Battle of the Social Media Companies: Facebook vs. Tencent

Tencent Holdings Ltd. (TCEHY)  hit another major milestone Tuesday when it became the first Asia listed tech company to reach a market valuation of $500 billion, besting rival Alibaba Holding Ltd  (BABA) - Get Report  and topping Facebook Inc. (FB) - Get Report  in the emerging battle for global social media dominance.

Tencent shares closed 2.38% higher in Hong Kong trading at HK$430 each, extending their year-to-date gain past 125% and giving the company a market capitalisation of just over HK$4.08 billion ($522 billion), edging past Facebook's close of $519 billion and Alibaba's $484.5 billion.

The stock has risen more than 11% since China's internet gaming giant -- and significant Snap Inc. (SNAP) - Get Report  shareholder -- posted much stronger-than-expected third quarter earnings on Thursday Nov. 16 and pledged to stoke investment into its lucrative online content machine.

How do Tencent and Facebook compare? Let's take a look at the numbers.

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