How big is the impact of the US crackdown on WeChat? Tencent: Revenue from the US accounts for less than 2%

Yesterday, Tencent released its unaudited financial report for the second quarter and first half of 2020. The report showed that Tencent's revenue in the second quarter was 114.883 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 29%; during the period, the company's profit attributable to equity holders was 30.153 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 28%.

In terms of specific business segments, value-added services still accounted for the majority of the total, accounting for 57%, with revenue from this segment growing 35% year-on-year to RMB 65 billion. Value-added services include online games and social networks, with the growth rate of the gaming business hitting a two-year high of 40%.

In the social field where Tencent excels, WeChat is also accelerating its transformation from a social product to a digital economy product. In the second quarter, the combined monthly active users of WeChat and Wechat increased to 1.206 billion. Benefiting from the growth of advertising inventory and exposure in WeChat Moments, social and other advertising revenue increased by 27% to 15.262 billion yuan.

Tencent also mentioned the situation in overseas markets, especially the US market which has attracted attention recently.

In the earnings call after Tencent released its second quarter results, James Mitchell, Tencent's chief strategy officer and group senior executive vice president, said in response to analysts' questions that revenue from the United States accounted for less than 2% of total revenue, of which U.S. advertising revenue accounted for less than 1% of total advertising revenue.

James Mitchell said that if you look closely at the ban, Trump's ban is clearly aimed at the WeChat app business covering the United States, so he does not think it will affect the company's advertising on Tencent's platform in China.

Tencent has stressed the distinction between its WeChat service outside of China, which Trump’s executive order explicitly mentions, and a similar app used inside China.

The distinction between WeChat and WeChat is crucial because the vast majority of Tencent’s revenue comes from within China. If its domestic messaging service is not disrupted, the impact on Tencent’s business is likely to be fairly minimal.

“The focus of the executive order is on WeChat in the United States, not on other businesses in the United States,” Tencent Chief Financial Officer Lo Shuohan said on a call with investors, adding that he could not speculate further. “We are in the process of seeking further clarification from the United States.”