(Yicai) Nov. 16 -- Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings has reported a 39 percent jump in net profit in the third quarter of the year, thanks to efforts to control costs and focus on its primary business.

Net profit on a non-international financial reporting standards basis was CNY44.9 billion (USD6.3 billion) in the three months ended Sept. 30, the Shenzhen-based company announced yesterday. Revenue rose 10 percent to CNY154.6 billion (USD21.5 billion) in the period from a year earlier.

Tencent's net profit growth was higher than its revenue growth mainly because of the firm's efforts in cost control, which drove up the profit margin of its value-added services and online advertising businesses, and its withdrawal from some money-losing non-key businesses to shift its focus to its primary business, Guosen Securities said in a research report.

This year, Tencent shut down its online audio platform Penguin FM and some online games, including Kritika, and will close its time organization tool To-do next month. The firm also significantly downsized its education business, Yicai reported earlier.

Tencent's revenue from online advertising jumped 20 percent to CNY25.7 billion, and that from financial technology and enterprise services rose 16 percent to CNY52 billion in the third quarter from a year earlier, the earnings report showed. Revenue from value-added services, including games, climbed 4 percent to CNY75.7 billion.

"During the third quarter, we achieved solid and high-quality revenue growth, notable margin expansion, and structural operating leverage," said Ma Huateng, Tencent's chairman and chief executive officer. "Relatively new services, such as Video Accounts and Mini Games, contributed high margin revenue streams while we re-focused away from less scalable activities."

Video Accounts and Mini Games are functions on Tencent's WeChat, China's largest social networking platform by number of users. WeChat had 1.3 billion active users as of Sept. 30, up 2 percent from a year earlier, according to Tencent's earnings report.

"We are increasing investment in our artificial intelligence models, providing new features to our products, and enhancing our targeting capabilities for both content and advertising," Ma noted. "We aspire to position our leading AI capability not only as a growth multiplier for ourselves, but also as a value provider to our enterprise customers and the society at large."

Editors: Dou Shicong, Futura Costaglione