Tencent owns WeChat and is headquartered in Shenzhen, China.
Tencent launched WeChat in 2011, and the service became a major messaging and mobile-platform product in China. WeChat supports messaging, voice and video calls, social feeds, payments, official accounts, and mini programs, making it broader than a conventional text-messaging app. In China, the service is commonly called Weixin.
Tencent was founded in 1998 by Ma Huateng, also known as Pony Ma, and several co-founders. The company first became widely known for QQ, an instant-messaging service, before expanding into online games, digital content, advertising, fintech, and cloud services. It has also held investments in many technology and entertainment businesses.
WeChat is sometimes confused with Tencent’s parent company because the app has its own consumer identity. WeChat is a Tencent product, not a separate publicly traded company. Tencent’s Hong Kong-listed shares make the company one of Asia’s largest by market capitalization, although that value changes with the share price.