Shenzhen-based Internet portal Tencent Inc, developer of the widely used online instant message application QQ, was ranked the third on Business Weekly's latest list of the world's best 100 high-tech companies, following only BYD and Apple.

After a survey of 6,500 tech firms, Business Weekly released the list on May 26.

Tencent is the only online Chinese company among the top 20.

Other Internet giants on the list include Yahoo Japan in 19th place, Google in 22nd, Baidu in 27th, Snda in 80th and B2W, a Brail-based electronic commercial portal, in the 96th.

Last year, Tencent was ranked seventh by Business Weekly.

More than 60 percent of Tencent's staff are involved in research and development.

The company had applied for nearly 2,800 patents by April 15, out of which 689 have been granted.

The majority of its patents are for Internet safety, storage technology, data mining, multimedia, Chinese processing and peer-to-peer distribution.

(Source: China Daily)