Tencent’s sales fall for the first time

BEIJING: Tencent Holdings Ltd 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.