Tencent, China's largest Internet company by market value,?Wednesday said its first-quarter profit soared more than 60 percent as it benefited from booming income in online games.

Tencent, which operates the country's most popular online chatting tool QQ, said profit surged 61 percent from a year ago to 2.87 billion yuan (US$442 million) in the first three months of this year.

Revenue jumped 50 percent to 6.34 billion yuan, with Internet value-added income, including online games and QQ subscription fees, rising 55 percent to 5.25 billion yuan. Advertising sales gained 38 percent to 281 million yuan.

"We will continue to make significant investment in existing business and new projects, including microblog, e-commerce, search, online security, online video and global expansion," Tencent Chairman Ma Huateng said.