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  • You can do almost anything you want now on just one single device.

  • But in China, well, you can do almost anything you want on just one single app.

  • And the company behind it all is Tencent.

  • Not only is it China's biggest social network, but it's the largest gaming company in the world.

  • And now it's the fifth largest internet company on the planet.

  • It's joined Apple, Amazon, and Facebook on the list of massive tech companies that

  • have passed $500 billion dollars in market cap, making it Asia's first company to do this.

  • Just a day later, Tencent actually surpassed Facebook in market value.

  • So what's behind this massive conglomerate coming out of China?

  • Tencent is a Chinese investment holding conglomerate with many, many, many subsidiaries.

  • They include social networks, payment systems, media, entertainment,

  • smartphones, e-commerce, property, advertising. And there's still more.

  • The company's stock is up more than 11,000 percent

  • since it went public in 2004 on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

  • And if you have ever said the words, "Wouldn't it be nice if there was an app that could..."

  • Chances are, Tencent already has it.

  • At the center of the giant conglomerate is one app, Weixin, known as WeChat outside of China.

  • Think of it like a Facebook meets WhatsApp, meets Venmo, and CandyCrush, and Tinder, and Amazon.

  • And then there's still other functions

  • like booking a doctor's appointment, or finding out how densely crowded a location is.

  • The number of people on WeChat is now closing in on one billion users.

  • So how did WeChat become so popular?

  • You often hear about the mobile-first markets.

  • In the U.S., back in 1999, there were about 50 computers for every 100 people.

  • In China, there was about one computer for every 100 people.

  • That means most people in China first became acquainted with the internet through this device.

  • Fast forward to today, where the total number of mobile users is approaching the same number

  • of total internet users. Now, using an email address is pretty rare for Chinese consumers.

  • The preferred way to communicate is chat apps. And it's not just for friends and family.

  • It's a common way for people to do business, using the app with colleagues and even strangers, too.

  • If you go back to the early 2000s, you'll see Tencent anticipated chat apps' popularity.

  • And it's paid off.

  • Ma Huateng and his co-founders started Tencent in Shenzhen, China's tech capital, back in 1998.

  • The company was created to meet the demand of China's growing internet cafes,

  • and made most of its early money from online games and a text messaging service.

  • Now, Ma Huateng is the country's second richest man and worth an estimated $42.3 billion.

  • That's more than the founders of Google, making him the world's ninth richest man.

  • And he can thank Tencent's enormous footprint for that wealth.

  • Tencent has acquired and invested in so many companies, it's almost impossible to figure out

  • where it starts and where it ends.

  • First, there's the social networks. In addition to WeChat, there's QQ,

  • with more than 861 million monthly active users. For some perspective, that's more than Instagram.

  • Then there's the multiple digital payment platforms it claims

  • and WeChat Pay may be its first foray outside of China.

  • Entertainment is also a big part of it. Tencent is actually the biggest computer game publisher in the world,

  • bigger than U.S. game publisher EA Arts and Activision Blizzard combined.

  • And if that's not enough, there's its information and news portals, its cloud providers,

  • and its recent move into artificial intelligence too.

  • Like its rival Alibaba, Tencent now has its eyes beyond China's 1.4 billion people.

  • The company has invested in American companies including tech juggernauts Tesla and Snapchat.

  • And it's even invested in companies that are testing out flying cars and asteroid mining.

  • The company announced it will roll out its WeChat payment services in Malaysia

  • after it gained an e-payment license.

  • It's the first time the company has gained a license like this to expand outside of China.

  • Tencent is also planning to get its massively popular video game, King of Glory, into the U.S.

  • As it's known, Western companies have a hard time getting into China.

  • But things aren't much easier, for Chinese internet companies trying to expand globally.

  • But if Tencent continues to grow and break records at its current pace,

  • well, it could put it head-to-head with some of Silicon Valley's biggest names.

You can do almost anything you want now on just one single device.

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