I looked at their US websites just now and will say they are certainly worthy of being in the conversation. I have never used either one though in my 20+ years of being a 'netizen'.

I think China may be ahead of the US in AI and space right now, I don't know to be honest. What do you think?

They aren't international brands. Alibaba gets some traction outside of China for those who want to buy cheap Chinese goods, while Tencent has bought some foreign game companies, but otherwise no one outside of China really knows who they are.

This is about my familiarity with them to be honest. Brands I am aware of but haven't given a dollar to. Yet, I end up using Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft services/products every day in one way or another. I don't agree with everything each of them does but I support them because I respect them.

Maybe Tencent and Alibaba dont need to focus more outside of China. China in itself is a huge market. Also the reason we dont hear about these services is that HN is largely representative of the English speaking part of the world - a big part indeed but not the whole.

In addition, I wouldn't be surprised if HN is blocked in China.

there was a news segment about how a good chunk of new ecommerce website where front for alibaba

also aliexpress is my go to store for electronic parts these days