Tencent revealed it is holding talks with Apple about sharing revenue from its Mini Games, as the Chinese giant announced a surge in net profit in Q2 fuelled by a recovery in domestic gaming revenue and continued gains in online advertising.

Chief strategy officer James Mitchell explained on an earnings call changing tack by seeking to generate revenue from Mini Games on iOS through in-app transactions would be mutually beneficial.

He added the benefits would be more for game developers and users.

“But we want to make it available on terms we think are economically sustainable and that are also fair.”

Mitchell said discussions are underway and it hopes they lead to a positive outcome because it would be a win-win. “But in the event the discussions doesn’t [sic] progress, then the current status quo continues”.

Earnings
Net profit rose 82 per cent year-on-year to CNY47.6 billion ($6.7 billion), with value-added services (VAS) gross profit increasing 12 per cent to CNY45 billion and online advertising 36 per cent to CNY17 billion

Revenue rose 8 per cent to CNY161 billion.

Domestic and international game sales each rose 9 per cent, to CNY34.6 billion and CNY13.9 billion, respectively.

Also within VAS, social networks revenue was up 2 per cent to CNY30.3 billion

Online advertising increased 19 per cent to CNY29.9 billion; fintech and business services was up 4 per cent to CNY50.4 billion.

Long-form video subscription revenue rose 12 per cent, with average daily subscriptions up 13 per cent to 117 million.

Combined monthly active users (MAUs) of messaging service WeChat and Chinese version Weixin rose 3 per cent to nearly 1.4 billion, with QQ users flat at 572 million.