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

Tencent surpassed Facebook in value in 2017

Tencent joined the $500B club (in terms of market capitalization) in 2017, overtaking Facebook at that point in terms of social media networks by value. This report from the time captures the rise of the company despite being relatively unknown outside of China.

A quick history of Tencent

The Chinese tech firm grew from a late 1990's internet messaging service to a globally influential conglomerate. It was China's first company to hit the $500B valuation mark, and now enjoys massive reach via WeChat, WeBank, and its robust investment portfolio.

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.

WeChat: The world's second-largest messaging platform

The central technology in Tencent's empire, WeChat boasts roughly 1.4 billion users and provides a platform for the company to expand its ambitions in digital payments, e-commerce, and more. Unlike rival WhatsApp (owned by Meta), WeChat was built as a "superapp"—a single place where users are provided a wide range of features.

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

Headquartered in China’s Shenzhen tech hub, Tencent currently generates revenue through services like WeChat, WeBank, and Tencent Games. Each of these services (and their associated sectors) made up roughly a third of Tencent’s 2024 annual revenue.

WeChat has become China's primary news platform

With an estimated 1.4 billion users worldwide, Tencent's messaging app WeChat has become the most effective distribution channel for news within China. As the company has grown, legacy media in the country have moved onto the platform, representing six of the top 10 WeChat accounts.

Age of Miracles: Why Tencent is the ultimate outsider

Tencent has relatively low name recognition outside of China, despite being the world's biggest video game publisher, operating a 1.4-billion-user messaging network, and much more. This podcast explores the business principles underpinning its success, from long-term vision to a unique investment portfolio.

As of 2025, Meta Platforms Inc. is the largest social media company in the world

Facebook alone has nearly three billion monthly active users, with advertising across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp generating 97% of Meta's revenue. Messenger adds more than 650,000 users a daily.

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.

TikTok boasts nearly 1.8B monthly users

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Understanding TikTok-owner ByteDance's business model

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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.

The world's 50 most valuable private companies

While public companies typically have the highest valuations, private companies get close. This list breaks down the top 50 as of 2025, with SpaceX at the top with a value of $350B, followed by ByteDance. Over three-fifths of the list are located in the US, with eight in China.

Facebook dominated US social ad spend in the first half of 2024

This data visualization shows the social media platforms where advertisers spent the most money in the first six months of 2024, with Facebook leading the pack taking home 36.3% of US social ad spend.

One Facebook investor turned $500K into $1B

Peter Thiel was Facebook's first big investor. In 2004, he invested $500K into the social network, long before the company owned Instagram or renamed itself "Meta." In 2012, when he sold off most of his stake, he turned that initial $500K investment into more than $1B in cash.

Meet China's "VICs," or Very Important Customers

High-volume spenders power China's economy. Despite making up just over 10% of consumers, they account for about 40% of consumer spending. WeChat has focused on these spenders to supercharge the expansion of its digital payments and e-commerce services.

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.

As of 2025, Wikipedia is one of the top 10 most-visited sites in the world

Alphabet Inc.'s Google search engine and YouTube received nearly 150 billion combined visits in November, followed by Facebook, ChatGPT, and Instagram, which each received over 5 billion visits during the same span. With 4.42 billion visits for the month, Wikipedia ranked just behind Reddit's 4.85 billion.

Walmart was the first traditional retailer to crack the $1T club

In early 2026, the company joined major tech companies Nvidia, Apple, and Meta (among others) as one of the rare firms with a market capitalization beyond $1T. See the latest top companies here.

Mark Zuckerberg credits some of Facebook's success to constant evolution

Before becoming the head of OpenAI, Sam Altman was the president of Y Combinator—a startup accelerator company that supported companies like Airbnb, DoorDash, and Coinbase. In 2016, Altman interviewed Zuckerberg about creating Facebook and its growth over time. Zuckerberg said that, unlike other companies (think: CourseMatch), Facebook kept growing and adding new features, which prevented the app from becoming obsolete.

View the list of most followed users on X

X, formerly Twitter, may now face more competition from rival social networks than ever, but it also had over 650 million active users as of early 2025. Elon Musk, Barack Obama, and Cristiano Ronaldo led the list of most-followed accounts then.

As of April 2022, a million people access Facebook on the dark web monthly

While those using an anonymized web browser, such as Tor, have been able to access the social network's .onion site since 2014, the announcement marks a major milestone by the tech giant, which has worked to ensure its users can bypass restrictions by various governments and continue visiting the site.

By 2024, Nvidia had become one of the world’s most valuable companies

Nvidia started as a graphics chip designer for PCs and consoles. This explainer traces its rise from early GPU innovation to powering AI breakthroughs and fueling the data centers behind today’s biggest tech platforms.

How Netflix changed TV

In April 2017, Netflix reached 100 million subscribers worldwide—a figure that hit 300 million by 2025. With 50 million in the US alone, it has revolutionized the way people consume entertainment. Newsweek takes a look into the company's history and how it became the dominant force in entertainment.

A small fraction of creators make money on YouTube

YouTube has become one of the world's leading entertainment platforms almost entirely on the back of users who upload their own content. An estimated 3.7 million new videos get uploaded to YouTube each day, but only a small, very popular fraction are able to make money from their content.

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.

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%.

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.

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.

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

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

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.

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.

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

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.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

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.

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

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

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

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.

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

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

The US Constitution is widely regarded as the longest-standing written national constitution still in force—see how it has influenced rights worldwide.

Some researchers have labeled nomophobia, the fear of being without your phone, as 'the phobia of the 21st century.'

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

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

See a 3D reconstruction of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that was home to an estimated population of 200,000 to 400,000.