Tencent (Chinese: 腾讯; pinyin: Téngxùn) is a Chinese multinational investment holding conglomerate founded in 1998, whose subsidiaries specialize in various Internet-related services and products, entertainment, artificial intelligence and technology both in China and globally. Tencent’s core businesses are online gaming, music streaming platforms, internet-based value-added services (VAS), ecommerce, social networks and financial services.
The company is best known for its messaging app WeChat which has become the most widely used social media platform in mainland China with over 1 billion users as of 2020. It also owns QQ which is another popular messaging service among Chinese users. In addition to this it operates several other mobile apps such as Tenpay, QQ Music and Mobile QQ Browser.
In terms of cryptocurrency Tencent provides various blockchain solutions through its subsidiary called TrustSQL including technologies such as smart contracts that can be used by companies to develop distributed applications on public or private blockchains. The firm has also invested in several blockchain projects like VeChain Thor Blockchain Platform that uses an “Authority Masternode” system to secure the network against malicious actors while allowing high throughput transactions at low cost payments for enterprise customers. Furthermore it launched a crypto wallet app called WeBank Digital Bank based on its own proprietary technologywhich allows users to store different types of cryptocurrencies securely within their accounts without any dependency on third parties for storage or security purposes.
