Tencent profit up on strong games demand

Tencent beat market forecasts on Wednesday (August 12) when second-quarter net profit rose 37% as video game demand surged.

The Chinese tech giant confirmed a $4.8 billion profit for the three months through June - well ahead of analyst estimates of about $3.9 billion.

Revenue from online games jumped 40% in Q2 - driven primarily by smart phone games.

The rise of online gaming during the global health crisis helped offset a continued drop in sales of desktop games.

Tencent's social networks, fintech and business services, and social advertising revenues all grew by nearly 30%.

Media advertising was one loser for the company, though.

Revenues fell by a quarter there.

Tencent blamed 'weak brand advertising demand' as well as delayed content production and releases.

The results come while Tencent finds itself in the middle of a political fall-out.

Just days ago, the U.S. said it would ban transactions on the company's Chinese messaging app WeChat from September.

Tencent said Wednesday they understood the order was focused on its WeChat app in the U.S. and not on its other businesses in the country.