Sales for the world’s largest video-game company by revenue rose 21 per cent to 97.2 billion yuan (about $18.3 billion), while profit fell 13 per cent from the year previous to 20.4 billion yuan. Of its revenues, 24.3 billion yuan came from mobile gaming—representing slower growth than analyst estimates—and 26.8 billion from its fintech and cloud units. Its stock was down 0.85 per cent on the news in late afternoon trading. (Financial Times)

Talking point: In addition to China’s slowing economy and continued trade tensions with the U.S., the conglomerate’s core businesses, like gaming and advertising, have been affected by government regulation and competition. Though China ended a nine-month freeze on new-game approvals in 2018, it has enacted other regulations—like time and spending limits on gaming for users under 18—which are meant to curb rising youth gaming-addiction rates. Meanwhile, rivals like TikTok parent ByteDance are attracting a larger global audience, eating into ad spend that could otherwise have gone to Tencent’s WeChat messaging app. The challenge for Tencent is to find a path to similar global success: only about 10 per cent of its gaming revenue currently comes from outside China.