Today (March 23), Tencent released its 2021 annual financial report.
According to the financial report, Tencent's annual revenue in 2021 was 560.118 billion yuan, an increase of 16% year-on-year; the net profit attributable to the mother was 224.822 billion yuan, an increase of 41% year-on-year. Among them, the domestic game market revenue reached 128.8 billion, an increase of 6% year-on-year, and the overseas game revenue was 45.5 billion, an increase of 31% year-on-year, and the speed was amazing.
In 2020, Tencent's attributable net profit was 159.847 billion. In other words, Tencent's attributable net profit increased by 64.975 billion yuan last year. Here is a simple reference, if you calculate today's closing price, the market capitalization of the top three game companies in A-shares is 51.743 billion, 47.175 billion and 26.209 billion, respectively.
It can be seen that although the life of game companies has not been very good in the past year, Tencent's revenue capacity is still very stable.
Not only the figures such as revenue and profit, but also mentioned the operation strategy of representative product IP such as "Peace Elite" and "Glory of the King" in the financial report. In addition, the game time limit for minors has also achieved obvious results, and it is expected to fully digest the impact of minor protection measures in the second half of 2022 to better develop the game business.
As of press time, Tencent's stock price was reported at HK$389.0, with a market value of about 3.74 trillion yuan.
Looking back at the past year, the game industry has experienced many storms, large and small, and Tencent's stock price has also been affected, once falling from HK$750.7 per share to 297.0 per share, and the market value has been slashed.
Although the stock price has fluctuated, it does not seem to have much impact on the product. While the head product is playing steadily, even the former inferior tracks such as female direction and secondary element have also proved their strength with the results of the product.
At the same time, strong capital provides more possibilities for them to enter high-quality game products such as AAA.
According to the financial report, Tencent's investment in associates and joint ventures in 2021 was 323.188 billion yuan, which was 305.258 billion yuan in 2020, exceeding 300 billion yuan for two consecutive years. Through large-scale investment and acquisitions, Tencent is constantly expanding its territory, and many games under development are worth looking forward to.
Taking advantage of the financial report, it is advisable to briefly review Tencent's various initiatives in the game field since last year. Next, this article will review Tencent's 2021 from three aspects: domestic mobile game market, overseas market and investment layout.
01
On average, 2 new tours are online every month
Successfully won the female direction and continued to enter the SLG field
According to statistics, in the middle of 2021, Tencent launched a total of 21 mobile games, compared with the previous year, although the number of only 4 more, but whether it is a successful product, or an attempted category, there have been breakthroughs.
Although they are MMO with a relatively mature gameplay framework, they also try to bring players a different game experience through themes. Outside of this category, they have also actively tried such things as ARPG, female orientation, placement and strategy games.
The first is to mention the female representative product "Light and Night Love", Tencent, which once lagged behind in the track, with this game. Unique product style, with overwhelming publicity play, this online mobile game can catch up for half a year, and the flowing water during the Spring Festival is second only to the 3 head products, which has the tendency to become the first domestic B tour.
Again, it is Tencent's attempt to never stop SLG mobile games. Since 2021, Tencent has released a total of 3 strategic mobile games such as "Conquest and Hegemony", "Glory of the New Three Kingdoms" and "Wolong Yin 2", which is considered to have tried out the mainstream SLG themes on the market. Although the market performance of this part of the product is not outstanding at this stage, it has accumulated relevant experience for them.
As for the extent to which the accumulated experience can be used, it still depends on the specific product. At the end of March this year, "Return to Empire", which was self-developed by Tencent Tianmei, will be launched soon.
The running of major manufacturers has made SLG's domestic market pattern begin to loosen, and new product opportunities have emerged.
For example, "Civilization and Conquest", which was recently launched on the market, although the game did not jump out of the framework, but through the addition of some real-time gameplay, the sophisticated narrative of the novice tutorial, and the pervasive purchase publicity, it has also achieved good results. As Tencent's long-lost self-developed product in the SLG field, "Return to Empire" is naturally more worth looking forward to.
In addition, Tencent's series of measures around the "League of Legends" IP are also very effective. In July 2021, their self-propelled chess mobile game "Battle of the Golden Shovel" not only achieved excellent results in the early stage of launch, but also performed steadily today.
At that time, Tencent chose to use the popularity of e-sports events to promote this mobile game. During the summer finals, the host of the event will always broadcast the "Battle of the Golden Shovel" before and after the game, which must have played a certain publicity effect.
After that, the "League of Legends" mobile game developed in cooperation with Fist also won the recognition of the market after its launch, and it has been at the top of the free list for nearly a month, which shows the popularity and influence of IP. But the best-selling results are decent, around the top 10. At present, the "League of Legends E-sports Manager" mobile game that focuses on strategic gameplay is also being tested, and the future performance is worth looking forward to.
02
Tencent does not understand the second dimension? "White Night Aurora" speaks with achievements
According to the financial report, 5 of the top 10 mobile games in the international market for daily active users are operated by Tencent, and thanks to the strong performance of products such as "PUBG Mobile", "Wild Fight" and "Valorant", overseas game revenue revenue was 45.5 billion yuan, an increase of 31% year-on-year.
But this does not mean that Tencent has been very successful in overseas markets, on the contrary, they still have a lot of room to explore.
In the past 2021, with the new game distribution brand Level Infinite, they have strengthened their influence by releasing self-developed products overseas. According to statistics, they have launched a total of 7 mobile games, compared with the previous year, not only the number has increased, but also the achievements and categories have made breakthroughs.
Among them, the two-dimensional war chess mobile game "White Night Aurora" not only "rolled" the artistic expression to a new height, but also achieved excellent results in many markets. The highest best-selling ranking of iOS in Japan is 13, Google Play is ranked 5th with the highest bestseller, Google Play is ranked 6th with the highest bestseller in South Korea, and iOS is ranked 15th bestseller.
High-quality art performance, combined with the Japanese king's road plot, coupled with the localization team of up to 50% of the local living population, "White Night Aurora" successfully conveys the product core to the user. Through a series of means such as explosive content publicity and the launch of the theme train to increase exposure, "White Night Aurora" successfully left a deep impression on most users.
Not only has a two-dimensional mobile game been successfully launched in Japan, but Also Contra: Homecoming, which was launched in the middle of the year, has also achieved some results. In addition to the Markets of Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, this mobile game has entered the TOP10 in the download list of 24 markets around the world, and has ranked among the top 10 best-selling in 3 markets. At this stage, this product is relatively prominent in The South American market such as Peru and Colombia.
On the other hand, they also try to promote the MMO mobile game "Delusional Mountains and Seas" in the emerging Southeast Asian market. This mobile game with the background story of Shan Hai Jing has achieved certain results in emerging markets with a relatively rare game theme, although the list performance of this mobile game is not outstanding, but it is still in the rising stage, which can be seen.
It is worth mentioning that at the beginning of April this year, "Tianya Mingyue Knife" will also be launched in South Korea, and in areas where MMO has always been fiercely competitive, what kind of achievements this product can achieve is expected.
In addition to the above-mentioned medium and heavy mobile games, Tencent has also made some attempts to launch mobile games for emerging markets, although it has not made substantial progress, but it is still meaningful exploration.
According to Sensor Tower's analysis, the growth rate of women's casual mobile games in the Brazilian market is very considerable. Although Tencent's "Fashion Dream" is released globally, it has achieved relatively significant results in Brazil at this stage, and there may be new mobile games with this theme to try to enter this market in the future.
Overall, in the past year, Tencent has made many attempts to expand overseas markets, and both the game category and the market performance have made breakthroughs. Some of the attempts may not have yielded good results, but exploration of emerging markets such as Southeast Asia and South America is still meaningful, and perhaps these experiences will be the basis for future success.
03
Domestic investment, foreign mergers and acquisitions
Multi-platform and cross-field Tencent all want
In the process of increasing self-research and continuously going to sea, Tencent has also achieved the expansion of its game business through investment and mergers and acquisitions.
As far as the domestic market is concerned, since 2021, Tencent has launched investments in 60 game companies, mainly secondary mobile games, supplemented by some investments in stand-alone games.
Among them, "Back to the Future: 1999" developer Deep Blue Interactive is worth paying attention to, the company is developing this two-dimensional hand to travel retro British style, the theme and art style are unique, TapTap appointments of 730,000, the score of 9.2.
And BIO Family Interactive, which once had "Orbi Island", has also received investment from Tencent. At the beginning of the year, the amazing performance of "Moore Manor" is still vividly remembered, and it is inevitable that people will be full of expectations for another IP work with a sense of age, such as "Obe Island".
In addition, the game science that is developing "Black Myth: Wukong" has also received investment from Tencent. This end game carries the expectations of countless players and manufacturers, although it is impossible to see the final product in a short period of time, it does not prevent the public from being enthusiastic about this game.
In addition, there is also a part of the layout for cloud games and VR games, but this part of the investment is still a minority.
In terms of overseas investment, Tencent's target audience is mainly studios and manufacturers that have successfully launched AAA games, and the strength of the team and the resumes of the members are the contents they are more concerned about.
Among them, Slamfire, which was acquired by Tencent at the end of 21, is not small, as the parent company of the development of the "Revenge of blood" studio, whether Tencent will cooperate with them in the future to develop games is very worth looking forward to.
In addition to such studios that have launched well-known games, Tencent has also made many mergers and acquisitions and investments for IP, such as Polish developer Bloomber Team, which holds a number of horror game IP. The same is true of The Kadokawa Network in Japan, which owns the copyright to anime such as Sword Art Online and Life in Another World from Scratch.
Among the many investments and mergers and acquisitions for overseas studios, there is an Australian manufacturer that is a little special, namely Immutable, who is not a studio team that develops games, but the developer of the NFT trading platform Immutable X, which may be one of the signals of Tencent's advance layout.
Tencent also owns a 3.8 percent stake in Finnish studio Remedy Entertainment, which has developed Control and Mind Killer. They are said to be working with Tencent on a free-to-play multiplayer shooter, code-named Vanguard, Chinese means pioneer.
Considering that the current stage of tactical competitive games has not seen a breakthrough in the core gameplay for some time, it is hoped that this product under development can bring a fresh look and experience to the market.
04
epilogue
In fact, the evaluation around Tencent has always been mixed, but combined with the financial report data and the review of Tencent's game business layout in the past year, it can be seen that as a large company, Tencent may be doing a relatively appropriate measure under the premise of taking into account the interests of multiple parties.
Of course, we also hope that this large company can use the quality of its products in addition to commercial value to gain more recognition from the public.