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China's Tencent Breaks Through $500bn Stock Market Capitalisation (bbc.com)

Posted by msmash on from the changing-market-dynamics dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report: The value of China's biggest social network company -- Tencent Holdings -- has overtaken that of Facebook. The company owns WeChat, an enormously popular messaging app in China, and hit gaming franchises such as League of Legends and Honour of Kings.It is the first Asian firm to surpass a market value of $500bn. Its chief executive, Ma Huateng, is now worth more than the founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, according to Forbes. The magazine valued him at $48.3bn on Tuesday, making him the world's ninth richest man according to its ranking.

33 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. We're so screwed. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    China will rule the world someday. It's inevitable. They have a much larger population than us and they're sneaky. Even with birth control, they can coast to world domination. Our only hope is if China and India get involved in a thermonuclear exchange.

    1. Re:We're so screwed. by HornWumpus · · Score: 2

      Tencent's latest earnings (I can find) are 2.7 billion.

      PE ratio of 185!

      Who is screwed? Tencent's investors are screwed!

      If that's you, take your profits and RUN.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    2. Re:We're so screwed. by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      If only the United States was a global power open to Global Trade.

      The reason that during most of the 20th century that China was out of global influence is the fact they were Isolated China First mentality. So rest of the world grew and advanced ahead of them, then when they realized it, they were far behind and it took decades to get caught back up. Economic success is tied to number of workers and number of customers. China then (and the US now) is closed to having customers, because they want to be closed off from the world and their scary ideas they have, and trying to make a deal that may not have a good short term but an incalculable long term benefit.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    3. Re:We're so screwed. by Joviex · · Score: 1

      Tencent's latest earnings (I can find) are 2.7 billion.

      PE ratio of 185!

      Who is screwed? Tencent's investors are screwed!

      If that's you, take your profits and RUN.

      Yeah, and? Their EPS as of Jun 2017 was 0.28. That means their PEG is around 660.

      How, exactly, is that not a huge growth indicator? lol.

    4. Re:We're so screwed. by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      Tencent's latest earnings (I can find) are 2.7 billion.

      PE ratio of 185!

      Tencent is a growth stock. They are reinvesting their cashflow into expanding their market share. Investors should prefer a high PE as long as the company is growing faster than alternative investments, and Tencent certainly is.

      Have you ever grown apple trees? By the second or third year, they will start to produce blossoms, and if you leave those blossoms alone, you may even get a handful of apples. But if you are smart, you pluck off the blossoms, so the tree can put its resources into stronger roots, a bigger trunk and more branches instead. That way instead of a handful of apples today, you will get bushels of apples in the future.

    5. Re:We're so screwed. by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      That's their earnings with 1 billion users.

      So your right, to get down to a fair PE ratio all you have to do is assume they will grow to have about 20 billion users, while maintaining the same profits! I wish them luck.

      Take your profits and RUN!

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    6. Re:We're so screwed. by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      1 billion current users.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    7. Re:We're so screwed. by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      1 billion current users.

      There is no question that Tencent has plenty of eyeballs, but they are still struggling for market share in many areas that are likely be very profitable in the future. When your laolao whips out her cellphone to buy some baozi from a street vendor, does she use Wechat Wallet, or Alipay? Tencent would be foolish to surrender market share to "cash in" on a rapidly growing opportunity.

      People said the same thing about Google and Facebook, which both went for years without generating profits. Yet look at them today. Amazon has a PE of 265, which is reasonable since they are rapidly expanding into new markets, such a groceries, same day delivery, and new cloud services.

      There is a time to plant seeds, a time to grow, and a time to harvest.

    8. Re:We're so screwed. by Solandri · · Score: 1

      What matters isn't population or even GDP. It's GDP per capita - how much productivity each citizen is producing on average. This represents how much useful economic work each citizen can produce in a year. It mostly depends on their country's regulatory and living environment. Countries with better protection laws (to protect laborers) and business-friendly laws (to encourage business development) tend to have very high GDP per capita. Repressive societies tend to have very low GDP per capita. (Countries with disproportionately high natural resources like oil also tend to be high, since each citizen can accomplish more economic work with less effort acquiring and selling said resource.)

      The U.S. is currently up around $57k per year per capita. Most of Europe is around $40k-$50k per year per capita, indicating that while Europe's socialist laws create a fairer society, they come at the cost of slightly lower overall productivity. China isn't even close at $8k per year per capita. Even Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea are stuck at about $30k-$38k, probably because their rigid cultural social structure inhibits the fluid movement of workers to jobs they're better suited for and would like to do. An unhappy worker is a less productive worker.

    9. Re:We're so screwed. by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Commodity business that will generate commodity returns, optimistically. More likely will always remain too competitive to monetize. Where is the 20x growth in earnings going to come from?

      I don't have a penny in Amazon either. But that's a much better bet. At least their financials are somewhat audited.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    10. Re:We're so screwed. by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Those GDP per capita comparisions don't realy make sense.

      E.g. a good mobile internet connection Thailand costs you 500 Baht per month ($5)
      I assume in the USA it is around $30 - $50.

      So an mobile internet user in the US is contributing/creating $30 to its GDP per caipta while a Thai is inly contributing $5 (for a better service).

      Or take asuoer expensive hospital bill in the US, $90.000 for some simple operation that inly costs $10,000 in germany ...

      You can find hundrets of examples where you realize that GDP per capita is a meaningless metric.

      Simply double all the prices, or quatruple them, like the greek did, and you have increased you GPD, without any change in amount of provided services or produced goods.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
  2. At least we know what our post-Facebook world by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 3, Interesting

    At least we know what our post-Facebook world will look like now. We can all plan to bore our grandkids with tales of "Silicon Valley" when American software mattered.

    1. Re: At least we know what our post-Facebook world by WindBourne · · Score: 1

      Wow. I'm no fan of Chinese gov, but yours and others racists and stupid postings get old, esp with lies. Trump said that he would stop China from dumping/etc and instead is not only NOT doing what promised, but now his tax reform will be better for companies that import from China. 10% to bring money offshore here, but had they kept it here, it would have been 20-35%. It is you far right fascists along with the far left extremists that are destroying the west.

      --
      I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    2. Re: At least we know what our post-Facebook world by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      hahaha, the Chinese are Trump's customers and business partners.

  3. What? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

    hit gaming franchises such as League of Legends and Honour of Kings

    So people in China play LoLaHoK instead of LoL?

    Has Riot Games tried to sue the company that made LoLaHoK?

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
    1. Re:What? by Desler · · Score: 1

      Why would Riot Games sue its owner?

    2. Re:What? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      Sometimes I make stupid posts by design, sometimes it happens by mistake! It's it wonderful?

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    3. Re:What? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      Let's go with "I missed the part where Tencent owns Riot".

      Yeah, that's what happened.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    4. Re:What? by Desler · · Score: 1

      You do realize there’s this thing called a “search engine“ where you could find out such facts before spouting bullshit right?

    5. Re:What? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      You do realize that China keeps copying things done in other countries, right? Including stealing company and product names?

      I just assumed the usual happened and this one time I was wrong.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
  4. Re:Communism? by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

    It's just stupid to claim to be from such a murderous bunch.

    If they don't kill at least a few million soon, they're going to have to change party names.

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  5. Re:Tencent is an appropriate name... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    This is amusing. Because your "high quality" crap in the West is literally manufactured in China and repackaged with a nice glossy exterior in the West and resold to you for a 1000% markup.

  6. It's high time we let another country take the lea by edris90 · · Score: 1

    The USA main problem is that as a country, we are bad sports. We have a bad habit of glorification of our own views, while demonizing others, gives us the same effect as a selfish child demanding that they should get all the turns and nobody else gets any. And what has it gotten us, a steady decline of of happiness, sanity and increase in desperation The further we continue with being power checked the faster we accelerate on our race to the bottom. Won't somebody ground the USA before we run out of feet to shoot ourselves in?

  7. Re: It's high time we let another country take the by edris90 · · Score: 2

    Correction. The further the USA continue s unchecked the faster our acceleration in our social y promoted race to the bottom. The USA is a danger to itself and others. It needs to be be placed in protective custody, to give the rest of the world a chance to recover

  8. Re: At least we know what our post-Facebook worl by edris90 · · Score: 1

    To be fair, the western hemisphere has shit all over everything for some couple hundred years. If anything for our species to progress, western culture will have to end. It's far to effecttive at wasting and destroying resources and efforts. If I was Darth Vader, then the USA would be my Boba Fett

  9. Re: At least we know what our post-Facebook wor by edris90 · · Score: 1

    Or to put it another, the USA is to the world as hell v and s to the human body. Subversive, effecttive, efficient, and deadly as fuck

  10. Re: At least we know what our post-Facebook wo by edris90 · · Score: 1

    Damn autocorrect. The USA is to the world as HIV is to the human body.

  11. China is watching by boudie2 · · Score: 1

    Does anyone else find it interesting that the Chinese government blocks access to google, wikipedia, linkedin, facebook and about 3000 others but yet you can visit slashdot?
    http://viewdns.info/chinesefir...

  12. Re: At least we know what our post-Facebook worl by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

    You correctly identified him as a troll, and yet you post a wall of text?

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  13. Re: It's high time we let another country take the by lazarus · · Score: 1

    Protectionism is the last bastion of a society that is losing the game of globalization. When we were on top we derided those who acted the way that we do now.

    I'm not Noah Draper, and if you had any balls at all you wouldn't be posted as AC. Calling out another AC poster perfectly demonstrates the typical hypocritical bullshit that passes for discussion here now. Did 4chan close or something?

    --
    I am not interested in articles about life extension advancements.
  14. Cashless payments by jbmartin6 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The huge value of WeChat is its widespread use as a payment app. One can pay with WeChat almost everywhere in large Chinese cities and even out into the remote areas. in Shanghai there are a lot of restaurants which only take WeChat or AliPay, and don't accept other payment methods at all. A lot of smaller vendors especially now only take WeChat/AliPay or cash, no cards. I think this is the real center of that valuation, not the chat/social media aspects.

    --
    This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
  15. Re:Tencent is an appropriate name... by Hal_Porter · · Score: 1

    The only redeeming quality about China is a lack of Muslims.

    Uyghur, please.

    --
    echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
  16. Re: At least we know what our post-Facebook worl by Hal_Porter · · Score: 1

    Is he a Canadian by any chance? You can't trust those maple syrup guzzling seal clubbers!

    --
    echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;