騰訊透過持股擴大在南韓遊戲雲端市場的影響力

Krafton featured as a customer success story on Tencent Cloud’s official website. (Source: Tencent Cloud website screenshot)

China’s Tencent is rapidly expanding its presence in South Korea’s gaming cloud market. Leveraging equity stakes in major game developers such as Krafton and Shift Up, along with Chinese publishing rights, the company has emerged as a major cloud provider in a relatively short period. Its growth has been particularly strong, with partner resale revenue surging roughly sevenfold in a year.

According to information compiled by THE ELEC as of Oct. 27, Tencent Cloud has secured approximately 60 South Korean gaming companies as customers or partners. They include major developers such as Nexon, Krafton, Netmarble, Joycity, Wemade and Com2uS Holdings.

Com2uS Platform, which was named a Platinum Partner, Tencent Cloud’s highest partnership tier, in August, has secured 52 domestic gaming companies as customers. As a result, its Tencent Cloud resale revenue surged 686% in 2025 from the previous year. Cloud business revenue at its parent company, Com2uS Holdings, which consolidates the results, also increased 212% year on year and 13% quarter on quarter in 2026.

Tencent Cloud’s success in South Korea has contributed to its rapid revenue growth. During its second-quarter 2026 earnings conference call, Tencent said cloud revenue increased by a percentage in the low 20s from a year earlier. That exceeded the high-teens growth rate recorded in the first quarter.

Growth in overseas markets, including South Korea, was even more pronounced. Overseas cloud revenue rose more than 40% year on year in the first quarter of 2026. In investor presentation materials released in March 2026, Tencent said its cloud business reached break-even in 2024 and generated approximately 5 billion yuan in adjusted operating profit in 2025.

Analysts attribute Tencent’s rapid expansion in South Korea’s gaming cloud market partly to strategic relationships established through equity investments in major game developers.

As of the first half of 2026, Tencent and its affiliates held a 14% stake in Krafton and a 34.7% stake in Shift Up. Tencent also held 4.7% of Netmarble and had acquired a 3.58% stake in Kakao Games through its Singapore-based affiliate Aceville. Although Tencent has maintained that its equity investments were made purely for investment purposes, industry sources said its influence as a major shareholder may also have affected the cloud business.

Tencent’s extensive distribution network in China has also played a role. As Tencent handles Chinese publishing for major South Korean games, those titles often end up using Tencent Cloud services.

Tencent operates Nexon’s Dungeon & Fighter, Smilegate’s CrossFire, Pearl Abyss’ Black Desert and Shift Up’s Goddess of Victory: NIKKE in China. Tencent also handles global services for Krafton’s PUBG Mobile, excluding certain markets such as India.

“Because Tencent develops games itself and operates game services, it has accumulated considerable expertise in gaming cloud technology, which is another competitive advantage,” an industry official said.

A Nexon case study published on Tencent Cloud’s official website shows that the company provides a range of solutions, including its gaming database TcaplusDB, cloud servers, networking and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack protection. A case study on KartRider Rush+ published by MegazoneCloud, Tencent Cloud’s South Korean partner, also shows the use of Tencent Cloud’s gaming database, DDoS protection and voice chat solutions. Tencent effectively supplied core functions required to operate the game.

“For Korean game developers entering China, Tencent is regarded as the best option because of its extensive experience operating games in the local market,” said the chief executive of a South Korean cloud company. “Tencent Cloud also offers greater discounts as contract sizes increase, making it highly attractive in terms of cost.”

However, concerns are also growing. As game services become increasingly dependent on Tencent, the risk of exposing sensitive information related to game development and business operations is rising. Tencent Cloud has recently expanded its presence beyond gaming, securing a major South Korean e-commerce company as a customer based on its gaming industry references.

“Considering data management and security concerns, companies may need to make strategic choices, such as using Tencent only for content delivery network (CDN) services rather than migrating their entire server infrastructure,” an official at a South Korean cloud company advised.

Some game developers that have used Tencent Cloud also report difficulties obtaining technical support. Its English-language technical documentation is less comprehensive than its Chinese documentation, often requiring technical personnel proficient in Chinese.