Chinese internet giant Tencent fourth-quarter profit nearly doubles, beats estimates

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd posted on Wednesday a 98 percent rise in quarterly net profit, beating expectations as it deepens monetization of the growing traffic on its social networks.

Net profit for the three months ended December 31 rose to 20.8 billion yuan ($3.29 billion), China's largest social media and gaming company said in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

That was above an average estimate of 16.90 billion yuan from 9 analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

Revenue rose 51 percent to 66.39 billion yuan, compared with analysts' average estimate of 69.5 billion yuan. Monthly active users of the social media mobile app WeChat exceeded 1 billion after the Chinese New Year in February, up from 980 million at the end of September.

Net profit for the full 2017 year rose 74 percent to 71.51 billion yuan. The company declared a final dividend of HK$0.88 per share.