Five years ago this week… Tencent was positioning as a middleman to merge its stakes in Huya and Douyu, China’s top two game streaming platforms, potentially creating a $10 billion powerhouse. Analysts noted that while the combined entity would control over 80% of China’s market, the chances of global expansion were slim amid political headwinds and the dominance of Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook in Western markets. The Huya-Douyu merger did eventually take place in 2021 after Chinese regulators approved the deal. The new entity solidified Tencent’s domestic dominance but has remained almost entirely China-focused, never achieving meaningful scale in Europe or North America. Formula E races to cloud: UK-based IP video transport vendor Techex has teamed with Google Cloud…