(Yicai Global) July 6 -- Tencent Holdings is discontinuing its game portal app WeGame on mobile devices due to changes in its business strategy, the world’s biggest gaming firm said. WeGame hasn’t worked out as expected, so it is not surprising it is being wound up, an analyst said.

The WeGame app will no longer be available from Sept. 8 and no further downloads will be possible from July 15, WeGame said on its website yesterday. All paying channels were closed yesterday and the app has stopped accepting registration of new users. Some of the app’s services will still be available on personal computers, it added.

WeGame was meant to serve as a digital game distribution service and storefront such as Steam, but it never developed into an active gaming community. It was difficult for WeGame to deliver because the games are all developed by different studios which are not interconnected, said Zhang Yi, chief executive of market analysis firm iiMedia Research.

Also, Tencent is working hard to cut costs and improve efficiency, Zhang said. Profit has declined since the country’s crackdown on gaming began last year, which slashed the amount of time minors can spend online playing games to three hours a week among other measures.

The Shenzhen-based internet giant’s profit plummeted 51 percent in the first quarter from the same period last year to CNY23.4 billion (USD3.5 billion), falling for the third straight quarter. Revenue from domestic game services dipped 1 percent to CNY33 billion (USD4.9 billion).

WeGame is an aggregation of gaming information, livestreaming and game records. It has no advantages over other platforms, a game player told Yicai Global.

Tencent released WeGame, originally called Tencent Game Platform, in 2013 as a portal to its gaming services. WeGame had 300 million registered users as of the end of 2019 and 70 million monthly active users on average, the firm said previously.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Kim Taylor