Is Donald Trump going to be reelected? Or is Joe Biden going to win the White House? I'm not sure. But it would be nice, as an investor, to own stocks that will thrive regardless of which party wins in November. My suggestion is to look to international stocks that are already outperforming the S&P 500.
In particular, investors might want to focus on Bilibili (NASDAQ:BILI) and Tencent (OTC:TCEHY). Here's why I think these two foreign stocks will outperform in 2021, regardless of how the U.S. election shakes out.
Image source: Getty Images.
Bilibili is up 139% in 2020
My No. 1 investment idea for China is to buy shares of Bilibili. This is a China-specific business that has little do with America or American elections. You don't have to worry about trade disputes, embargoes, tariffs, or any of that political stuff.
The best way for American investors to understand Bilibili is to say that it's the "YouTube of China." A lot of its intellectual property is generated by users uploading content onto the site. How big is this opportunity? Well, Alphabet (GOOG 1.25%), back when it was simply called Google, bought YouTube for $1.65 billion in 2009. A decade later, one analyst pegged YouTube's valuation at $140 billion. So that's a nice 84-bagger. Good buy call, Eric Schmidt!
Bilibili is casting a wider net than YouTube does. On its site you can find animation, live streaming, gaming, and more. While the Bilibili website may face regulations from Chinese authorities, it's highly unlikely a Trump or Biden administration will go after it. That's because it's a Chinese-language site with a Chinese focus. So it's in sharp contrast to the TikTok app, which is marketed to Americans. The Trump administration was suspicious of that app, and pushed for some American ownership.
The main reason you might want to own Bilibili is that so much of its intellectual property is created for free by users uploading work onto the site. Like YouTube and TikTok, this is a wonderful business model. When YouTube first appeared, a lot of people had doubts about the business, as the videos were so amateurish, and very short. And yet there was so much on the site, and it was so unpredictable. People found it highly addictive and interesting.
Bilibili is a $15-billion-dollar company now. The website reported 172 million monthly active users (MAU) in the second quarter. That's a 55% growth rate in viewers from last year. And revenue is growing at an even faster rate, jumping 70% from a year ago. Bilibili's audience skews young, dominated by millennials and members of generation Z. Minority investors include Sony, Alibaba, and Tencent.
Tencent is big and getting bigger
Tencent is a massive company with a $687 billion market cap. It's one of the biggest companies in the world. While Tencent has been in the news of late, with rumors that it might be scrutinized by U.S. regulators, this concern should be largely irrelevant to shareholders. For instance, the U.S. may or may not ban the WeChat app, which would affect the 19 million Americans who use the app (often to communicate with relatives in China). Even if it is banned here in the U.S., that's just a drop in the bucket for Tencent -- WeChat has 1.2 billion users in China and the rest of the world.
Aside from its WeChat app, Tencent is a massive force in international gaming. According to PC Gamer, Tencent owns 100% of Riot Games, 84.3% of Supercell, 40% of Epic Games, 20% of Sea (SE 4.34%), 11.5% of Bluehole, 5% of Activision Blizzard (ATVI), and 5% of Ubisoft (OTC:UBSFY).
The company also has plenty of non-gaming minority stakes. Tencent owns 17% of JD.com, 16% of Pinduoduo, 5% of Tesla, 12% of Snap, and 4% of Spotify. And the company was an early investor in DiDi Chuxing, the Uber of China. Like Bilibili, Tencent is stomping the market in 2020.
Image source: YCharts.
Investors who are worried about the 2020 election should consider diversifying their portfolios a bit and investing outside our borders. These two international stocks are flying high right now, and should do just fine regardless of who takes the White House.
