Tencent Beats Facebook to Become World's #5 Most Valuable Firm

By Emily Guzman

Tencent is now more valuable than Facebook.

China's biggest tech company surpassed the American social networking platform's total market value on Tuesday, just a day after becoming the first Asian company to reach the USD500 billion valuation mark.

Shares of the social media and gaming giant closed two percent higher in Hong Kong yesterday, putting its total valuation at around USD522 billion. It overtook Facebook, which is worth USD519 billion.

Tencent now holds fifth place in the global elite list, which includes the likes of Apple, Alphabet (Google), Microsoft and Amazon. 

On Monday, Tencent also beat rival Chinese tech firm Alibaba to become China's first USD500 billion company. Alibaba now sits just behind Facebook in the number seven spot at USD480 billion, while Tencent is within close reach of Amazon's USD542 billion valuation.

Tencent owns the insanely popular WeChat app, and has expanded to news, financial services and literature, covering almost every aspect of daily life for its Chinese users. 

Additionally, Tencent has made huge leaps and bounds in its gaming division, owning titles like Honor of Kings. Both Tencent and Alibaba also dominate in the mobile payments sector with WeChat Wallet and Alipay.

According to The Financial Times, both companies owe part of their success to China's ban on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Google. The ban has made way for Tencent to thrive in a market where Alibaba is the only major competitor. 

China is home to nearly 20 percent of the world's population — a huge market that is reserved almost exclusively for the two companies — so it's no suprise that Tencent and Alibaba are very quickly rising in profits and rank. Over the past year, both have seen their shares double.

A tale of two Ma's: Pony of Tencent (left) and Jack of Alibaba (right)

While it's now worth more than Facebook, though, Tencent still lags behind the world's most popular social network in terms of total users. Facebook has over two billion users around the globe while Tencent's WeChat app has around 980 million users, a majority of them within the Middle Kingdom.

Still, Tencent's new standing is a significant milestone for China and the tech industry. Alibaba is nipping at Tencent's heels, and might just hit the half a trillion mark in the near future. 

Additional writing by Bridget O'Donnell

[Images via The Business Times, Telegraph, Medium]

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