Tencent became Asia’s first company to surpass a US$500 billion market capitalization in 2017.
Tencent crossed the milestone on November 21, 2017, as its Hong Kong-listed shares rose. The company’s businesses included social communication, online games, digital content, advertising, and financial technology. Its WeChat platform was especially important because it combined messaging, payments, media, and other services in one widely used application.
Tencent was founded in Shenzhen in 1998 by Pony Ma and other co-founders. Its initial product, QQ, became one of China’s major internet messaging services before WeChat expanded the company’s mobile reach.
The US$500 billion figure described Tencent’s market capitalization, meaning the market value of its publicly traded shares. It was not the company’s annual sales or cash holdings, and the value could move as the Hong Kong share price changed.