ChinaVirtuoso

POWERED by Chinese smartphone users splurging billions on mobile games and online shopping, tech giants Tencent and Alibaba are racing up the elite league of the world’s most valuable companies.



Hong Kong-listed Tencent, famous for its games and WeChat messaging service, became the first Asian firm to break into the US$500 billion league last week — briefly overtaking Facebook as the world’s fifth biggest company by market value.

Alibaba is just a few billion shy of joining its Chinese competitor at the top table of public listings — and is already there when taking into account its private affiliates. While the top five — Apple, Google’s parent company Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook — thrive across the world, the two Chinese firms have made their fortunes by cornering China’s own vast market of 750 million Internet users.

Tencent and Alibaba do have a major advantage over American rivals because China severely restricts access to its Internet, with Facebook and Google kept outside the “Great Firewall.”

Alibaba, meanwhile, has dominated the e-commerce market, with Chinese consumers flocking to its shopping platforms to buy everything from laundry detergent to Boeing 747s.

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