Tencent Beats Apple To Top 2010 Tech Growth List

Although Apple has had a banner year on the back of its iPad launch, it's Chinese online tech and game operator Tencent that beat it out for the best growth in 2010, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.com's annual ranking. The rankings consider "share performance, sales and profit growth, return on equity, and workforce increases," and by these measures Tencent came out on top. It's one of the swiftest growing businesses in China, with its profits up 52 percent to 2.15 billion yuan ($325 million) in the latest quarter alone. Tencent made the top of the list despite the fact its current market capitalization is $42.4 billion, versus Apple's much larger $295 billion. In addition to the company's massive instant messaging service QQ -- which, according to Bloomberg's report, has 18 times the number of Chinese subscribers as Microsoft's MSN -- Tencent's interactive entertainment division develops and hosts a catalog of online games. These include shooters like Cross Fire, MMOs such as World of Fantasy, and a collection of casual and social online games. The company also has a multi-SKU licensing deal with middleware provider Emergent. Tencent's shares have seen a twenty-fold increase over the past five years, its profits doubled last year, and it is expected to continue growing and becoming increasingly dominant in China, according to Bloomberg's data. One element that could potentially impede the explosive pace of growth for Tencent and other massive internet companies in China is the involvement of government regulators, which will watch to insure individual firms don't become too powerful and that fair competition remains possible.