WeChat growth slows right down as it reaches 468 million monthly active users

The newest data from Tencent, China’s social media web giant, shows that its WeChat messaging app now has 468.1 million active users (MAUs) in Q3 2014. That’s up from 438 million MAUs in Q2.

It represents quarterly growth of 6.8 percent – by far the lowest it has ever seen. WeChat’s growth is nearly half the rate that it saw from Q1 to Q2.

Once again, Tencent did not indicate how many of WeChat’s active users are outside China. This is the app’s growth rate in terms of MAUs so far:

WeChat’s closest rivals are WhatsApp (600 million active users each month) and Facebook Messenger (500 million), but there are serious doubts about WeChat’s reach outside of the greater China area, despite heavy promotion in markets such as India, Indonesia, and across Latin America.

Here are a few other highlights from Tencent’s Q3 earnings report:

• Q3 revenues of RMB 19.8 billion (US$3.2 billion), up 28 percent from same period last year.

• Operating profit of RMB 7.5 billion (US$1.2 billion), up 56 percent year-on-year.

• Value-added service revenues saw revenues of RMB 16.5 billion (US$2.6 billion), up 38 percent on Q3 2013.

• Gaming revenues from WeChat and QQ (the desktop and mobile IM app) reached RMB 2.6 billion (US$423 million), but there’s no breakdown specific just to WeChat’s gaming platform.

• QQ hit 819.8 million MAUs, up just 0.5 percent year-on-year.

See: Tencent owns 3 of the world’s 5 biggest social networks