Tencent turned out to be the global number one on the February list of top publishers ranked by gaming revenue. This is the first time Tencent has been the top-earning game publisher since App Annie started doing the ranking two years ago.
And this ranking doesn’t factor in revenue from Android phones. You should know that Tencent mobile games covered more than 70% of players on Android phones in China in Q4 2015, according to Analysys.
The online game business is the cash cow of this tech giant, which dominates China’s online game market. With 170 million mobile game players, its revenue generated from online games in Q4 2015 was RMB 15.97 billion (USD 2.451 billion), accounting for more than 50% of the total revenue for this quarter at USD 4.688 billion.
Last November, Tencent broke into the American market with its chart-topping game WeFire, produced through a partnership with Glu Mobile.
The company plans to launch more than 30 new mobile games in 2016, according to Liu Ming, vice president of Tencent Games, at the 2016 annual press conference of Tencent Interactive Entertainment on Friday.
“We predict the mobile game market will reach RMB 70 billion this year,” said Liu.
Besides games, the animation and comics department under Tencent’s Interactive Entertainment Group (IEG) also announced its plan to focus on developing its animation sub-culture business in 2016, mainly through cooperations with animation companies.
After leading a round of Series B financing in animation streaming site Bilibili last November, Tencent announced on Friday that they will co-produce more than 20 cartoons in the next two years. Two days before, it also inked an agreement with listed Chinese company KAISER, authorizing this company to develop and publish content like online games and web dramas for 10 IP franchises. This deal brought in RMB 100 million for Tencent, who has also announced a partnership with two Japanese comics publishers.
IEG is a division under Tencent that has four departments, covering its animation, comic and game (ACG) businesses. It introduced its animation, online literature and film businesses in 2012, 2013 and 2015, respectively.
