About 64 per cent of PUBG Mobile's revenue was from China
Shares in DouYu, one of Tencent's main platforms for game marketing and China's No. 2 videogame streaming site, surged as much as 17.6% on the news, closing 14% higher on Thursday
The Hang Seng Tech Index fell 4.6%-the most since July-in a third straight day of declines
Tencent's handout may buy goodwill with the government, which has pushed for the dismantling of barriers and for tech firms to share the wealth
Chinese tech giants including Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings were fined Saturday for failing to report corporate acquisitions
"The Chinese government will be in support of the development of such technologies as long as the user experience is actually provided under the regulatory framework," said Tencent's Lau
Revenue climbed 13% to 142.4 billion yuan, slightly below expectations, and was the slowest quarterly growth since the company went public in 2004, Refinitiv data showed
Li Zhanguo's two children, aged eight and four, don't have their own smartphones, but like millions of other Chinese children, they are no strangers to online gaming
Tencent had restricted users from sharing content from Douyin. In Feb, Douyin filed a complaint at a Beijing court saying this was monopolistic behaviour
The government has accused a handful of companies of employing blocking and other methods to protect their respective spheres
China's industry ministry has told technology companies including Alibaba Group Ltd and Tencent Holdings Ltd to stop blocking each other's website links from their platforms: report
The Hang Seng Tech Index advanced 2.9% on Friday, pushing the index up a third straight week.
Tencent, the country's largest gaming company, dived as much as 6.7%, on track for its biggest fall since July, while smaller rival Netease fell as much as 7.7%.
The escalating restrictions on Tencent's biggest business are likely to spook investors that had cautiously returned to Chinese stocks in recent days
TSMC overtakes Tencent to become Asia's most valuable company; Alibaba at record low in HK
Robust demand for games such as "Honor of Kings" and "PUBG mobile" offset a decrease in revenues from its battle royale title "Peacekeeper Elite"
While Pony has long had a reputation for staying out of the limelight, that hasn't shielded his company from penalties including antitrust fines and the loss of exclusive music streaming rights
Tencent joined rivals NetEase Inc. and XD Inc. in a steep selloff after an outlet run by the Xinhua News Agency published a blistering critique of their industry.
The firm is one of the key casualties of an official campaign that targets tech behemoths considered a potential threat to China's data security.
Pop-ups, often used for advertising, are just the latest targets in a series of government crackdowns that have ranged from antitrust to data security