Tencent, the Chinese internet giant behind the WeChat messaging app, is now more valuable than Facebook. While Facebook is worth $519 billion, Tencent is valued at $523 billion. This makes Tencent, the most valuable company in Asia.
Tencent has made in-roads in e-payment after it was issued a license in Malaysia for local transactions, and plans a launch early next year, senior vice president Seng Yee Lau said in an interview.
The move puts Tencent in direct rivalry with Alibaba as they scramble for new growth opportunities outside China.
“Malaysia is actually quite large in the sense that we have 20 million WeChat users, huge potential, and the market is quite warm towards internet products from China,” Lau said.
The messaging app has around 500m users in China and almost 1bn in total. Unlike most messaging apps in the West, it is far more than a mere communications service, but acts as a “portal” for thousands of different products, from payments to customer service.
The seven-biggest listed firms in the world by market capitalisation are now internet or technology companies-Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, Tencent, Facebook and Alibaba.
It is quite surprising that Alibaba with its recent gains did not beat Tecent to become the most valuable company in Asia.
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