Chinese game publisher Tencent has warned it faces stiff competition in maintaining rapid growth of its core gaming and content businesses, despite notching a surge in quarterly revenue as it continues to expand abroad.

Tencent is the world’s largest game publisher by revenue, competing with US  names such as Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard.

This week it has reported a 47 percent rise in net profit for the December quarter to 10.53 billion yuan (A$1.99 billion) from a year earlier. Net profit for the year rose 43 percent to 41.10 billion yuan (A$ 7.8 billion) while revenue was up 48 percent to 151.94 billion yuan.

The company, generally recognised as one of Asia’s biggest tech tigers, is experiencing strong growth in online games, social-media advertising and cloud services, said chairman and CEO Pony Ma.