13/06/2014
[Who’s who in China] The founder of Tencent, Pony Ma
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The founder of Tencent, Pony Ma
Ma Huateng (Chinese: 马化腾, born in 1971 at Chaoyang, Guangdong), also known as Pony Ma, is a Chinese entrepreneur who founded Tencent Inc., one of the largest internet companies in China. As of October 2013, he is the fifth richest person in China, and the 173rd richest in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$ 10.2 billion. As of April 2014, by Time magazine, he is one of the most influential person in the world.
Tencent Holdings Limited is a Chinese investment holding company whose subsidiaries provide mass media, entertainment, Internet and mobile phone value-added services, and further operates online advertising services in China. Its headquarter is based in Nanshan District, Shenzhen.
Tencent's diverse services include social networks, web portals, e-commerce, and multiplayer online games. Its offerings include the well-known instant messenger Tencent QQ and one of the largest web portals in China, QQ.com. Mobile chat service i.e. “WeChat” has abetted in strengthening Tencent's continued expansion into smartphone services.
It is the fifth-largest Internet Company in the world after Google, Amazon, Ebay and Facebook as of April 2014. In 2012, Tencent's revenue outstripped Facebook's by over $2 billion. In September 2013, Tencent's market valuation escalated to US $101 billion, nine years after going public.
As of March12, 2014, the market value of Tencent is about 1.041 trillion yuan (US$ 150billion).
Mr. Ma was Born in 1971, on the island of Hainan, China, he uses the nickname "Pony" which is derived from the English translation of his family name, which is "horse". When he was a teenager, he moved to Shenzhen. In 1993, he graduated from Shenzhen University, earning his B.S. in software engineering. After graduation, he became employed by China Motion Telecom Development, Ltd. He worked in the Internet paging system development, in charge of research and development. This company supplied such systems to the Chinese government. He also worked for Shenzhen Runxun Communications Co.,Ltd., where he also worked in the research and development area.
Mr. Ma also had a personal interest in the developing Internet and surfed the Web at home. He soon came to the conclusion that China was ready for its own IM(Instant Message) service. To that end, he and four friends founded Tencent in 1998. They began the company with only $120, 000, primarily garnered from money earned while playing the stock market. The first years of the company were difficult. Mr. Ma had to wear many hats in the first year, from janitor to website designer, as the company lacked experienced employees and financial health. The company's early offerings included e-mail and internet paging services.
Within a few years, Tencent added more employees and Mr. Ma began focusing on strategic planning, positioning, and management of the company. He was eventually named chief executive officer, executive board member, and chairman of the board. By 1999, Tencent launched the product that would bring it much success and wealth. After initially focusing on a text messaging product, it offered its instant messaging service, originally called OICQ, but later known as QQ.
In June of 2004, Tencent had its initial public offering (IPO) in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Profits rose more than 40 percent from the beginning of 2004. Ma said the company went public in part to have the funds to purchase companies to help enhance the QQ IM service. Ma did not let Tencent rest on its laurels, but continued to expand around its core IM business. He hoped to buy firms working in new areas like wireless technologies to help Tencent retain its position as the number-one company in China. Such acquisitions were intended to keep Tencent competitive in the face of ever increasing foreign competition. Microsoft and Yahoo! both were competing for the same market in China. While Tencent was doing well, it was already facing eroding profit margins as the cost of development and marketing continued to rise.
By early 2005, Tencent was the most popular IM service in Asia with 150-160 million active users. By August of 2005, Tencent had more than 438 million registered users and 173 million active users. Revenues continued to grow. Mr. Ma wanted to further expand Tencent and keep its position as the leading IM service inChina.
Ma has ascended into the No. 2 spot among mainland China's wealthiest on the strength of Tencent's share price, which has doubled in the past year. The company's main website qq.com regularly ranks among the world's 10 most popular. Tencent makes most of its money from online games, but pushed into search in September 2013 when it paid $448 million for a 36% stake in Sogou of China. It's also looking to boost its e-commerce revenues. A big star of the past year: its WeChat mobile communication service, which has attracted more than 270 million users.