UPDATE 1-China's Tencent says Q4 profit growth slows to 69 pct

* Fourth quarter net profit growth slowed to 69 pct

* Online advertising has been affected by downturn

* In more resilient position than other industries (Adds details and analyst comments)

HONG KONG, March 18 (Reuters) - Chinese Internet portal Tencent Holdings (0700.HK) posted on Wednesday a forecast beating 69 percent rise in quarterly earnings as strong community sales and gaming revenue offset weakness in online advertising growth.

But profit growth in the fourth quarter slowed from a 73 percent to 92.5 percent increase in the previous quarters due to the low seasonality of its non-game Internet services and a slower growth in its online advertising business.

Tencent, which runs China's largest online messaging community "QQ", said it believes its diversified business model puts the firm in a more resilient position compared with other industries.

"But we are not immune to the global economic crisis," the company said in a statement.

"Our online advertising business has already been affected by the downturn towards the end of the fourth quarter when advertisers reduced their spending under a worsening economic environment," it said.

Analysts said Tencent could see lower growth in its instant messaging and online advertising business as economic conditions deteriorate in the coming months.

But community sales and online games are gathering momentum, which should help offset the earnings drag, Steven Liu, an analyst at DBS said in a recent research note.

The company aims to expand its share of the gaming market, where it competes with global leaders Shanda SNDA.O and Netease (NTES.O).

It posted net profit of 869.1 million yuan ($127.1 million) in the three months to December, up from 515 million yuan a year earlier.

The net beat a consensus forecast of 752.5 million yuan by five analysts and was up from 737.1 million yuan the previous quarter.

For full-year 2008, it earned 78 percent more at 2.78 billion yuan, beating forecasts for 2.7 billion yuan by 12 analysts polled by Reuters Knowledge.

Shares in Tencent have risen 4 percent so far this year, beating a 9 percent fall on the Hang Seng Index .HSI. The stock fell about 10 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, outperforming a 20 percent drop on the blue chip index. ($1=6.835 Yuan) (Reporting by Alison Leung, Editing by Jacqueline Wong)