Tencent has increased its investments in overseas start-ups more than sevenfold this year, fuelling a global expansion by China’s most valuable company as Beijing tightens regulatory scrutiny on tech groups.
The social media, gaming and fintech group struck a record 16 deals in Europe, bringing its total number of international investments to 34 for the first six months of 2021, according to data from Refinitiv. That compared with four overseas deals in the same period in 2020 and three in 2019.
Tencent’s overseas push came as Chinese regulators have cracked down on many of its core business areas such as gaming. “Stricter regulation and declining growth rates in China have led to more Chinese companies as a whole targeting the overseas market,” said Daniel Ahmad, a gaming analyst at Niko Partners.