30 Million QQ Users Are Paying Members

In an interview with Paidcontent, Tencent’s GM Sophia Ong revealed that out of Tencent’s 752 million QQ active users, over 30 million are paid members. And on average, each user pays about 10 RMB per month. That adds up to about 300 million RMB (US$47.16 Million) a month, or more than $470 million a year. That’s really a bucket load of money for Tencent (HKG:0700) coming just from its QQ instant messaging service.

So what can paid users buy? Users usually buy credits (“Q bi”) to pay for Tencent-related stuff, like game credits and VIP memberships. VIP membership allows fast track QQ rank promotions and extra discounts the next time you buy credits. Different payment modes and lengths (monthly/yearly) will entitle users to different discounts. It’s all kinda confusing but it seems to work well for users in China.

Tencent, it seems, has set its eye outside of China. It has operations in most big countries in Southeast Asia including Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia, and it is pushing hard on WeChat in India too. Another eye is set on U.S./Western markets where its main focus is on gaming, it seems. Tencent has so far acquired/invested in in two gaming companies — Riot Games and Epic Games. There are rumors that Tencent might just buy Blizzard which our own Charlie Custer thinks is not very likely.

If you have five minutes to spare, we urge you to head over to PaidContent to read the interview about Tencent in full.