BEIJING, April 23 -- China Unicom, a Chinese telecom giant, witnessed a surge in net profits in Q1, on the back of innovation efforts.

The company made 274 million yuan (about 40 million U.S. dollars) net profit in the first three months, up 88.3 percent year-on-year, according to its first quarter report released over the weekend.

Facing fierce competition, the Shanghai-listed company saw fast growth of its businesses such as cloud computing, video and Internet of Things, offsetting waning revenue from fixed-line voice business.

The number of mobile phone subscribers of the company increased by 2.44 million in the first quarter to 266 million, it said.

The combined assets of the telecom service provider decreased 2.2 percent over the period to 603 billion yuan.