Tencent Holdings Ltd, one of China's leading Internet service providers, posted a more than 80 percent surge in its net profit last year, the company said in a statement to Hong Kong's stock exchange.

The Shenzhen-based firm said profit for the past year jumped 84.4 percent year on year to 490 million yuan (US$72 million).

Total revenue was 720 million yuan, a rise of 87.2 percent from the year-ago period.

The revenue from Internet value-added services reached 490 million yuan and contributed 69 percent of the total revenue. Mobile and telecommunications value-added services jumped 73.2 percent from the year-earlier period to 140 million yuan, or 19.6 percent of the total revenue. But the online advertising revenue fell 15.8 percent quarter on quarter to 209.6 million yuan.

Its registered users for the instant messaging tool "QQ" rose 4.2 percent from the previous quarter to 891.9 million by the end of 2008.

It sees a ''more favorable outlook for its Internet value-added services but a downward trend for online advertising amid the unstable economic situation,'' said Ma Huateng, chairman and CEO of Tencent.

(Shanghai Daily March 20, 2009)