Watch a timeline of Tencent—one of China's earliest tech giants—despite the company's low profile.

Read an overview of Tencent's biggest business moments, from the 2011 WeChat launch to streaming deal with Universal Music Group.

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 holding more than 80 companies with valuations exceeding $1B.

See a breakdown of every single video game Tencent has invested in.

Read a breakdown of WeChat, the central technology in Tencent's empire that boasts roughly 1.4 billion users and hosts e-commerce, payment, and messaging services all in one place.

In 2018, Tencent's market capitalization hit $580B, surpassing Facebook (now Meta) for the first time.

See a breakdown of Tencent's revenue streams, which include fintech, advertising, games, and social.

Listen to an interview with Tencent's chief financial officer Arthur Wang to hear how the company is leveraging to AI to stay ahead of the technological curve.

Watch a tour of Tencent's sprawling headquarters, focused on tech and health, located in China.

Understanding TikTok-owner ByteDance's business model

ByteDance has ridden TikTok's major success to become the world's most valuable startup. This deep dive showcases some of the company's smartest moves and tactics, and where it's headed next.

A timeline and visuals on TikTok's rapid growth

The app that would become TikTok is known as Douyin in China, and this article recounts its history, acquisition of rival Musical.ly, and rebranding ahead of its lightning growth. One visualization shows how quickly TikTok reached 1B users.

Temu was born out of a Chinese company that, at the time, was called Pinduoduo

Today, the company is called PDD Holdings, and owns both Temu and its very similar sister app in China, Pinduoduo.

Owned by Tencent, WeBank was China's first digital bank and services 340 million customers.

WeChat has become China's primary news platform, due to expansive user base and legacy media's adoption of the platform.

TikTok is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms of all time

Centered around user-generated short videos, the platform was created by the Chinese technology company ByteDance Ltd. With over 1.8 billion users, the app has become a global force.

Former Temu CEO Colin Huang is among China's richest people

With a $43.3B net worth as of September 2025, Huang was the founder of PDD Holdings, Temu’s parent company.

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.

Creating a digital alternative to the traditional Chinese 'red envelope' payments helped spur WeChat's financial services growth, and helped it become a 'superapp.'

Created when Tencent launched the first version of its internet messaging platform, QQ, the company's winking penguin has become a ubiquitous cultural presence in China.

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.

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.

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.

China is making a deliberate push towards becoming a cashless society, making digital payment services like Tencent's WeBank even more valuable.

The evolution of X, from startup to Musk-owned giant, reflects rapid tech shifts

Twitter began in 2006 as a side project and grew into a major global platform, widely used for news, activism, and political discourse. Despite mainstream success, it faced ongoing management turmoil, business struggles, and rising concerns over misinformation and user safety.

Many of the top companies in the US by market cap began as tech startups

Combined, the top seven companies by market cap in the US as of December 2024—Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Tesla—were worth more than $16T at the time.