File photo/Zhang Jian

On May 23, Huya announced that Lin Songtao, Vice President of Tencent, will replace Huang Lingdong as the Chairman of Huya Inc, effective from May 23, 2023. Huang Lingdong will no longer serve as a director of Huya, but will continue to work at Tencent's Interactive Entertainment Group (IEG). 

Tencent has confirmed the news in media interview, and stated that Lin Songtao will still serve as Vice President of Tencent, responsible for the Tencent app store business.

Since the beginning of this year, game approvals have been steadily received, and the domestic game industry has gradually ushered in new development opportunities. Game communities and game content will play an increasingly important role. Tencent app store is currently the largest third-party application download platform in China, and game distribution is one of its important sources of revenue.

The adjustment means that Tencent will further strengthen its industrial layout in the gaming field. The new appointment can not only strengthen Huya's ability in game content distribution and commercialization, but also amplify Tencent's advantages in "content distribution + application distribution" in the gaming field, and extend the industrial chain layout.

On March 8, 2018, Tencent made a strategic investment in Huya, with an amount of US$460 million. On May 11, 2018, Huya was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The prospectus showed that Tencent's US$460 million investment was equivalent to 39.8% equity in Huya, which means that Huya was valued at US$1.16 billion at that time.

As of April 28, 2023, according to data from Wind Financial Terminal, Tencent's shareholding in Huya has been increased to 62.69%, and Morgan Stanley holds 6.18% stake in Huya. And there were no other institutional shareholders holding more than 5% of Huya’s shares.

Currently, Tencent occupies five of the six seats on Huya's board of directors. 

According to the latest financial report, Huya's net revenue in the first quarter of 2023 was RMB 1.949 billion, showing a decrease of 20.9% from the same period in 2022. The net profit attributable to Huya was RMB 44.8 million, while the net loss in the same period of 2022 was RMB 3.3 million. Under the Non-GAAP, the net profit attributable to Huya in the first quarter of 2023 was RMB 85.5 million, while the net profit in the same period of 2022 was RMB 46.6 million. Among them, Huya's revenue from live broadcast was RMB 1.86 billion, and revenue from advertising and others was only RMB 89.3 million.