Tencent Holdings Limited (SEHK: 700) is a publicly owned holding company whose subsidiaries provide Internet and mobile phone value-added services and operate online advertising services in the People's Republic of China. Its headquarters are in Nanshan District, Shenzhen.
Tencent's diverse services include social networks, web portals, e-commerce, and multiplayer online games. It operates the well-known instant messenger Tencent QQ and runs one of the largest web portals in China, QQ.com.
As of December 31, 2010, there were 647.6 million active Tencent QQ IM user accounts, making Tencent QQ the world's largest online community. The number of simultaneously online QQ accounts has sometimes exceeded 100 million.
As of November 2010, the company is the third largest Internet company in the world behind Google and Amazon with a market capitalization of US$38 billion. Other big, Chinese Internet companies include Sina and Baidu.
Tencent was founded by Ma Huateng and Zhang Zhidong in November 1998 as Tencent Inc, with money from venture capitalists. It remained unprofitable for the first three years.