Accelerated digitization benefited multinational technology companies, such as Alphabet, Tencent, and Amazon, who increased their assets abroad.

For hardware and IT companies, the increase in international revenue (10%) did not lead to an increase in cross-border acquisitions, as the number of deals announced in the second quarter of 2020 would have predicted.

According to a UNCTAD report, increased regulatory scrutiny of multinational high-tech companies’ activities and market positions slowed their foreign investments in the second half of the year.

Its foreign asset profile was also negatively affected by the gradual withdrawal of Apple (United States) and Intel (United States) from China, which reduced assets in China by 20% and more than 80%, respectively.

Alphabet

By contrast, purely digital technology and delivery services companies such as Alphabet (United States), Tencent (China) and Amazon (United States) saw their overseas revenues increase by an average of two-thirds, and their assets abroad. overseas were nearly 30% higher in value at the end of fiscal 2020.

Alphabet is a collection of companies, the largest of which is Google, reporting in two segments: Google Services and Google Cloud.

Some of Alphabet’s bets include earlier stage technologies that are further away from its core Google business.

Over the past year, Amazon alone announced about $ 12 billion in new investments to strengthen its logistics and retail network.

For its part, Tencent is a Chinese multinational technology conglomerate and its subsidiaries market various Internet-related products and services globally, including entertainment, artificial intelligence and other technologies.

Subscriptions to paid VAS (a Tencent business) grew 22% year-on-year in 2020, to 219 million.

Tencent is the leader in the long-form video industry with 123 million video subscriptions, benefiting from the launch of popular IP anime and drama series.