Tencent Chairman and CEO Pony Ma Huateng speaks during a big data expo in Guiyang, China, during May 2017. Tencent is the largest Chinese web portal in China. Alibaba Group Executive Chairman Jack Ma speaks during a technology trade fair in Hannover, Germany, during March 2015.
China's tech giants are drawing a line in the sand in Southeast Asia. From internet heavyweight Alibaba to smartphone maker Xiaomi, Chinese companies have singled out the region as a critical market to push back against their Japanese, South Korean and U.S. rivals. The 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have a population of more than 620 million. And whoever can cultivate the region through smartphone adoption, internet commerce and other spreading technologies will have prime access to one of the world's most important generators of growth over the next two decades. The Chinese Way Over the past five years and with the government's help, China's tech giants have become household names. Its internet trinity — Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent — now have a combined market capitalization of over $1 trillion.
