The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
SHENZEN, China — Tencent Holdings Ltd. posted quarterly profit that beat estimates, bolstered by mobile game blockbusters like Honour of Kings and a growing ad business.
China’s largest company almost doubled net income to a record 20.8 billion yuan ($3.3 billion) in the three months ended December. That compares with the 16.6 billion-yuan average of estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Sales for the quarter were 66.4 billion yuan, short of projections for 68.6 billion yuan.
Tencent’s business revolves around its vast social networks WeChat and QQ, through which it distributes games, videos and music. The two messaging platforms now anchor nascent advertising and financial services businesses that’ve boosted confidence that the company will be able to sustain growth and — through fine-tuning various services — begin to grab a larger slice of an ads pie now dominated by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
“We expect Tencent’s game momentum to remain robust in 2018, driven by a sustainable Honor of Kings contribution as well as other new successful launches,” Morgan Stanley analysts led by Grace Chen wrote Tuesday. “More importantly, we expect advertising to outgrow online games in 2018, with media advertising to benefit from the revamp of its news feed product.”
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Tencent’s shares fell 0.9 percent to HK$462.60 before the earnings were announced. They’ve gained 14 percent this year.
By Lulu Yilun Chen; editors: Robert Fenner, Edwin Chan
Brands are using them for design tasks, in their marketing, on their e-commerce sites and in augmented-reality experiences such as virtual try-on, with more applications still emerging.
Brands including LVMH’s Fred, TAG Heuer and Prada, whose lab-grown diamond supplier Snow speaks for the first time, have all unveiled products with man-made stones as they look to technology for new creative possibilities.
Social networks are being blamed for the worrying decline in young people’s mental health. Brands may not think about the matter much, but they’re part of the content stream that keeps them hooked.
After the bag initially proved popular with Gen-Z consumers, the brand used a mix of hard numbers and qualitative data – including “shopalongs” with young customers – to make the most of its accessory’s viral moment.