On 18 February 2011, Tencent acquired a majority of equity interest (92.78%) in Riot Games, developer of League of Legends, for about US$230 million. Now branded as WeChat, the app is one of the 'super apps', due to its wide range of functions and platforms, and its over 1 billion monthly active users. On 21 January 2011, Tencent launched Weixin ( 微信), a social media app. While at least two, CrossFire and Dungeon Fighter Online, were originally produced by South Korean game developers, Tencent now makes its own games. While Tencent's services have included online gaming since 2004, around 2007/2008 it rapidly increased its offerings by licensing games. By 2008, Tencent was seeing profit growth from the sale of virtual goods. By 2005, charging for use of QQ mobile, its cellular value-added service, and licensing its penguin character, which could be found on snack food and clothing, had also become income generators. The company originally derived income solely from advertising and premium users of QQ, who pay monthly fees to receive extras. Tencent Holding Ltd was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on 16 June 2004, and it was added as a Hang Seng Index Constituent Stock in 2008. South African media company Naspers purchased a 46.5% share of Tencent in 2001 As of 2021, it owns 30.86% through Prosus, which also owns a stake in Tencent's sister companies, such as OLX, VK, Group, Delivery Hero, Bykea, Meesho, Stack Overflow, Udemy, Codecademy, Brainly and PayU. The company remained unprofitable for the first three years. Shortly after, Tencent had the client's name changed to QQ this was said to be due to a lawsuit threat from ICQ and its owner AOL. In February 1999, Tencent's messenger product OICQ released. Initial funding was provided to it by venture capitalists. The name 'Tencent' is based on its Chinese name Tengxun (Chinese: 腾讯), which incorporates part of Pony Ma's Chinese name (Ma Hua teng 马化「腾」) and literally means 'galloping fast information'. Tencent was founded by Pony Ma, Zhang Zhidong, Xu Chenye, Charles Chen and Zeng Liqing in November 1998 as Tencent Inc, incorporated in the Cayman Islands.

( February 2019) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Please try to keep recent events in historical perspective and add more content related to non-recent events. This article or section appears to be slanted towards recent events. As of June 2022, Tencent has lost around half of its market value since its peak. Tencent's valuation approached US$1 trillion in January 2021 before it plummeted. TechCrunch characterized Tencent's investment strategy as letting its portfolio startups operate autonomously. Tencent has stakes in over 600 companies, and began focusing on tech start-ups in Asia in 2017. In 2015, 2018, and 2020, the company was ranked by the Boston Consulting Group and Fast Company among the 50 most innovative companies worldwide. It has since then emerged as the most valuable publicly traded company in China, and is the world's tenth most valuable company by market value as of February 2022. The company surpassed a market value of US$500 billion in 2018, becoming the first Asian technology company to cross this valuation mark. It operates the instant messengers Tencent QQ and WeChat, and QQ.com. Its services include social networks, music, web portals, e-commerce, mobile games, internet services, payment systems, smartphones, and multiplayer online games. It is among the largest social media, venture capital, and investment corporations. Tencent is the world's largest video game vendor, as well as one of the most financially valuable companies.

Its twin-skyscraper headquarters, Tencent Seafront Towers (also known as Tencent Binhai Mansion) are based in the Nanshan District of Shenzhen. įounded in 1998, its subsidiaries globally market various Internet-related services and products, including in entertainment, artificial intelligence, and other technology.

It is also the largest company in the video game industry in the world based on its investments, with Tencent Games being the subdivision of Tencent Interactive Entertainment Group (IEG) focused on publishing of games. It is one of the highest grossing multimedia companies in the world based on revenue. ( Chinese: 腾讯 pinyin: Téngxùn) is a Chinese multinational technology and entertainment conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. Tang4 seon3 hung3 gu2 jau5 haan6 gung1 si1 'Tencent' in Simplified (top) and Traditional (bottom) Chinese characters

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