ONE OF the world's biggest gaming firms Tencent posted its slowest sales growth yesterday amid an advertising decline from the ongoing tech crackdown by Beijing.

The Chinese company reported a measly eight per cent rise in fourthquarter revenue to 144.2bn yuan (£17.1bn) yesterday, its slowest growth since going public in 2004.

Revenue for the full year also grew 16 per cent, again its slowest pace yet.

The results come as Beijing continues to impose stringent rules on tech firms, placing new rules on user interactions, as well as curbing mergers and acquisitions for growing companies.

From the user's perspective, the state have imposed restrictions on gaming, including children being limited to three hours of gaming a week.

Not only has this chipped away at ad opportunities for Chinese tech firms, but it has also scared away investment.

However, this comes alongside a more general trend across the market. Speaking with City A.M., Victoria Scholar, Head of investment at Interactive Investor, ex- plained that the Chinese tech space is currently experiencing a brutal sell-off. This is largely fuelled by a Covid resurgence in the region, as well as uncertainty from Ukraine and the Chinese response. Indeed, it is estimated that $460bn (£348bn) has been wiped from the Chinese tech sector this year alone.

Nonetheless, the Riot Games maker said in its announcement yesterday that it remains confident in the business, stating it would commit itself to more sustainable growth. The company's president Martin Lau said that the industry's growth in general had been "frothy and unhealthy" and it needed to change.

From the UK's perspective, Tencent continues to play a key role in the thriving tech space.

It has recently pumped cash into a number of UK tech and fintech firms, including building a sizeable stake in digital bank Monzo and co-leading a $120m investment into software-as-a-service firm Omnipresent.

Just this week, it announced it would be backing London corporate card fintech Jeeves in its $180m funding round.

Shares in Tencent dropped nearly five per cent in Hong Kong yesterday.

(c) 2022 City A.M., source Newspaper