Tencent briefly became the first Asian company valued above $500 billion in 2017.
Tencent passed the $500 billion market-capitalization mark in November 2017 as investors valued its rapidly growing internet businesses. The company was already a major force in online games, social networking, digital payments, and cloud services.
Its WeChat platform was particularly important. WeChat combined messaging with payments, commerce, media, and other services, creating a broad digital ecosystem used extensively in China. Tencent’s gaming business also became one of the largest in the world.
Market-cap rankings can change quickly because they depend on share prices and currency conversion. Tencent’s valuation later moved below and above major thresholds as technology stocks, Chinese regulation, economic conditions, and investor expectations changed. The $500 billion milestone describes a market value at a particular time, not a permanent ranking.