Investing.com - Hong Kong-listed technology giant Tencent Holdings Ltd (HK:0700) is investing $150 million in U.S. discussion platform Reddit, according to a Techcrunch report citing multiple unnamed sources.
The investment is part of a Series D fundraising round, the report said, adding that the investment could propel Reddit to a value of over $3 billion.
Some media later suggested that the investment created “a great deal of confusion,” as Reddit is currently blocked in China. Tencent also owns a stake in Snapchat, which is also blocked by China’s “Great Firewall,” the country’s network of internet censorship.
It was later reported that Reddit users were unhappy with the news and flooded the site with protest messages following the reported investment.
Tencent owns the all-in-one messaging app WeChat and is considered as one of the biggest gaming company in the world thanks to the ownership of the popular “League of Legends.”
The firm’s stocks tumbled since 2018 after authorities stopped approving the release of new titles from March last year amid regulatory overhaul triggered by growing concern about violent content and game addiction, particularly among young players.
The regulators resumed gaming approvals in December, but Tencent was being left out from the first three batches of new game titles that received the approval.
The stocks recovered slightly late last month however, as one of its game titles finally obtained approval from Chinese regulators on January 24. It was the first time the industry leader gained the green light since China resumed processing game titles applications.
Despite the slight recovery, Tencent’s shares are still down about 25% from its all-time high in January 2018.