Tencent Unveils First Sales Fall, Job Cuts as Economy Sinks

(Bloomberg) — Tencent Holdings Ltd. logged its first-ever revenue decline after its workforce shrank almost 5%, underscoring the extent to which China’s worsening economy is hurting its biggest corporations.

The country’s most valuable company recorded its first quarterly drop in staffing since 2014, as layoffs rippling through the global tech sector finally hit the WeChat operator. Revenue fell a deeper-than-projected 3% to 134 billion yuan ($19.8 billion) while net income also missed estimates, plunging 56% to 18.6 billion yuan in the June quarter.