Tencent became the first Asian company to surpass a $500 billion market capitalization in November 2017.
Tencent crossed the threshold as investors valued its rapidly expanding internet businesses, including social networking, online games, digital media, and payment services. Its share price rose sharply on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, pushing the company above the half-trillion-dollar mark.
The achievement reflected Tencent’s unusually broad position in China’s consumer internet economy. WeChat, its messaging and services platform, became central to the company’s ecosystem, while gaming supplied another major source of revenue and global reach.
The record is sometimes confused with later milestones for Alibaba, Samsung Electronics, or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. Those businesses are also among Asia’s largest publicly traded companies, but Tencent was the company associated with this particular $500 billion milestone in 2017.