UPDATE 1-China's Tencent Q2 profit soars on games,mobile

* Q2 net profit at 1.19 bln yuan vs 644 mln yuan last year

* Tencent says to delay launch of 2 online games (Adds details)

SHANGHAI Aug 12 (Reuters) - Tencent Holdings (0700.HK), operator of China's largest instant messaging platform, said on Wednesday that its quarterly net profit soared 85 percent on strong revenue growth for its paid Internet services, as it rides the Internet boom in China.

Tencent, which also operates popular online games, said second-quarter net profit was 1.19 billion yuan ($174.1 million) versus 644 million yuan in the same period a year earlier.

The jump was was a result of stellar results from Tencent's online games and mobile service segments. The company said the number of active user accounts for its instant messaging platform was up 9.1 percent.

In the third quarter, Tencent said, it would be difficult to increase the amount of money made from games that were launched in 2008. The company also said it would delay the launch of two in-house developed multi-player online games to the first half of 2010 from the end of the year.

It also expects a challenging quarter for its advertising business due to the uncertain economic environment.

"We expect the third quarter to present stronger seasonality compared with the second quarter for our online games because of the summer school holidays," Tencent said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange.

China's summer school holidays run from July to September.

Total revenue for the quarter was 2.88 billion yuan versus an average analyst expectation of 2.6 billion yuan.

Revenue from its Internet value-added services grew 107.9 percent in the quarter, while revenue from its mobile segment expanded 38.9 percent and business from online advertising grew 9.1 percent from a year earlier.

Tencent has a key foothold in China's booming online game market. With over 50 million gamers, the Chinese gaming market is one of the world's fastest growing with sales expected to rise 30 to 50 percent this year to 24 billion to 27 billion yuan.

Tencent shares closed 3.74 percent lower on Wednesday but are up about 120 percent this year, outpacing the 45 percent rise on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange .HSI. ($1=6.835 Yuan) (Reporting by Melanie Lee; Editing by Chris Lewis)