Tencent's revenue streams include fintech, advertising, games, and social

How Tencent became one of the world's most valuable social network firms

With 1.4 billion users on WeChat, Tencent passed Facebook in 2018 in terms of market capitalization ($580B as of May 2025). However, while Facebook relies almost entirely (98%) on advertising for revenue, Tencent's growth relies on diverse revenue streams from video games, e-commerce, and more.

Tencent is the world's largest video game publisher

Despite mainly being known for its 1.4 billion WeChat users, Tencent has quietly expanded its video game empire to include more than 600 investments. These include 100% ownership of Riot Games (maker of League of Legends) and 30% of Epic Games (Fortnite), two of the most popular online video games.

Tour Tencent's sprawling headquarters focused on tech and health

Tencent has a massive headquarters in China to match its sizable market capitalization. Featuring 40% less carbon consumption and emissions, the building features facial recognition for security, swimming pools and a fitness track, time management apps, and more.

Tencent—one of China's earliest tech giants

While not as well-known as Temu or Shein, Tencent began as an early internet messaging platform. Over three decades, it expanded to digital payments, video games, and more, becoming the first-ever Chinese company to surpass $500B in value.

An interview with WeBank’s CFO

Leveraging Tencent's massive WeChat network, WeBank started as China's first digital bank and now serves 340 million users and 2.8 million businesses (as of 2024). Chief Financial Officer Arthur Wang discusses how the company is using AI and continuous innovation to stay ahead of the technological curve.

'Red envelope' payments spurred WeChat's financial services growth

What started as a messaging platform morphed into much more with the advent of so-called red envelope payments, where friends, colleagues, and acquaintances recreate an age-old Chinese custom with the tap of a finger. The viral custom helped WeChat expand its digital payment services, effectively becoming a “superapp.”

What's the difference between QQ, WeChat, and Weixin?

Tencent owns QQ, Weixin, and WeChat—three separate apps serving different users. QQ launched in 1999 as a youth-focused messenger. Weixin (for China) and WeChat (international) are technically the same app, but split to comply with regional regulations, especially around data and payments.

As of 2024, server products and cloud services make up 40% of Microsoft's revenue

These products generated $97.7B in the 2023-24 fiscal year, followed by office products and cloud services, which accounted for $54.9B during the same period. The fastest-growing revenue source was gaming at 39%, driven by sales of Xbox and first-party software.

Over half of Nvidia’s revenue comes from outside the US

This chart breaks down where Nvidia’s revenue comes from—both in terms of which business segments it’s generated by and in which countries. Most of Nvidia’s revenue stems from its computing segment, which includes billions spent by companies building AI.

How TSMC, the world's biggest chip manufacturer, makes money

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company has more than 500 clients across the world, but none are bigger or more consequential to its business than Apple. The iPhone maker accounts for 25% of TSMC's total revenue. TSMC controls more than 60% of the global market share in semiconductor manufacturing. Dive into the economics and outlook of this important company here.

Peloton makes most of its money via monthly subscriptions

Peloton has two core revenue streams: the exercise equipment it sells and the company's monthly subscription that gives users access to its class library. More than half of Peloton's revenue comes from the company's core product, the monthly subscription. Its "Peloton App+" membership tier is $28.99 per month.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew on its future

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew dives into how the trendsetting video app and cultural phenomenon works, from what distinguishes its algorithm and drives viral videos, to the challenges of content moderation and digital addiction in this wide-ranging conversation with the head of TED, Chris Anderson.

Targeted ads accounted for 80% of Google's parent company's total revenue in 2020

Ads in Google Search, YouTube, and other products brought in $147B for Alphabet, with ad click costs ranging from $7 to several hundred dollars. YouTube's ad revenue alone jumped 49% year-over-year in one quarter.

The NFL makes most of its money through media licensing deals

The NFL, which reportedly earned more than $20B in 2023, generates its revenue through several key streams. The largest comes from media licensing deals, where networks and streaming platforms pay billions for the rights to broadcast games. Corporate sponsorships are another major contributor.

Fintech relies on technology, not physical location, to serve financial customers

Most of the industry's prominent players were created since 2010, and are still in a growth phase. These institutions have broadly disrupted traditional banking and have pushed physical banking locations toward obsolescence.

Apple's future will likely continue to incorporate mixed reality hardware and AI

Although the majority of Apple's profits come from iPhone, iPad, and Mac sales, CEO Tim Cook has overseen a diversification of products since the acquisition of the Beats headphone brand in 2014, including the launch of the Apple Card, Apple TV, and the Vision Pro headset.

The streamer no longer just offers TV and movies

As a means of keeping existing subscribers engaged, and to add new users on the margins, the streaming service began releasing its own original video games. Many are based on existing Netflix titles and franchises. See their current offerings here.

China operates multiple different sovereign wealth funds, primarily backed by profits from a trade surplus

Unlike other countries that primarily use profits from natural resources, China's sovereign wealth funds are fueled by the country's mounting trade surplus. Among the two largest are the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) fund and the Chinese Investment Corporation (CIC). China also operates the Silk Road Fund, a strategic investment initiative that backs infrastructure creation in developing countries.

Roughly 39% of Visa's revenue comes from data processing fees.

Visa gets roughly 0.13% to 0.14% of each transaction. About 32% of its revenue stems from the money banks pay Visa to use its services, and roughly 26% of its revenue comes from international transaction fees.

See a timeline of all of Elon Musk's business ventures

From the software company Zip2 in the 1990s to Musk's Twitter acquisition (which he later renamed X), Elon Musk has run, founded, and invested in many different businesses over the past three decades.

Temu works with individual sellers who list and promote their products on the platform

Temu not only takes a roughly 5% to 15% commission rate, but also earns the money its sellers pay to advertise their products on the Temu platform.

Here is a visualization of the creator economy as an ecosystem

From social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok, to major advertisers paying influencers to promote their brands, to the consumers watching online content, quite a few engines have to keep firing to make the creator economy run smoothly.

Revenue from tariffs goes to the US Treasury’s general fund

That's also where federal income taxes go. Revenue from tariffs can be spent on almost anything the government needs, such as funding programs like Medicare or the military.

Look inside a retail investor's portfolio

Online investing platform eToro conducted a survey of retail investors in June 2024. It explored what assets they held and what types of stocks they liked to purchase. The most commonly held asset was cash, with 76% of retail investors holding cash in their portfolios. The next most popular asset was domestic stocks, with 49% of investors.

Ranking the world's highest paid athletes in 2022

The top 100 highest-paid athletes in the world include players from 10 sports and 24 countries. They earned $4.46 billion in total income, including $3.24 billion in salary and prize money, as well…

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

SpaceX's S-1 or 'prospectus' revealed many previously unknown details about the company, including its unprofitability despite doing $18.7B in revenue in 2025, exactly how many voting shares Elon Musk will have in the company (roughly 85%), and more.

The Nasdaq's 'Magnificent 7' companies are responsible for roughly 40% of the Nasdaq 100 index's gains, while the remaining 93 companies account for the other 60%.

Hedge funds, the private investment firms that trade a wide swath of financial assets, make money by imposing steep fees on investors and from the fund's investment performance.

Calculate how much of your tax dollars go to each federal program based on your income, filing status, and number of children

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

This site reaches millions of visitors who are tired of AI chatbots and seeking human connection. Pretend to be an AI chatbot and ask questions, provide answers, and draw for people in real time.

US consumers collectively owe more than $1T to credit card companies—almost as much as they owe in auto loans.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

Play the role of a student in a game where you try to navigate college and remain debt-free, selecting different income levels, high school experience, race, ethnicity, and more.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

In 2026, Finland was named the world's happiest country for the ninth consecutive year based on its wealth, social safety network, and high life expectancy, among other factors.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

The most expensive ad of all time was for Chanel No. 5 perfume and cost roughly $33M to produce in 2004—about $57M in today's dollars.

NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama spent the 2025 summer training with monks in central China to enhance his body and mind.

The identity of the Tank Man in the iconic photo from the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests remains unknown and was possibly killed.

Bone marrow (soft tissue found inside certain bones) generates roughly 500 billion new blood cells each day

Budweiser stores yeast derived from the original 1800s strain in a secret bunker, which only the Head of Yeast Management can access—not even the CEO

Some renewable energy sources may weaken the resiliency of electric grids by removing outage buffers provided by coal- and natural gas-fired plants, which provide the system with more time to find a new power source if a plant goes down.

Fish populations in the Great Barrier Reef have increased after installing waterproof speakers on the ocean floor that played recordings of sounds from healthy coral reefs.

See how Ebola tore through Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia in 2014-2016.

According to the physics of black holes, our 4D reality may be a hologram—a projection of information coded on a 2D surface on the edge of the universe.