Tencent (TCTZF) has become the first Chinese tech firm valued over $500 billion.
Shares of the 19-year-old company, listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, hit record numbers on Tuesday, rallying to close at HK$430 to give it a market capitalization of some $522 billion—about $3 billion above Facebook’s closing valuation of $519 billion Monday.
According to CNBC, Alibaba (BABA), Asia’s second-highest-valued firm and the closest rival to Tencent, comes in at a valuation of $474 billion, making the tech company the first from China to reach the landmark valuation.
Until now, membership in the half-a-trillion-dollar club belonged exclusively to American tech giants–Apple, Alphabet, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon. Entry to the club for the company that’s little known in the West comes a week after it posted a profit of 18 billion RMB ($2.7 billion) on revenue of 65.2 billion RMB ($9.8 billion) for Q3 2017.
The company’s key product is popular messaging service WeChat, which is closing in on 1 billion users overall (but hasn’t seen that same success overseas). But the company is a sprawling business. Revenue rose by 61% thanks to its games division, which focuses on PC and mobile. In the last quarter alone, gaming accounted for $5 billion, owing to smash hits like Honor of Kings (2017’s top grossing game), and the acquisition of the companies behind hit games Clash of Clans (Supercell) and League Of Legends (Riot Games), reports TechCrunch.
If you had made a $9,000 investment in the company’s 2004 IPO, the SCMP points out that it would now be worth $1 million.
