Tencent Becomes Asia’s First Company to Breach Half Trillion Dollar Threshold

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Chinese Internet giant Tencent has beat out rival Alibaba to become the first company in Asia to see its market capitalisation exceed the USD$500 billion threshold.

Shares in Hong Kong-listed Tencent reached HK$418.80 on Tuesday to push its market cap past HK$3.99 trillion, or in excess of $500 billion.

Tencent has seen its share price more than double since the start of the year to beat out Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group in terms of market capitalisation, joining the select group of tech giants worth over half a trillion US dollars which includes Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft and Facebook.

Tencent’s milestone comes just a week after the tech giant posted profits of 18 billion yuan on revenue of 65.2 billion yuan for the third quarter, for a 69% year-on-year increase in overall profits and a 61% rise in revenues.

The company’s PC and mobile gaming division, which owns international hits such as Clash of Clans and League of Legends, generated $5 billion in revenue last quarter, while its WeChat messaging app is China’s leading social media platform with nearly a billion users.

After a tripling of its market cap since March 2014, some analysts expect Tencent to climb even higher, with Wang Menghai, a Shanghai-based money manager at Fullgoal Fund Management Co., telling Bloomberg that it would be “a wrong decision to sell it just for some short-term gain.”