HONG KONG -- Tencent Holdings said on Wednesday its net profit rose 61 percent to 2.87 billion yuan ($442.2 million) for the three months ended March 31, 2011.

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Basic and diluted earnings per share were 1.575 yuan and 1.54 yuan.

Revenues amounted to 6.34 billion yuan, an increase of 50 percent. Gross profit grew 43 percent to 4.14 billion yuan and operating profit was 3.39 billion yuan, up by 57.6 percent.

Ma Huateng, Chairman of the company, said in the result announcement that for the second quarter of 2011, he expects weaker seasonality for Internet value-added service mainly due to school examinations and fewer school holidays.

This negative seasonality may be more severe than previous years as a higher percentage of revenues is based on item sale and such item-based revenues are more prone to seasonal fluctuation than subscription-based revenues, he said. ($1 equals 6.49 yuan)