.07 yesterday.