Tencent unveils first sales fall as economy sinks

Tencent Holdings logged its first-ever revenue decline after online advertising sales fell by a record, underscoring the extent to which China’s worsening economy is hurting its biggest corporations.

The country’s most valuable company slashed 5,000 jobs or nearly 5% of its workforce — the first quarterly drop in staffing since 2014 after 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% in the June quarter.