Beijing’s myopia move wipes $20bn off Tencent’s value

CHINA plans to crack down on online gaming in order to tackle rising rates of myopia among its young people, which Beijing is blaming partly on the spread of mobile phones and other electronic devices.

The Ministry of Education, in a paper published this week, called for limits on the number of new online video games and steps to restrict the time young people spend playing games, and demanded an age-appropriate system for players.

The move wiped about 5pc, or $20bn (£15bn), off the market value of Tencent, China’s largest gaming company, on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange yesterday.

The curbs are the latest challenge for Tencent, which earlier this month blamed a freeze on new game approvals for its first quarterly profit fall in nearly 13 years.

It has lost more than $160bn in market value from its peak in January, chiefly on regulatory uncertainty, and now trails arch rival Alibaba to be Asia’s second-biggest listed company by market capitalisation.