(Yicai) Jan. 30 -- Pony Ma, the chairman, chief executive, and founder of Tencent Holdings, has released an update about the Chinese tech giant's main business segments, including artificial intelligence and gaming, at the annual staff meeting.

Tencent's AI technology has been keeping up with the top industry players, Ma said yesterday, adding that even if it is not at the top, it is still not too far behind.

The Shenzhen-based company will apply its general large language model Hunyuan in various scenarios instead of creating a new AI native application in the short term, Ma noted.

Tencent unveiled its first self-developed LLM Hunyuan last September and integrated it into WeChat, QQ, video games, and other business segments. The firm's AI business’ advertising revenue grew 20 percent to CNY25.7 billion (USD3.6 billion) in the third quarter of last year from a year earlier, thanks to the boost from the launch of Hunyuan.

The gaming business is Tencent's greatest hope to achieve internationalization, Ma said at the meeting. Over the past few years, Tencent took an advantage in mobile game research and development and online operation of popular overseas games in China, he noted, adding that he hopes the company can do well in developing games rather than becoming an enemy to other gaming companies or hardware manufacturers.

Tencent's overseas game revenue ranked second after MiHoYo Network Technology last year for the second consecutive year, according to data from Sensor Tower. The overseas game revenues of Tencent and MiHoYo are expected to have risen 13 percent and 14 percent, respectively, last year from the previous one.

Tencent faced great challenges from emerging game developers and the shift to content-based games last year, so the company cannot rest on its laurels, Ma pointed out.

Ma also commented on WeChat, saying that the social media platform was established 12 years ago, so the big issue is how to innovate now. The mini-programs, mini-games, and searching businesses are the roots of WeChat's future development, he noted.

Tencent Cloud's revenue rose 11 percent to CNY5.1 billion (USD710.6 million) in the third quarter of last year from a year earlier, ranking fourth among Chinese internet companies by seizing 9.5 percent of the domestic infrastructure as a service and platform as a service market, down 0.4 percentage points from the same period a year before, according to data from the International Data Corporation.

Tencent Cloud's revenue was not high, but quality and sustainability are the more important aspects, Ma said.

Editor: Futura Costaglione