Tencent Holdings to launch $760 mn games fund

SHANGHAI, CHINA: Tencent Holdings, China's largest Internet firm by market value, plans to launch a 5 billion yuan ($760 million) fund to invest in online games, social games and mobiles games, the Shanghai Securities News reported on Tuesday.

Tencent, which dominates China's online gaming industry and runs the largest online messaging platform, is currently the sole investor in the fund and aims to actively invest most of the 5 billion yuan in the next two or three years.

China's online games market rose 25 per cent in the fourth quarter last year to hit 9 billion yuan ($1.4 billion), with Tencent holding 31 per cent of the market, data from iResearch showed.