(File photo/CGTN)

Chinese Internet giant Tencent on Wednesday released its Q1 2017 report on outpacing expectations, helped by robust revenues from its new mobile games.

The company's overall revenue jumped 55 percent to 49.55 billion yuan (7.19 billion US dollars) year-on-year, while profit attributable to equity holders (net profit) was up 58 percent at 14.48 billion yuan (2.1 billion US dollars).

Financial performance exceeds expectation

Tencent's performance surpassed forecasts, as analysts polled by Bloomberg News had expected 46.4 billion yuan (6.73 billion US dollars) in revenue and 13 billion yuan (1.89 billion US dollars) in net profit.

The jump in revenue owed to the company's mobile games such as fantasy role-playing Honour of Kings and Dragon Nest Mobile. According to Pony Ma, chairman and CEO of Tencent, the "strong set of operating and financial results" was obtained by smartphone games, p‍ayment-related services, digital content subscriptions, PC games, and social advertising services.

Revenue from the company's smartphone games achieved 12.9 billion yuan (1.88 billion US dollars) alone in the first quarter, a 57 percent increase from the same period a year earlier.

Music deal boosts competitive edge

Tencent operates China's biggest messaging service WeChat, whose monthly active users soared to 938 million during Q1 2017, up 23 percent year-on-year. Monthly users for the company's instant messaging software service, QQ, were down 2 percent on annual basis to reach 861 million in the first quarter of the year.

Tencent also locked down a licensing agreement on Tuesday with Universal Music's content on its live-streaming platforms, including QQ Music, Kuwo services, and KuGou. The technology giant is one of China's largest music platforms, already serving more than 600 million monthly active users.

Tencent is also one of the fastest growing stocks listed in Hong Kong. By 10:00 a.m. BJT on Thursday, the company's stock price stood at 266 HK dollars (34.17 US dollars). During its initial public offering (IPO) in 2014, its stock price was valued at just 3.70 HK dollars.

Tencent became China's most valuable firm in September last year, placing Pony Ma in the second place on the list of China's wealthiest, compiled by Forbes. In March 2017, it bought a five-percent stake, worth 1.8 billion US dollars, in Tesla electric car company.