Tencent beats Alibaba as China’s largest tech company
Revenues of CNY67.686m ($10.207m) for H1 2016, up 48% from the previous year, boosted Tencent's share price by 5%, allowing it to overtake rival Alibaba for the first time, according to Seeking Alpha. Tencent's investment in mobile game studio Supercell and integration of QQ Music with China Music Corporation were cited as two major highlights of Q2, while its YoY figures were all positive. Value-added services business revenue rose by 39%, while performance-based advertising grew by 80%, and revenue from other businesses increased 275%.

Tencent has overtaken Alibaba as China’s most valuable tech company after revenues increased by 52 per cent in just one quarter.

The company announced its results yesterday, revealing that its revenues reached RMB67,686 million ($10,207 million) for the first half of 2016, a 48 per cent increase compared to the year before.

According to Seeking Alpha, this has pushed the tech business to be the top in China as share price rose 5 per cent, overtaking Alibaba for the first time.

Mr. Ma Huateng, Chairman and CEO of Tencent, highlighted its investment in Supercell as a highlight from the quarter.

“During the second quarter, we sustained solid growth in our platforms and businesses, including our social and media platforms, games, digital content, advertising, and payment services. We executed strategic initiatives to strengthen our ecosystem and to reinforce our ability to bring best-in-class entertainment content to our users. For example, we integrated QQ Music with China Music Corporation to create the leading online music platform in China, which should help consumers to discover new music, artists to reach more fans, and record labels to drive fresh business models.

And we invested in Supercell, the world’s leading mobile game studio, expanding our upstream presence in the global game industry and bringing us closer to hundreds of millions of game players globally. We believe high quality content, coupled with Tencent’s user base, distribution capability and targeted recommendation technology, position us and our partners to help develop the fast-changing digital entertainment market,” he said.

According to Tencent, its value added services business revenue increased 39 per cent year-on-year, online games revenue increased 32 per cent year-on-year and social networks revenue increased 57 per cent year-on-year.

Overall its online advertising business revenue increased 60 per cent year-on-year, of which performance-based advertising revenue increased 80 per cent and brand display advertising increased 41 per cent year-on-year. Revenue from other businesses increased 275 per cent during the same period.