Tencent expects limited impact from slowdown

Tencent Holdings, which operates QQ, the largest instant messaging platform on the mainland, expects the slowing Chinese economy to hurt growth in the internet business.

'The impact, however, would vary among different types of businesses,' said Jeff Xiong, Tencent's co-chief technology officer.

Some companies, such as Alibaba and Baidu, which rely more on business clients, will be hurt more, he said.

'For us, we rely more on individual users. The impact should be less.'

Tencent derived 64 per cent of its revenue from online games and selling users virtual items such as online pets, avatars and so on.

A further 21.1 per cent of sales came from providing value-added services, such as short messaging and ringtones, for mobile phones.