Tencent "slows down", the Internet "changes the sky"

Earnings is a mirror of the company's changes, whether subtle or earth-shattering.

On March 23, Internet giant Tencent released its fourth quarter and annual results report for 2021. Compared with previous years, it has changed a lot.

From the perspective of revenue, the fourth quarter of 2021 was 144.188 billion, an increase of 8% year-on-year; the annual revenue was 560.118 billion, an increase of 16% year-on-year. The annual net profit was 224.82 billion yuan, an increase of 41% year-on-year, equivalent to a daily earning of 616 million yuan.

Tencent is still a big Mac, and although its revenue is not as good as Alibaba's 836.4 billion, it is equivalent to four and a half Baidus (124.5 billion).

Tencent's ability to make money is still very strong, and the income of employees has reached a new high. As of the end of last year, Tencent had 112771 employees, an increase of 31.3%, and the total remuneration was 95.523 billion yuan, an increase of 37.1% year-on-year.

Simply calculated, the per capita salary is about 850,000 yuan, and the monthly salary is more than 70,000 yuan. Tencent remains one of the highest paid companies in the Internet industry.

You know, at present, there are still 600 million people in China with a monthly income of about 1,000 yuan, only one percent of the average monthly salary of Tencent employees. In the context of common prosperity, the high income of Tencent employees makes many people envious and jealous.

However, Tencent, a giant, has also begun to "slow down".

For example, under non-IFRS (excluding some factors that have nothing to do with operations, such as net investment income), Tencent's net profit was 123.788 billion yuan, an increase of only 1% year-on-year, the lowest increase in nearly a decade.

For example, from the quarterly financial report, in the fourth quarter of 2021, Tencent achieved a net profit of 24.88 billion yuan, down 25% year-on-year, which is the second consecutive quarter of tencent's negative net profit growth after the net profit fell by 2% in the third quarter.

For example, in terms of users, in the fourth quarter of last year, the number of monthly active users of WeChat and WeChat reached 1.268 billion, an increase of 3.5% year-on-year, and the growth was very slow; the number of monthly active users on QQ mobile terminals still showed a downward trend, only 552 million in the fourth quarter, down 141 million from 694 million in the first quarter of 2020.

Tencent's slowdown has the impact of the general environment, and there are also the laws of the development of the Internet industry, which has a lot to do with Tencent's active adjustment.

From the perspective of revenue structure, in the fourth quarter, Tencent's financial technology and enterprise service business revenue was 48 billion yuan, an increase of 25%. For the first time, Tencent's To B business surpassed online games and became the company's largest source of revenue.

This may be a good thing for Tencent, in the past few years, Tencent's game business has been criticized, and the "Glory of the King", which has contributed the most to Tencent's game revenue, has been described by the media as "spiritual opium" and "pesticide".

In the past few years, although Tencent is a very diversified company, it has not been able to tear off the label of "game company" on it.

Tencent also disclosed in its earnings report that it recorded net other income of 149.5 billion yuan last year, which was mainly generated by the disposal of the equity of several investment companies, including 78.2 billion yuan from the disposal of shares in JD.com Group.

Tencent is anxious to dispose of the shares of the invested company, and the outside world analysis said that this is an exit action made by Tencent under the policy propositions of "strengthening anti-monopoly and preventing disorderly expansion of capital".

Ma Huateng also seems to be calm about the slowdown in growth, he said that 2021 is a challenging year, Tencent has actively embraced change, implemented measures to strengthen the company's long-term sustainable development, but affected the slowdown in revenue growth. Despite the financial impact, Tencent continues to make strategic progress in its business.

Ma Huateng said that China's Internet industry is structurally moving towards a healthier model, returning to the origin of user value, scientific and technological innovation and social responsibility.

Ma Huateng's statement reflects Tencent's changes in the past year and is also the embodiment of China's Internet industry".

In the interpretation of Tencent's official financial report, Tencent said that it has become "heavy", and the intention behind it is self-evident, and Tencent is trying to move closer to the real economy.

For example, Tencent positions itself as a "digital assistant", and "helping the real economy" has become Tencent's new brand commitment.

In addition, in April 2021, Tencent once again launched a strategic upgrade, put forward the strategy of "sustainable social value innovation", and set up a "sustainable social value business unit" to invest 100 billion yuan to help common prosperity.

Tencent also said: "Tencent will pay more attention to long-term value than short-term profits. ”

At the Tencent employee conference at the end of last year, Ma Huateng said: "Tencent is just an ordinary company during the period of national social development, a beneficiary under the wave of national development, not a basic service, and can be replaced at any time." In the future, when Tencent serves the country and society, it will be able to do not lack, do a good job, do not overstep, do a good job as an assistant, and do a good job as a connector. ”

Tencent's changes seem unexpected, but in fact they are reasonable. The two sharp swords of "anti-monopoly" and "preventing the disorderly expansion of capital" are hanging high, and Tencent has to "make itself smaller" and slower.

In November last year, some media reported that in the list of anti-monopoly cases published on the website of the State Administration for Market Regulation, the "Tencent system" and "Ali system" belonged to the most.

The environment has changed, the Internet is also shuffling, Ma Huateng and his Tencent are also constantly adjusting, from the latest financial reports, Tencent's changes are not small.