Tencent Holdings Ltd, the operator behind China's biggest social media and chat service WeChat, continues to lead the social network space for months already. The Chinese technology firm's dominance has been spurred by the Chinese market's unwavering patronage for its services and Facebook's recent selloff.
Facebook's shares have slid more than 5 per cent since chief Mark Zuckerberg announced changes pertinent to the social media's news feed, particularly the plan to prioritise content from family and friends over businesses and media outlets.
Also read: Google set to revive presence in China
Tencent is currently leading with US$19bn more than Facebook, making it the most valuable social network company. In November 2017, Tencent ditched Zuckerberg's platform from the global top five, becoming the first Chinese company to join the ranks of Apple Inc, Alphabet Inc, Microsoft Corporation and Amazon.com.
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd tails behind Facebook and is well ahead of Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.
Investors are seeing Tencent on a great spot to leverage its billion users from music streaming to messaging to gaming spheres. Bloomberg reports it may soon evolve into an advertising and entertainment titan just like Facebook and Google.
Meanwhile, Tencent has recently forged a deal with Google. The patent licensing agreement between the two companies covers an array of products and services. However, neither Google nor Tencent outlined the scope of the said agreement as well as the financial terms.
