Tencent bought a 12% non-voting minority stake in Snap in 2017.
The investment was made in the open market and was reported in November 2017, after Snap had already become a publicly traded company. Because the shares carried no voting rights, Tencent gained financial exposure to Snap without obtaining a comparable say in corporate decisions.
The deal is often confused with Tencent’s better-known investments in gaming companies such as Epic Games and Riot Games. Here, the question concerns Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat, rather than a purchase of Snapchat itself. Snap remained an independent company, and Tencent’s holding was a minority investment.
The timing also matters: Snap’s initial public offering took place in March 2017 under the ticker SNAP. Its unusual share structure concentrated voting power with co-founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, helping explain why a sizable non-voting stake did not translate into control.