So, Tencent Walks Into a Chatroom…

In 1998, Pony Ma and four pals in Shenzhen spotted the success of ICQ and thought, “Let’s make a Chinese version.” Boom—OICQ was born.

By 1999, it was everywhere. People loved it. AOL didn’t. They sued. Tencent renamed it QQ, slapped a penguin on it, and kept rolling.

Then came the real genius: selling virtual hats, outfits, and emojis inside QQ. Yes, digital bling made them real money.

In 2004, they went public, pocketed $200 million, and sprinted into gaming. Later: WeChat. Now Tencent is basically a one-app army running China’s internet life.

From knockoff messenger to tech empire—nice hat, by the way.

Tencent’s Wallet Is Thicc 📊💰

let’s talk numbers

From 2019 to 2024, Tencent went from making $54 billion a year to nearly $92 billion. That’s a whole lot of microtransactions and virtual penguin hats.

Their profits exploded in 2021 (hello, lockdown gamers 💻🎮), dipped a bit, then came back swinging in 2024 with $27 billion in net income.

Year	Revenue 💵	EBIT 🧮	Net Income 🤑
2019	$54B	$13.7B	$13.4B
2020	$70B	$18.0B	$23.2B
2021	$86B	$19.1B	$34.0B 🔥
2022	$82B	$15.0B	$27.0B
2023	$86.2B	$22.3B	$16.3B
2024	$91.9B	$28.9B	$27.0B
2025* forecast	$101.2B	$36.8B	$33.7B 🚀

*2025 is a forecast, unless Pony Ma knows something we don’t.

The takeaway? Tencent’s not just surviving—it’s power-leveling in real life. Games, chat apps, cloud, and fintech? This beast has DLC for everything.

📄 Key Insights from the 2024 Report

you can download it here if you want: https://www.tencent.com/en-us/media/news.html?type=financial

✅ What’s Looking Good (Like, Really Good)

💰 Revenue & Profits Up:

• Total revenue jumped 8% YoY to $91.9 billion
• Gross profit climbed 19% (yes, margins are finally working out)
• Non-IFRS operating profit up 24%, and profit to shareholders up 41%
• IFRS net profit soared 66%—mostly thanks to investment returns and probably good karma

📊 Margin Magic:

• Operating margin hit 36% (up from 32%)
• Translation: they’re making more while spending less—every CFO’s wet dream

💸 Shareholders Are Smiling:

• Threw out $14.3B USD in buybacks (HKD112B)
• Another $4.1B USD in dividends (HKD32B)
• 2025 dividend set to rise 32%—go ahead, book that vacation

🧠 AI & Gaming Grind:

• Tencent’s pouring cash into AI R&D, better ads, smarter tools, and longer-lasting games
• Their “evergreen” game lineup grew from 12 to 14 titles—because who wants games that rot?

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⚠️ What’s Weird or Worrying (Cue Suspense Music)

💵 Free Cash Flow… Shrinking?

• Despite profits, free cash flow dipped 7% to around $21.6B USD
• That’s like making bank but losing your wallet

🏗️ CapEx on Steroids:

• CapEx exploded 221% to $10.7B USD
• Q4 alone up 386% YoY—someone’s buying a lot of AI toys

📉 QQ Is Quieting Down:

• Mobile QQ users dropped 5% YoY, 7% QoQ
• Gen Z might’ve ghosted the penguin…

🧾 Slower FinTech Growth:

• FinTech revenue only grew 3% in Q4 (was double digits before)
• Blame it on regulation, market maturity, or just people getting tired of QR codes

📉 WeChat Growth = Meh:

• Weixin/WeChat MAUs up just 0.2% QoQ
• VAS (Value-Added Services) paying users also declined a bit—maybe their in-app emojis aren’t hitting like they used to

💼 Share-Based Compensation Party:

• Paid out $3.8B USD in stock-based comp
• Adds to expenses and dilutes value—but hey, employees gotta eat

🎲 Profits From Investments, Not Core Biz:

• Over $3.5B USD came from investment gains
• Which is like saying, “We sold some stock and made money”—cool, but not super sustainable

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🧠 Final Take

Tencent’s still a beast: dominating games, investing in AI, and making investors richer. But I’ll go ahead and ignore the warning signs like sky-high spending, flat user growth, and profits that rely a bit too much on lucky bets.

if anyone can turn data centers and cartoon penguins into gold… it’s Tencent.