Tencent says will step up investment overseas and in smart retail

[BEIJING] Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings said it will step up its investment overseas and in industries such as "smart retail", having already invested in more than 800 companies.

Those firms include 70 listed companies and over 160 are valued at more than US$1 billion, according a speech made by Tencent president Martin Lau at a conference last week which the company posted on its social media account on Monday.

Tencent is known to have stakes in firms such as food delivery giant Meituan Dianping, e-commerce site Pinduoduo and video game companies such as Riot Games and Supercell.

But the company, worth US$490 billion and the second-biggest company in Asia by market value after arch-rival Alibaba Group Holdings, rarely gives an overview or discloses details of its investment activities.

"Previously our traditional investment sectors were mostly focused on video games content and frontiers of science and technology," Mr Lau told a gathering of more than 500 Tencent-backed companies.

"However, with the development of Tencent's WeChat mini-app ecosystem and payment platform, we will pay more attention to smart retail and payment platforms in future," he said.

REUTERS