There's a new king of Chinese tech
The investment holding company, which owns instant messaging app WeChat and other internet businesses, posted strong results on Wednesday that saw its market cap rise to $249 billion (£189 billion), ahead of Alibaba's $246 billion (£187 billion) valuation.
Profit at Tencent, founded in 1998 by Ma Huateng and Zhang Zhidong, climbed 47% to 10.9 billion yuan ($1.6 billion; £1.2 billion) in the company's second quarter. Revenue for the same period came in at 35.69 billion yuan ($5.38 billion; £4.09 billion), rising 52% year-on-year.
The majority of Tencent's revenue in the second quarter came from online gaming, with the division accounting for 17.124 billion yuan ($2.6 billion; £2.0 billion) of the company's total revenues. The company was part of a consortium that acquired a majority stake in Clash of Clans creator Supercell in June.
Shares in Tencent - listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange - soared by over 6% to a record high after the company's earnings were reported.
Tencent owns a number of highly popular online properties including web portal QQ.com, Tencent QQ instant messenger, and auction site Pai.Pai.com.