(Yicai Global) May 24 -- China’s Tencent Holdings has appointed a new head of its news business after the internet giant’s first-quarter advertising revenue plunged 30 percent from a year ago.

He Yijin has replaced Wang Shimu as head of Tencent News and editor-in-chief of QQ.com, an internal company document showed yesterday. Wang will head up Tencent’s non-fungible token platform business.

Revenue from media advertising fell to CNY2.3 billion (USD344.3 million) in the three months ended March 31, weighed down by a decline in related income from Tencent News and Tencent Video, according to the earnings report Tencent released last week.

Shenzhen-based Tencent said its news business will stick to being a premium news information service and will step up efforts to upgrade content and products.

Wang will manage Magic Core, an NFT platform launched by Tencent and ecological partners last August to issue and sell digital collections. Chinese internet giants such as Alibaba Group Holding, JD.Com, and NetEase have all set up similar businesses.

As an innovative application of blockchain technology, NFTs can be used as a certificate to mark specific digital assets. In China, their main focus is collectibles, artworks, and game equipment.

Although China has banned cryptocurrencies, there are no rules for virtual assets including derivatives and NFTs, which have no public secondary market.

China’s NFTs have been renamed as digital collections, so their legal nature and oversight will gradually become clear, according to a report from Guosheng Securities. Internet platforms will focus on developing digital collection certification in copyright protection and asset confirmation, and form rules for the issuance, trade, and circulation of digital collections.

Editor: Futura Costaglione