Tencent became the first Asian technology company valued above $500 billion in 2017.
Tencent crossed the $500 billion market-capitalization mark in November 2017 after a sharp rise in its Hong Kong-listed shares. The Chinese company had built a broad digital ecosystem around social networking, online games, digital payments, music, advertising, and cloud services.
Its WeChat platform was especially important. WeChat combined messaging with payments, commerce, official accounts, and other services, giving Tencent a large and highly engaged user base. Tencent also became one of the world's largest video-game publishers through internal studios and investments in other developers.
The milestone is sometimes confused with Alibaba's later market-cap records. Both companies are major Chinese technology groups, but they have different foundations: Tencent grew from communication and entertainment services, while Alibaba is primarily associated with e-commerce and cloud computing. Rankings can change with share prices and currency movements.