Which company powers video games such as Fortnite, Pokemon Unite, Call of Duty, League of Legends, Arena of Valor, Honor of Kings etc?
The answer is Tencent, the brainchild of Ma Huateng, also called Pony Ma.
Notwithstanding the fact that Jack Ma of Alibaba calls Tencent a copy cat company with no innovation, Tencent is one of the highest grossing multimedia companies in the world and ‘the largest’ video gaming company. It has been in the news in August 2022, for repurchasing its shares more aggressively than ever!
Pony Ma (not related to Jack Ma) built Tencent along with co-founders that he met in school; they would spend time competing to recite the digits of Pi in the hallway after class. School halls reverberated with the epigram shi bu wo dai, meaning ‘time will not wait for me.’
One part of the Tencent story could almost belong in a parallel universe like its products. One of three people in the world, use the web accessing it through a filter that obscures Facebook, Twitter Snapchat, Instagram, The New York Times and YouTube! This universe loves WeChat (called Weixin locally.) The other part of the Tencent story lives in the entire world of the eight billion. Flouting the irrational need for overnight success, Tencent has been built over two and a half decades, with tons of collaborative minds. That’s a good thing!
A few other great things about the book.
Naturally, in 2017, when Tencent took over Facebook to become the world's 5th largest company, for many, it came as no surprise at all. What is brilliant is that Tencent has transitioned into a global voice, producing Hollywood blockbusters like Wonder Woman, Men in Black International and Venom.
In being able to reach both the Chinese people and the worldwide audience by entertaining them, lies its ‘influence empire.’
Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ On Twitter @OfficialReetaRG.
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