Tencent Profits Climb 37% On Year As Gaming Sales Increase Due To Pandemic

China technology conglomerate Tencent says total sales rose 29 percent year over year in the first two quarters of 2020 as an international health crisis kept consumers at home and on their electronic gadgets.

For the second quarter Tencent's revenue climbed almost 30 percent year over year to $16.7 billion (115 billion yuan) and profit was up 37 percent to 33.2 billion yuan. Gaming receipts lifted overall sales. Tencent's advertising business had a poor quarter, it said.

However, the generally upbeat results were overshadowed by looming prohibitions on WeChat by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Tencent said the ban on the WeChat messaging app may affect its operations abroad only. The executive order applies to WeChat in the U.S. only, according to Tencent's chief financial officer John Lo. Tencent is working to settle the dispute with bipartisan authorities in the U.S., Lo said.

The Trump administration said it would ban WeChat and TikTok in the U.S. by the middle of September. TikTok is owned by China technology company ByteDance. Trump claims the China companies' products threaten U.S. national security.

Online gaming, one of Tencent's biggest sources of income, increased 40 percent year over year to 38.3 billion yuan. It also increased compared with the first three months this year. China Merchants Securities' analysts predicted the company would generate an additional 42 billion yuan from its online gaming business.

Tencent said it took advantage of technology to help its users adapt better to the "new normal" created by the coronavirus pandemic.