BATX Stocks

What Are BATX Stocks?

BATX is an acronym for four very popular Chinese technology stocks: Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaomi. The term came into existence much like that of the FAANG stocks acronym—the acronym for five of the top U.S. technology stocks: Meta (formerly Facebook), Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Alphabet’s Google.

BATX was coined around the time when the leading Chinese smartphone maker company, Xiaomi, announced its plans to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in July 2018. Globally, these Chinese technology firms are ever increasing in clout.

Understanding BATX Stocks

BATX is made up of four companies: Baidu Inc. (BIDU), which is listed on the NASDAQ; Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd. (BABA), which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE); Tencent Holdings Ltd. (ADR), which is listed in the over-the-counter markets; and Xiaomi Corp., which is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

Collectively, these four technology giants are leaders in China. While they cater to the needs of individual users through their various offerings, they are also leading the way for revolutionizing industries and sectors through their products and services. BATX companies were nurtured in the shadow care of the Chinese government. At the same time, the Chinese government often installed barriers for their western counterparts—such as Google and Meta—preventing them from freely operating in the world’s most populous nation. Without competition from foreign businesses, many Chinese technology companies have been able to flourish, and while government support has helped the BATX companies to grow regionally, these companies have seized opportunities to expand globally.

BATX Growth and Expansion

BATX companies are not only growing organically, but they are also making strategic investments at global levels. With millions of users in global markets and more than 150 direct global investments and acquisitions, BATX companies have gained a strong foothold in American, European, and Asian markets. For instance, in November of 2017, Tencent spent $2 billion to buy a 12% stake of Snap Inc.

At the time, it represented the fifth-largest investment involving a Chinese firm acquiring a stake in a U.S. technology firm. While Uber lost ground to Didi Chuxing in China, Alibaba and Tencent invested in Uber-competitor Taxify to intensify the competition in Europe. In July 2017, Baidu purchased Kitt.ai, an American startup specialized in natural language and artificial intelligence (AI).

The firms have collectively incubated more than 1,000 new ventures over the past decade and they actively cater to more than 20 different sectors. Their operations facilitate both online and offline offerings and are increasingly big in hardware electronics. They’ve had an average annual growth exceeding 50%, and are growing exponentially across multiple sectors.

Baidu Search is one of the most popular search engines in the country. While Alibaba Group first started as an e-commerce company in 1999 in Hangzhou China, now it has become a giant corporation with branches in various sectors, such as e-commerce, entertainment, online payment, cloud computing, and AI technology. Tencent was first started as a social network platform, although most Chinese came to know Tencent through its messaging platform. Finally, Xiaomi focuses on tangible hi-tech devices such as smartphones, smarthomes, smartTV, and other smart devices.

In October 2022, Baidu had a market capitalization of $40.6 billion, and Alibaba had a market capitalization of $214.7 billion. After 2015, some other notable technology companies joined the ranks of the BATX stocks—Huawei, DIDI, JD, and ByteDance.