SHANGHAI (Reuters) -China’s Tencent Holdings on Wednesday posted a 8% rise in fourth-quarter revenue in its slowest growth since going public in 2004 reflecting heightened regulatory scrutiny and a slowdown in advertising.
The social media and gaming giant said revenue rose to 144.2 billion yuan ($22.63 billion) from 133.7 billion.
That was below an average of 147.6 billion yuan from 17 analysts, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.
Revenue for the full year rose 16%, which was also its slowest ever pace.
It posted a 60% jump in fourth-quarter profit, helped by one-off gains made through deals such as its disposal of most of its stake in JD.com.
A year-and-half-long crackdown by Beijing on tech giants such as Tencent has brought decades of unbridled growth to an end and placed them under new rules governing how they interact with their users and how they conduct mergers and acquisitions.
Regulators have frozen game approvals since August last year, casting a chill over the sector and putting many small gaming studios out of business.
Advertising has also been hit as many industries affected by the regulatory crackdown cut back on spending.
Tencent’s stock has lost more than a third of its value in the past 12 months.
($1 = 6.3729 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Brenda Goh; editing by Jason Neely)
