HONG KONG/TOKYO -- For Tencent Holdings, 2018 was a record year for investment. The Chinese internet company splashed out 40.9 billion yuan ($6.1 billion) to buy stakes in companies across a wide range of industries -- from e-commerce to online gaming, media to investment banking.
"Investment is Tencent's core strategy," President Martin Lau Chi-ping told investors in Beijing in February. Lau, the right-hand man of Pony Ma Huateng, co-founding chairman and CEO, said the tech conglomerate has invested in over 700 companies since 2008 -- a whopping 122 of which are now valued over $1 billion, either as listed companies or unlisted unicorns.
