Tencent’s video game investments pick up under pressure from TikTok owner ByteDance
- Tencent has already invested in 62 video game start-ups this year, double the number for all of 2020, as it buys up competition and wards off ByteDance
- Tencent, the world’s largest gaming company by revenue, has been facing increasing scrutiny of its investments at home and in the US
The Shenzhen-based tech juggernaut, which derives a third of its revenue from gaming, had invested in a record 62 gaming companies by the end of June, according to video game research firm Niko Partners. That averages out to a new deal every three days.
The numbers this year are already twice that of 2020, when Tencent invested in 31 gaming companies, and five times higher than in 2019.
“Tencent has faced notable competition from tech giants such as Alibaba and ByteDance over the past year,” said Daniel Ahmad, senior analyst at Niko Partners. “[There were also] hit games by smaller game developers that became hits and threats [to Tencent].”
Some of the medium-sized companies that Tencent invested in had hit titles last year, Ahmad added, and they previously had no ties to the tech giant.
