Tencent Holdings Ltd, the operator of China's most popular instant messaging service, said profit for the fourth quarter nearly doubled as income from value-added services boomed.

Revenue totaled 3.7 billion yuan (US$542 million), a 75.9 percent increase from the same period last year.Operating profit surged 90.5 percent year on year to 1.78 billion yuan.

"The Internet industry is going to benefit from the strong growth of China's economy in the long run as it has become a major media for Chinese people," the company said yesterday.

Internet value-added services contributed 2.85 billion yuan, a 92.6 percent jump from a year ago.Active user accounts of QQ, its instant messaging tool, reached 522.9 million by the end of 2009.

Full-year revenue jumped 73.9 percent from that of 2008 to 12.4 billion yuan and profit was 5.2 billion yuan in 2009, an 85.4 percent jump.