All fun and games for tech giant Tencent
Company joins ranks of Apple, Facebook and Alphabet as it cements its dominant position in key content categories
Just when you thought Tencent couldn’t get hotter, its results (for the first quarter, this time) have yet again sent market analysts into a frenzy about the future of the tech gorilla. With a market capitalisation north of US$300bn, the Shenzen-based company has joined the ranks of the world’s most valuable tech firms, including Apple, Facebook and Google parent Alphabet. Of the 50-odd Bloomberg analysts who rate the share, 48 have it as a "Buy" and two as a "Hold". It is in this context that Terry Pratchett’s famous quote comes to mind: "Always remember that the crowd that applauds your coronation is the same crowd that will applaud your beheading. People like a show." WeChat is China’s biggest messaging service. It has been able to achieve this due in part to China’s strict censorship laws. Facebook has been banned for seven years, and Google and Twitter have failed in that market. "There is that advantage," says De Bruyn, "but they also just know their market very well. This has...
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