Tencent Holdings reported earnings today that included revenue figures that seemed to indicate the Chinese social networking and video game giant’s meteoric growth was slowing.
In the fourth quarter, Tencent — which owns a majority stake in Riot Games and one of the most lucrative PC games in the world, the online multiplayer battler League of Legends — had revenue of $3.44 billion, a figure that slightly beat analysts’ expectations and was an increase of 24 percent from the same period a year ago. However, that rate of increase was the slowest in seven years.
Tencent attributed the growth to robust sales of online games for PCs and mobile devices. It also said its WeChat social networking app now has 500 million monthly active users around the world.
However, while profits for the fourth quarter were $955 million, a 51 percent increase from the same period a year ago, that fell a bit short of the $1.05 billion in profits analysts had expected.
“During 2014, we made significant progress in a number of strategic initiatives that reinforced our leadership and enhanced our competitiveness,” said Ma Huateng, chairman and chief executive of Tencent, in a press release.
The latest earnings comes as Tencent continues to re-orient its business to increasingly focus on mobile. The company is winding down its e-commerce efforts, and transferring most of that focus into a partnership with Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com.
Meanwhile, Tencent is investing in content like movies, books and music to attract more users to its mobile ecosystem. It’s also putting a heavier emphasis on mobile gaming.