Tencent plans to boost staff a fifth, expand gaming

SHENZHEN, China, June 6 (Reuters) - Tencent (0700.HK), which runs China's largest online messaging community, plans to boost its staff by a fifth by the end of 2008, when it hopes also to be among the top three in China in terms of online gaming revenue.

Tencent, which runs the popular "QQ" community and will join Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng Index .HSI on Tuesday, plans to keep up its frenetic pace of expansion with an eye toward online gaming, a market where it ranks fifth and is dominated now by the likes of Netease (NTES.O) and Shanda SNDA.O.

Chief Executive Pony Ma told reporters in Shenzhen that the firm expects to gain half its revenue from online advertising in 5 to 10 years, versus just 10 percent now.

China's Internet population in February overtook that of the United States to become the world's largest, reaching 221 million, state media have reported. Still, at 16 percent of China's population, that lags a global average of 19.1 percent. (Reporting by Vinicy Chan)