China's social media superpower
Anyone who has been paying attention over recent years will have noticed Facebook becoming one of the world's most powerful and valuable companies, with an extraordinary and sometimes malign impact on the way we live.
But in the West at least far fewer people will have noticed the rise of Tencent. Yet this week, for a while, the Chinese tech giant surpassed the valuation of Facebook as investors reacted to another sparkling set of results.
I first came across the company five years ago when it set up a major operation in London to cover the 2012 Olympics for its vast social media audience. It was already clear that this was a company doing more innovative things with its platforms than the American social media platforms could manage.
Since then it has continued to expand into new territories and markets - just this week it brought its WeChat Pay service to both Malaysia and the UK.
Kitty Fok, managing director of research firm IDC China, tells us that social media isn't even Tencent's most lucrative business now. It comes in second after its gaming division which owns League of Legends maker Riot Games and most of Supercell, the firm behind Clash of Clans.
"Compared to Facebook which has the majority of its income coming from ads, Tencent provides a lot more variety of services to the market," she says. "And we're expecting it to diversify even more."
Image caption The WeChat service is now on show in London's V&A museum
Source:bbc news