(Bloomberg) -- Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s revenue missed estimates, signaling an uneven recovery for the world’s biggest internet arena as it grapples with rising Chinese economic turbulence and anemic consumer sentiment.

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The country’s largest company reported a less-than-expected 11% rise in revenue after sales from major divisions including gaming and cloud services fell well short of projections. Online advertising surged 34% — the fastest in almost five years — in part because of algorithmic tweaks and a favorable comparison with last year’s Covid trough.

Its shares slid as much as 2.5% in Hong Kong, their biggest fall in about two weeks. The lackluster results cast doubt over a long-awaited comeback for an embattled sector whose leaders from Tencent to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. barely grew in 2022.

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Signs are mounting that the Chinese economy is faltering, a potent risk for tech leaders that traditionally rely heavily on the domestic market. Executives played down the potential fallout from stubbornly weak consumption, arguing that improvements in advertising technology targeting as well as Tencent’s breadth of data and services will help it grow faster than rivals. The WeChat operator, a barometer for the economy and industry through a business portfolio that spans entertainment and social media to finance, sustained double-digit sales growth for the second straight quarter.

“Yes the economy is uncertain, but it’s been uncertain for the past couple of years,” Chief Strategy Officer James Mitchell told analysts on a conference call. “It was uncertain in the first half of this year, and we’ve been able to grow through that and we believe we will keep growing and going forward as we enhance the return on investment to advertisers.”