Tencent

Tencent Holdings Ltd.(Chinese:Đằng Tấn;pinyin:Téngxùn) is a Chinesemultinationaltechnologyconglomerateandholding companyheadquartered inShenzhen.It is one of the highest grossing multimedia companies in the world based on revenue. It is also the world's largest company in thevideo game industrybased on its equity investments.

Tencent Holdings Ltd.

Tencent Seafront TowersinShenzhen
Native name	Đằng Tấn cổ phần khống chế công ty hữu hạn
Company type	Public
Traded as	SEHK:700 OTC Pink:TCEHY Hang Seng Indexcomponent
ISIN	KYG875721634
Industry	Technology
Founded	7 November 1998(1998-11-07)
Founders	Pony Ma Tony Zhang Xu Chenye Charles Chen Zeng Liqing
Headquarters	Tencent Binhai Mansion,Nanshan District,Shenzhen,Guangdong,China
Key people	Pony Ma (chairman,CEO) Martin Lau (executive director,president)
Products	Artificial intelligence cloud computing automation search engine social networking instant messaging mass media web portals e-commerce web browser antivirus software music payment system film production video games online services
Revenue	CN¥609.015 billion (US$86.02 billion) (2023)
Operating income	CN¥293.109 billion (US$41.40 billion) (2023)
Net income	CN¥118.048 billion (US$16.67 billion) (2023)
Total assets	CN¥1.578 trillion (US$222.88 billion) (2023)
Total equity	CN¥873.681 billion (US$123.40 billion) (2023)
Owners	Naspers(26.04%; since 2019 throughProsus)
Number of employees	105,417 (2023)
Divisions	Tencent Interactive Entertainment Tencent Music Tencent Pictures
Subsidiaries	iflix List of§Video gamescompanies subsidiaries
ASN	132203
Website	tencent

Tencent
"Tencent" in Simplified (top) and Traditional (bottom) Chinese characters
Simplified Chinese	Đằng Tấn
Traditional Chinese	Đằng Tấn
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Téngxùn Bopomofo ㄊㄥˊ ㄒㄩㄣˋ Wade–Giles T'eng2-hsün4 Tongyong Pinyin Téng-syùn IPA [tʰə̌ŋ.ɕŷn] Yue: Cantonese Yale Romanization Tàhng Seun Jyutping tang4 seon3 IPA [tʰɐŋ˩ sɵn˧]
Tencent Holdings, Ltd.
Simplified Chinese	Đằng Tấn cổ phần khống chế công ty hữu hạn
Traditional Chinese	Đằng Tấn cổ phần khống chế công ty hữu hạn
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Téngxùn Kònggǔ Yǒuxiàn Gōngsī Bopomofo ㄊㄥˊ ㄒㄩㄣˋ ㄎㄨㄥˋ ㄍㄨˇ ㄧㄡˇ ㄒㄧㄢˋ ㄍㄨㄥ ㄙ Wade–Giles Teng2-hsün4K'ung4-ku3Yu3-hsien4Kung1-szu1 Tongyong Pinyin Téng-syùn Kòng-gǔ Yǒu-siàn Gong-sih IPA [tʰə̌ŋ.ɕŷn kʰʊ̂ŋ.kù jòʊ.ɕjɛ̂n kʊ́ŋ.sɹ̩́] Yue: Cantonese Jyutping tang4 seon3 hung3 gu2 jau5 haan6 gung1 si1 IPA [tʰɐŋ˩ sɵn˧ hʊŋ˧ ku˧˥ jɐw˩˧ han˨ kʊŋ˥ si˥]

Founded in 1998, its subsidiaries globally market variousInternet-related services and products, including in entertainment,artificial intelligence,and other technology.Its twin-skyscraper headquarters,Tencent Seafront Towers(also known as Tencent Binhai Mansion) are based in theNanshan Districtof Shenzhen.In December 2023, architect Büro Ole Scheeren unveiled the latest helix-inspired design of Tencent's new global headquarters in Shenzhen. Known as Tencent Helix, it will accommodate more than 23,000 employees across nearly 500,000 square meters.

Tencent is the world's largestvideo game vendor,as well as one of thelargest companies in the world by market capitalization.It is among the largestsocial media,venture capital,andinvestment corporations.Its services include social networks, music, web portals,e-commerce,mobile games, internet services, payment systems, smartphones, and multiplayer online games.It operates theinstant messengersTencent QQandWeChat,along with the news site QQ.The company surpassed a market value of US$500 billion in 2018, becoming the first Asian technology company to cross this valuation mark.It has since then emerged as the most valuable publicly traded company in China, and is the world's tenth most valuable company by market value as of February 2022.In 2015, 2018, and 2020, the company was ranked by theBoston Consulting GroupandFast Companyamong the 50 most innovative companies worldwide.Tencent hasstakesin over 600 companies,and began focusing on tech start-ups in Asia in 2017.TechCrunchcharacterized Tencent's investment strategy as letting its portfolio startups operate autonomously.Tencent's valuation approached US$1 trillion in January 2021 before it plummeted.Tencent Holdings was ranked 35th onForbes Global 20002023 list.

History

1998–2010: Founding and growth

Tencent was founded byPony Ma,Zhang Zhidong,Xu Chenye,Charles Chenand Zeng Liqing in November 1998as TencentInc,in theCayman Islands.The name "Tencent" is based on its Chinese name Tengxun (Chinese:Đằng Tấn), which incorporates part ofPony Ma's Chinese name (Ma Huateng;Mã hóa “Đằng” ) and literally means "galloping fast information".Initial funding was provided to it byventure capitalists.In February 1999, Tencent's messenger productOICQwas released.Shortly after, Tencent had the client's name changed to QQ; this was said to be due to a lawsuit threat fromICQand its ownerAOL.The company remained unprofitable for the first three years.

South African media companyNasperspurchased a 46.5% share of Tencent in 2001.As of 2023, it owns 26.16%throughProsus,which also owns a stake in Tencent's sister companies, such asOLX,VK,Trip Group,Delivery Hero,Bykea,Meesho,Stack Overflow,Udemy,Codecademy,BrainlyandPayU.Tencent Holding Ltd was listed on theHong Kong Stock Exchangeon 16 June 2004,and it was added as aHang Seng Index Constituent Stockin 2008.

The company originally derived income solely from advertising and premium users of QQ, who pay monthly fees to receive extras.By 2005, charging for use of QQ mobile, its cellularvalue-added service,andlicensingits penguin character, which could be found on snack foodand clothing,had also become income generators.By 2008, Tencent was seeing profit growth from the sale ofvirtual goods.

In June 2007, Tencent established its charity foundation, becoming the first Chinese internet company to do so.

While Tencent's services have included online gaming since 2004, around 2007/2008, it rapidly increased its offerings by licensing games.While at least two,CrossfireandDungeon Fighter Online,were originally produced by South Korean game developers, Tencent now makes its own games.On 21 January 2011, Tencent launchedWeixin(WeChat), asocial mediaapp.Now branded as WeChat, the app is one of the "super apps", due to its wide range of functions and platforms, and its over 1 billion monthly active users.

2011–2014: Early investments

On 18 February 2011, Tencent acquired a majority of equity interest (92.78%)inRiot Games,developer ofLeague of Legends,for about US$230 million. Tencent had already held 22.34% of the equity interest out of a previous investment in 2008. On 16 December 2015, Riot Games sold its remaining equity to Tencent.Tencent acquired a minority stake inEpic Games,developer of franchises likeFortnite,Unreal,Gears of WarandInfinity Blade,in June 2012.That year, Tencent acquired ZAM Network, parent ofWowheadand other websites, fromBrock Pierce.

Tencent in 2013 increased its stake inKingsoftNetwork Technology, a subsidiary of Kingsoft Corporation, to 18%. Tencent previously had a 15.68% stake in the company and raised the stake through a US$46.98 million investment.Tencent took part inActivision Blizzardsplitting fromVivendias a passive investor in 2013and now owns less than 4.9% of the shares as of 2017.On 17 September 2013, it was announced that Tencent had invested $448 million for a minority share in Chinese search engineSogou,the subsidiary ofSohu,Inc.

On 15 January 2014, Tencent said it would invest HKD 1.5 billion (US$193.45 million) in logistics and warehouse firm China South City Holdings Ltd to develop its e-commerce and logistics business.On 27 February 2014, Tencent purchased a 20% stake in restaurant ratings and group-buying website Dianping for $400 million.On 10 March 2014, Tencent bought a 15% stake in Chinese e-commerce websiteJDInc. by paying cash and handing over its e-commerce businesses Paipai, QQ Wanggou and a stake in Yixun to JD to build a stronger competitor toAlibaba Group.

On 22 May 2014, JD got listed on NASDAQ and Tencent expanded its stake in the company to 17.43% on a fully diluted basis by investing an additional US$1,325 million.On 27 March 2014, it was announced that Tencent had agreed to pay about $500 million for a 28 per cent stake in South Korea's CJ Games.On 27 June 2014, Tencent announced that it had agreed to buy a 19.9 per cent stake in Chinese e-commerce website 58 (WUBA) Inc. for $736 million.On 17 April 2015, Tencent announced it bought an additional $400 million worth of shares, rising its stake in the company to about 25%.On 16 October 2014, via its wholly held subsidiary Hongze Lake Investment Ltd, Tencent announced that it had bought a 7% stake in lottery technology firm China LotSynergy Holdings Ltd for HKD 445.5 million (US$57.4 million).

On 23 October 2014, Tencent pitched in $145 million for a 10 per cent stake in Koudai Gouwu, a Chinese mobile shopping portal.In November 2014, the company announced a deal withHBOwhich would give it exclusive rights for distribution in China.On 9 December 2014, Chinese taxi-hailing app Didi Dache announced that it had raised more than $700 million in a funding round led by Tencent and Singaporean state investment firm Temasek Holdings.On 29 December 2014, Tencent launched the website forWeBank (China),China's first online-only bank.Trials for the service commenced on 18 January 2015.

In 2014, Tencent sued its major competitorNetEaseallegingcopyrightinfringement.Tencent used its leverage from the suit to convince NetEase to sublicense music rights from Tencent.The sub-licensing arrangement that resulted then became a model used by other online music platforms in China.

2015–2020: Continued investments

BYD,one of the chief corporate sponsors for Tencent

Tencent Beijing office, completed in the late 2010s

On 30 January 2015, Tencent announced that it had signed a US$700 million deal with theNational Basketball Associationto stream American basketball games in China.Later that year, Chinese automakerBYDbecame the chief corporate sponsor for Tencent's NBA broadcasts.On 21 June 2016 Tencent announced a deal to acquire 84.3% ofSupercell,developer ofClash of Clans,with US$8.6 billion.In July 2016, Tencent acquired a majority stake in China Music Corporation.

Private enterprises in China are required to have an in-firm committee or branch of theChinese Communist Party(CCP) if three or more CCP members are among their employees.In 2016, Tencent's CCP branch was recognized as one of the one hundred best such branches in the country.It provides communications and education platforms including a CCP activity hall, WeChat channel, and an intranet for CCP members where they can take classes related to government and party policies.The Tencent Party Member Activity Center has a dedicated CCP member activity area of more than 6,000 square meters. More than 1 million yuan is allocated for CCP activities per year.

In 2016, Tencent, together withFoxconnand luxury-car dealer Harmony New Energy Auto foundedFuture Mobility,a car startup (now defunct) that aimed to sell all-electric fully autonomous premium cars.On 28 March 2017,Tesla, Inc.announced Tencent had purchased a 5% stake in Tesla for US$1.78 billion, the automotive control systems of which it subsequently successfully performed penetration-testing until 2019.

In a "direct challenge to Chinese search engineBaidu,"in May 2017, Tencent entered news feed and search functions for itsWeChatapp, which theFinancial Timesreported was used by 770 million people at the time.

In May 2017, Tencent surpassedWells Fargoto enter the world's top 10 most valuable companies.Tencent has also entered an agreement with the Wuhu City Council to build the world's firsteSportstown in the city, which comprises an eSports theme park, eSports university, a cultural and creative park, an animation industrial park, creative block, tech entrepreneurial community and Tencent Cloud's data center. The site will be used for the education and accommodation of future eSports players, as well as hosting national eSports events and serving as a hub for Tencent's game development. Aside from Wuhu, another eSports theme park is planned inChengdu.

In June 2017, Tencent became the 8th most valuable company in BrandZ's Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands, signalling its growing influence globally as well as the rise of Chinese brands.Alibaba overtook Tencent as Asia's most valuable company as its stocks surged after the company hosted its 2017 Investor's day.The company has also developed its own voice assistant Xiaowei, and was in the midst of discussion to acquireRovio Entertainment,the developer ofAngry Birds.At the same time, Tencent introduced its mini-programs feature that allows smartphone users to access mobile apps across the globe on WeChat without downloading them.

In July 2017, Tencent bought a 9% share inFrontier Developments,the creator of theElite: DangerousandPlanet Coasterfranchises; as well as developer forRollercoaster Tycoon2 & 3.In August 2017, after Tencent announced the second quarter 2016 financial report, the stock price rose by 6.2% in the Hong Kong stock market, and the market value reached US$429 billion.Tencent became the second Asian company after Alibaba Group to surpass US$400 billion market cap.Tencent has also created an alliance to its ownAIself-driving program, similar to Baidu'sApollo Project,recruiting numerous industry players in theautomotive industry.It is also collaborating withL'Oréal,the world's largest cosmetics company, to explore digital marketing under the Joint Business Partnership (JBP) agreement.

According to a report by Sina Tech in October 2017, Tencent employed over 7,000 members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that CCP members took a leading role in the development of WeChat. "With over 7,000 CCP members, accounting for approximately 23% of the total workforce, and more than 60% of whom are core technical personnel, the number of CCP members at Tencent is increasing by nearly a thousand every year. In Tencent, a leading internet company, CCP members are becoming the main driving force in shaping the company's development direction."

In November 2017, Tencent revealed that it had purchased a 12% stake inSnap Inc.in the open market, with plans to help establishSnapchatas a gaming platform.Tencent remained the largest video game publisher in the world by revenue, and had a market capitalisation of around $475 billion. In the same month, Tencent announced that WeChat reached 980 millionmonthly active users,and said to be earmarking billions of dollars to amass a catalogue of user-generated content, in competition withYouTube.The company became the first Asian company to cross US$500 billion valuation, surpassing Facebook to enter the top 5 list of the world's biggest firms.

In January 2018, Tencent andThe Lego Group,the world's largest toy company, teamed up to jointly develop online games and potentially a social network aimed at children.It also launched its first unmanned shop inShanghai.Tencent led a US$5.2 billion investment inWanda Commercial,together withJD,SunacandSuning Group,to acquire shares in the conglomerate. Wanda Commercial was renamed Wanda Commercial Management Group.Tencent bought a 5% to 10% minority stake inSkydance Media.On 23 January 2018, Tencent andCarrefourreached strategic co-operation agreement in China.

On 15 August 2018, Tencent reported a profit decline in the second quarter of 2018, ending a growth streak of more than a decade, as investment gains slid and the government's scrutiny of the gaming business weighed on the company.Shares of Tencent fell 3% in morning trade in Hong Kong after the rare drop in quarterly profit was reported, extending a slide that has wiped nearly $50 billion in market value from the company in that week.The sell-off dragged down many other Chinese internet stocks as well.On 6 September 2018,Luckin Coffeesigned a strategic cooperation agreement with Tencent.

China's government designated Tencent as one of its "AIchampions"in 2018.

In November 2018, Tencent Charity Foundation donated RMB$1 billion to establish the Xplorer Prize award for outstanding young scientists in areas of basic science and cutting-edge technologies.

In October 2019, Tencent began sending out refunds to customers after cancelling the broadcast of NBA games in response to theHouston Rocketsgeneral managerDaryl Morey's social media comments in support ofprotests in Hong Kong.

In May 2020, Tencent purchased the rights to createSystem Shock 3and any further sequels fromOtherSide Entertainment.On 29 June 2020, Tencent acquired the video-on-demand serviceiflixinKuala Lumpur,Malaysia.In September 2020, Tencent picked Singapore as its hub in Asia, joining rivalsByteDanceand Alibaba in the race to reinforce their presence closer to home after complications in India and the United States.Lazy Audio was acquired from Shenzhen Lanren Online Technology Co for 2.7 billion yuan in January 2021.

2021–present: Regulatory scrutiny

In July 2021, China's antitrust regulator formally blocked Tencent's plan to merge China's top twovideo game streamingsites,Huya LiveandDouYu,after it had failed to come up with sufficient remedies to meet theSAMR's requirements on giving up exclusive rights. This comes after the company recently withdrew the merger application for antitrust review and refiled it after SAMR told the company it could not complete the review of the merger within 180 days since its first filing. Tencent's plan to takesearch engineSogouprivate was approved by the SAMR.Tencent later announced too its intention to take DouYu private, in part due to the unsuccessful merger, but also due to lacklustre business performance and disagreements over strategy among company executives. Tencent is currently the largest stakeholder in DouYu with a 37% stake.On 17 December 2021, Tencent announced it had acquired Slamfire Inc. and its subsidiaryTurtle Rock Studios,the developer behindLeft 4 DeadandBack 4 Blood.

In January 2022, reports emerged that Tencent was one of the major tech conglomerates to receive a fine from the SAMR for failing to report their merger and acquisition (M&A) deals in advance. According toChina's antitrust law,official approval is required before the completion of a M&A deal if the combined annual revenue of all entities involved is at least RMB 10 billion (US$1.57 billion), and at least two entities have at least RMB 400 million (US$62.7 million) in annual revenue. Of the 13 deals cited in total by the SAMR, each carried a fine of RMB 500,000 (US$78,700) and Tencent received a total fine of RMB 4.5 million (US$710,000) for its involvement in nine deals.

On 11 January 2022, it was announced that Tencent was in talks to acquire Xiaomi-backedBlack Shark,one of the largest gaming smartphone makers in China. The acquisition would have been Tencent's first in a hardware maker and would have overseen Black Shark's transition into a manufacturer of VR headsets to support Tencent's plans for its metaverse business in the future. Reports initially suggested that Black Shark would be acquired for RMB 2.7 billion (US$420 million), although Tencent walked away from the deal due to regulatory scrutiny of metaverse businesses in China.

In June 2022, Tencent posted its slowest revenue gain since going public in 2004, partly caused by a 15% decrease in advertising revenue. The decline was attributed to the pandemic and tighter regulations imposed by the Chinese government.In September 2022, Tencent acquired a 49.9% stake and 5% voting rights in Guillemot Brothers Limited,Ubisoft's parent company.On 16 September 2022, Tencent took a minority stake in Mordhau studio Triternion.

In November 2022, Tencent announced that it would divest the majority of its US$20.3 billion stake inMeituanthrough a dividend distribution to shareholders, in part due to China's earlier regulatory crackdown on tech giants.In January 2023,OpenSecretsreported that Tencent spent over $6.3 million lobbying the U.S. federal government after coming under greater regulatory scrutiny in 2020.

Majority owned subsidiary China Literature acquired Tencent Animation and Comics in December 2023.

On 22 December 2023, the Chinese government's regulations to curb online gaming cost Tencent $46 Billion in Market Capitalisation.Later, on 27 December 2023, the first of trading after the Chinese government vowed to make improvements to the proposed gaming rules, the firm's stock rose by 5%.

Also in December 2023, Tencent accelerated the pace ofbuybacks,increasing the pace of daily purchases to aboutHK$1 billion (with an average of HK$375 million per day) and made a record HK$10 billionsharepurchase.

In March 2024, the firm uploaded its revenue report for the 4th quarter of the year 2023, recording a surprising 7% rise in the fourth-quarter revenue, slightly missing the expected mark.

Products and services

Social media

Launched in February 1999,Tencent QQis Tencent's first and most notable product, QQ is one of the most popularinstant messagingplatforms in its home market.As of 31 December 2010, there were 647.6 million active Tencent QQ IM user accounts,making Tencent QQ the world's largest online community at the time. The number of QQ accounts connected simultaneously has, at times, exceeded 100 million.While the IM service itself is free, a fee was being charged for mobile messaging as of 2006.Tencent also created QQ International, which is an English version of QQ that allows communication with mainland accounts; QQi is available for Windows and macOS.In 2005, Tencent launchedQzone,a social networking/blogging service integrated within QQ. Qzone has become one of the largest social networking services in China, with a user base of 645 million in 2014.

On 10 April 2010, Tencent launchedTencent Weibo,amicrobloggingservice.

WeChat is a mobile app with functions such as voice- and text messaging,mobile payment,and a friends-only social network calledMoments.It is the most popular social mobile application in China and some overseas Chinese communities, for instance,Malaysia.As of 2017, WeChat has been unsuccessful in penetrating major international markets outside of China.

Entertainment

Video games

Main article:Tencent Games

Riot Gamesis one of Tencent's notable subsidiaries, known for creating themultiplayer online battle arenagameLeague of Legends.It is one of the first game developers to receive investment from Tencent.

Tencent publishes video games via its Tencent Games division of Tencent Interactive Entertainment. It has five internal studio groups under it:TiMi Studio Group,LightSpeed Studios,Aurora Studio Group, Morefun Studio and Next Studio.

Outside of companies subsidiary of its game division, Tencent as a whole has many major and minor investments in domestic and, since the 2010s, foreign game companies.

Foreign studio assets

Company	Location	First investment date	As of date	Ownership stake	Ref(s).
Funcom	Oslo, Norway	September 2019	January 2020	Wholly-owned
Leyou(Athlon Games,Digital Extremes,Splash Damage)	Hong Kong	December 2020
Riot Games	Los Angeles, United States	September 2009	December 2015
Sharkmob	Malmö, Sweden	March 2019
Sumo Group	Sheffield, United Kingdom	November 2019	January 2022
Grinding Gear Games	Auckland, New Zealand	May 2018
Visual Arts(Key,KineticNovel)	Osaka, Japan	July 2023		Majority
Turtle Rock Studios	Lake Forest, United States	December 2021
Wake Up Interactive (Soleil,Valhalla Game Studios)	Hong Kong	November 2021
Inflexion Games	Edmonton, Canada	February 2022
Fulqrum Publishing	Prague, Czechia	February 2022
Techland	Wrocław, Poland	24 July 2023
Tequila Works	Madrid, Spain	March 2022
Klei Entertainment	Vancouver, Canada	January 2021
10 Chambers Collective	Stockholm, Sweden	October 2020
Yager Development	Berlin, Germany	February 2020	June 2021
Fatshark	Stockholm, Sweden	January 2019	January 2021
Miniclip	Neuchâtel, Switzerland	February 2015
Supercell	Helsinki, Finland	June 2016		84%
Don't Nod	Paris, France	January 2021		42%
Pocket Gems	San Francisco, United States	2015	May 2017	38%
Shift Up	Seoul, South Korea	December 2022		35.03%
Epic Games	Cary, United States	June 2012		35%
Bloober Team	Kraków, Poland	October 2021		22%
Marvelous	Tokyo, Japan	May 2020		20%
Sea Ltd(Garena)	Singapore	2010	January 2022	18.7%
Netmarble	Seoul, South Korea	September 2018		17.66%
FromSoftware	Tokyo, Japan	August 2022		16.25%
Remedy Entertainment	Helsinki, Finland	May 2021		14%
Krafton(Bluehole Studio)	Seongnam-si, South Korea	August 2018		13.87%
Kakao	Jeju City, South Korea	May 2012		13.54%
Paradox Interactive	Stockholm, Sweden	March 2016		10.07%
Ubisoft	Paris, France	March 2018		9.99%
Frontier Developments	Cambridge, United Kingdom	July 2017		9%
Kadokawa Corporation	Tokyo, Japan	October 2021		6.86%

Other notable investments includeDiscord(February 2015),Roblox Corporation(February 2020),Lockwood Publishing (November 2020),PlatinumGames(January 2020),Aiming (December 2014),Novarama(March 2022),Triternion (September 2022)Riffraff Games (March 2022),Offworld Industries (March 2022),Bohemia Interactive(February 2021),Payload Studios (February 2021),Playtonic Games(November 2021),Voodoo(August 2020)and Lighthouse Games (July 2023).

Former foreign stakes

• Tencent had a 14.46% stake inGlu Mobilebefore Glu was acquired byElectronic Artsin 2019.
• Tencent had invested in Playdots, which was acquired byTake-Two Interactivein August 2020.
• Tencent invested inActivision Blizzardas a minority investor with 5% in 2013, when the holding company bought itself from theVivendiconglomerate which was part of it since 2008.
• Tencent'sSumo Groupsubsidiary wholly ownedPipeworks Studiosuntil it was sold toJagexfor an undisclosed sum in July 2022.

Domestic investments

• 20% ownership of Chinese company Wangyuan Shengtang, which publishes, among others, theGuJianfranchise (2021). Stake increased to 94% in 2024.
• 18.6% ownership of Chinese company iDreamSky, which mainly develops and publishesmobile gamesfor the Chinese market.
• 5% ownership of Chinese company Century Huatong, which operates games developed byFunPlus.Tencent became a shareholder through an investment in Century Huatong's subsidiaryShengqu Games.
• 5% ownership of Chinese companyGame Science,responsible for the development ofBlack Myth: Wukong(2021).

Television and cinema

Main article:List of Tencent Video original programming

In April 2009, Tencent launched iTQQ, a "smart interactive television service" in a joint effort withTCL.

In 2015, Tencent launchedTencent Pictures(Chinese:Đằng Tấn ảnh nghiệp), afilm distributorand aproduction companythat creates and distributes films based onbooks,comic books,animated seriesandvideo games.In the same year, Tencent launched Tencent Penguin Pictures (Chinese:Đằng Tấn chim cánh cụt phim ảnh) a production unit focusing on online dramas and minor investments in feature films.It is under the Online Media Business Unit at Tencent and works closely withTencent Video.

Comics

On 21 March 2012, Tencent launchedTencent Comic,and would later become China's largest online animation platform.

In September 2017, Tencent has announced plans to introduceChinese online comicsto every market around the world, with the first beingNorth America.It will be working withSan Francisco-based digital publisherTapas Media,a partnership that will see English-language releases of several popular online Chinese titles.

Music

Main articles:QQ MusicandJOOX

In 2014, Tencent established exclusive in-China distribution agreements with several large music producers, includingSony,Warner Music GroupandYG Entertainmentand in 2017 it signed a deal withUniversal Music Groupto stream its music in China. It also entered a partnership with Alibaba Group on music-streaming rights sharing. The deal aims to protect licensed streaming services offering copyrighted content of themusic industry,encouraging more high-quality and original music, as well as developingChina's fast-growing streaming market. Alibaba will gain the rights to stream music from international labels, which already have exclusive deals with Tencent, in return for offering reciprocal rights to its catalogue ofChineseandJapanesemusic.

In December 2017, Tencent's music arm,Tencent MusicEntertainment (TME), andSpotifyagreed to swap a 10% stake in each other's music businesses,forming an alliance in the music industry whichMartin Lau(president of Tencent) described as a "strategic collaboration".

In October 2019, Tencent Music reached a streaming music distribution agreement withCD BabyandTuneCoreto provide independent music artists who distribute music through CD Baby and TuneCore access to the Chinese music market through Tencent's music streaming servicesQQ Music,KuGou,and Kuwo.

In March 2020, Tencent acquired 10% ofVivendi's stake inUniversal Music Group,the world's largest music group. In addition, it was given the option to buy another 10% with the same conditions.

In June 2020, Tencent bought 1.6% ofWarner Music Group's shares after WMG launched its IPO in the same month.

Video streaming

In June 2011, Tencent launchedTencent Video,a video streaming website.It also controls the live-streaming platformHuya Liveand has stakes in other major Chinese game live-streaming platform operators, includingDouYu,KuaishouandBilibili.In March 2020, Tencent started testingTrovo Live,a live-streaming service for worldwide users.Since June 2020, it owns the Malaysian Video-on-demand serviceIflix.

Virtual reality

In late April 2017, Tencent announced it was preparing to launch its virtual reality headset that year.

E-commerce

In September 2005, Tencent launched PaiPai (Chinese:Vỗ vỗ;pinyin:pāi pāi), aC2Cauction site.In addition to PaiPai, Tencent launched TenPay, an online payment system similar toPayPal,which supportsB2B,B2C,andC2Cpayments.TenPay was one of the first domestic non-bank payment providers to receive a regulatory license following 2010People's Bank of Chinaregulations that took non-bank third party payment providers out of a legal grey area.

In response to the dominance of the Chinesee-commercemarket by Tencent competitor Alibaba Group, Tencent took great effort in its e-commerce platforms. On 10 March 2014, Tencent bought a 15 per cent stake in Chinese e-commerce website JD Inc. by paying cash and handing over its e-commerce businesses Paipai, QQ Wanggou, and a stake in Yixun to JD, as well as purchasing a stake in e-commerce website58 Tongcheng.In accordance to this agreement, JD would receive exclusive access to Tencent's WeChat and MobileQQ platforms.In May 2014, JD became the first Chinese e-commerce company to be listed on theNASDAQexchange, under its ticker 'JD'.

On 31 December 2015, JD announced that they will stop supporting services on Paipai after being unable to deal with issues involving fake goods, and had integrated the Paipai team within its other e-commerce platforms. In a 3-month transitional period, Paipai would be fully shut down by 1 April 2016.JD relaunched PaiPai as PaiPai Second Hand (Vỗ vỗ second-hand) to compete alongside 58 Tongcheng's Zhuanzhuan, both partially owned by Tencent, against Alibaba's Xianyu in thesecond-hande-commerce market.

Tencent was reported in 2017 to be working withChina's Central Bankto develop a central payments clearing platform for online payments.

On 31 December 2021, it was reported Tencent had bought a stake in the UK digital bank,Monzo.

Utility software

In March 2006, Tencent launched its search engineSoso( lục soát lục soát; to search).On 1 October 2012, it was the 33rd most visited website in the world, 11th most visited in China, as well as the 8th most visited website in South Korea, according toAlexa Internet.It was also a Chinese partner ofGoogle,usingAdWords.In September 2013, Tencent discontinued Soso after it invested inSogouand replaced Soso with Sogou Search as its main search engine.

In 2008, Tencent released a media player, available for free download, under the nameQQ Player.Tencent also launched Tencent Traveler, a web browser based onTrident.It became the third most-visited browser in China in 2008.

QQ Haiwai is Tencent's first venture into international real estate listings and information and is the result of a partnership with Chinese international real estate website Juwai. Haiwai was announced at Tencent's annual regional summit in Beijing on 21 December 2016.

In 2017, Tencent launched its owncredit scoresystem called Tencent Credit, with a process similar to that of Sesame Credit, operated by its competitor, the Alibaba Group, through its subsidiary Ant Financial.

Healthcare and insurance

Tencent has created WeChat Intelligent Healthcare, Tencent Doctorwork, andAI Medical Innovation System (AIMIS)Tencent Doctorwork has also merged with Trusted Doctors

Tencent officially commences operations of its first insurance agency platform, WeSure Internet Insurance Ltd. (WeSure), to work with domestic insurance companies such asPing An Insurance.

In August 2017, Tencent released AI Medical Innovation System (AIMIS)or Miying( tìm ảnh in Chinese), which has two core competencies: AI medical imaging and AI-assisted diagnosis. AI Medical Innovation System (AIMIS) is capable of helping doctors screen for several diseases such as diabetic retinopathy, lung cancer and esophageal cancer through its AI-assisted medical image analysis. Its AI-assisted medical diagnosis engine allows doctors to identify and estimate the risk of more than 700 diseases, improving the accuracy and efficiency of their diagnosis. The system is undergoing clinical validation in more than 100 major Chinese hospitals. It has already helped doctors read more than 100 million medical images and served nearly one million patients. Tencent's data shows that recognition accuracy reaches 90% for esophageal cancer, 97% for diabetic retinopathy and 97.2% for colorectal cancer. In general, Chinese medical institutions and companies are taking a proactive attitude toward AI. Nearly 80% of hospitals and medical enterprises plan to carry out, or have already carried out, medical AI applications, and more than 75% of hospitals believe that these applications will become popular in the future.

During theCOVID-19 pandemic,Tencent helped source 1.2 million protective masks for American medical staff combating the virus.

Data processing

On 27 March 2020, a co-innovation lab was launched by Tencent who will be in collaborations withHuaweiin developing acloud-basedgame platform by tapping into Huawei's Kunpeng processor's power to build Tencent's GameMatrix cloud game platform. Along with further exploration in the possibilities of artificial intelligence and augmented reality elements in game.

In October 2020, Tencent's AIMIS Image Cloud was introduced.AIMIS Image Cloud was designed to help patients manage their medical images and give permission to medical professionals to access their exams and reports. The AIMIS platform supports full images on the cloud to reduce repeated exams. It can also connect medical institutions at all levels through cloud based Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS), allowing patients to take examinations in primary medical institutions and obtain expert diagnosis remotely. Doctors can conduct online consultations through Tencent real-time audio and video facilities when they encounter difficult cases and work collaboratively on images to communicate more efficiently.

On 26 May 2020, Tencent announced it planned to invest 500 billion yuan (US$70 billion) over the next five years in new digital infrastructure, a major hi-tech initiative that would bolster Beijing's efforts to drive economic recovery in the post-coronavirus era.

Accessibility

Tencent received theZero ProjectAward 2023 for innovative ICT solutions for persons with disabilities. Originating from Tencent's game development, MTGPA (Magic Tencent Game Performance Amelioration) Haptics is transmitting vibro-tactile signals to the user which support orientation and notification. Typical customers are persons with visual impairments or the elderly.Connected to the Tencent Map app, MTGPA Haptics guides customers indoors and outdoors through long and short vibrations in case of deviations from the planned route.

Other

Tencent announced its WeCity project in 2019, through which it seeks to develop asmart citysolution for digital governance, urban management and decision-making, and industrial interconnections.In June 2020, Tencent has unveiled plans for an urban development dubbed "Net City",a 21-million-square-foot development, equivalent in size to Monaco, in Shenzhen. The development will be built onreclaimed land.It will prioritize pedestrians, green spaces and self-driving vehicles, corporate offices, schools, sports facilities, parks, retail space and apartments, according to the project's architect,NBBJ.

At the end of June 2020, Tencent has increased its direct stake in Nio to 15.1% after acquiring more of the Chinese electric vehicle maker's New York-listed shares recently.Tencent spent $10 million to buy 1.68 million American Depositary Shares earlier in the month, according to Nio's latest filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The Shenzhen-based social media and entertainment conglomerate also controls another 16% stake in Nio's ADSs through three of its units. Tencent was the second-largest Nio shareholder in terms of voting rights after Li Bin, founder of the automaker, who held 13.8% in shares but 47% voting rights, according to a March filing by the company. As of 8 July, they bought another amount of shares increasing their stake in Nio to 16.3%.

Corporate governance

Ma Huateng,also known as Pony Ma, is the main co-founder of Tencent, and is currently the conglomerate'sCEOandchairman.

Martin Lau, who helped with the company's IPO as an investment banker atGoldman Sachs,is currently Tencent's president.

Tencent's largest shareholder isProsus(majority owned byNaspers), which owns 25.6% of all sharesand hence is thecontrolling shareholder.However,Ma Huateng,co-founder of Tencent, still owns a significant stake (8.42%).

Tencent's headquarters is currently theTencent Binhai Mansion,also known as the Tencent Seafront Towers, which is located inShenzhen'sNanshan District.In addition to its headquarters in Shenzhen, Tencent also has offices inBeijing,Shanghai,Chengdu,andGuangzhou.

Tencent has a unitary board consisting of Tencent co-founder,CEO,andchairmanMa Huateng,also known asPony Ma,executive director andPresidentof Tencent Martin Lau, non-executive directorsJacobus "Koos" Bekkerand Charles Searle ofNaspers,and independent non-executive directors Li Dongsheng, Iain Bruce, Ian Stone, and Yang Siushun.Tencent's governance is aided by its Strategy Department, commonly known as SD, which provides business analytics for the corporation's various divisions.

Subsidiaries

Tencent has at least fourWholly Foreign-Owned Enterprisesand nearly twenty subsidiaries.

Tencent Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.

A software development unit that has created, among others, Tencent Traveler and later versions of QQ IM,as well as somemobile software.This subsidiary is located on the Southern District of Hi-Tech Park, Shenzhen.It also holds a number of patents related to instant messaging andmassively multiplayer online gamegaming.

Shenzhen Yayue Technology

In 2023, an entity controlled by the state-ownedChina Internet Investment Fundtook agolden shareinvestment in Shenzhen Yayue Technology.The stock price of Tencent sank when news of the deal was published.

Research

In 2007, Tencent invested over RMB100 million in the establishment of the Tencent Research Institute, which became China's first research center dedicated to core Internet technologies.The campuses are located in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen.

In 2012, Tencent launched Tencent YouTu Lab, an AI research department that focuses on computer vision, including optical character recognition (OCR), image understanding, and generation.

In 2020, as part of Tencent’s efforts to combat the COVID-19 and future pandemic, Tencent established an AI Joint Lab with respiratory disease expertZhong Nanshanto conduct research on disease screening, prevention, and outbreak warnings.

In 2023, Tencent debuted its large language model Hunyuan for enterprise use.In 2023, Tencent announced its partnership with theChinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences(CAAS) to establish a Digital Seed Bank at the Tencent Science and Technology Museum.

Chinese government partnerships

The Chinese government views Tencent as one of itsnational championcorporations.

For the occasion of the19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party,Tencent released a mobile game titled "Clap forXi Jinping:An Awesome Speech ", in which players have 19 seconds to generate as many claps as possible for the party leader.

In August 2019, it was reported that Tencent collaborated with the propaganda department of theGuangdong Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Partyand thePeople's Dailyto develop "patriotic games".

In a December 2020 article inForeign Policy,a former senior official of theCentral Intelligence Agencystated that the CIA concluded that Tencent received funding from theMinistry of State Securityearly on in its foundation. This was said to be a "seed investment" that was provided "when they were trying to build out theGreat Firewalland the monitoring technology. "Tencent denied this allegation.

In 2021, it was reported that Tencent andAnt Groupwere working with thePeople's Bank of Chinato develop aCentral bank digital currency.

In June 2022, Tencent partnered withShanghai United Media Groupto launch a plan to develop domestic and foreigninfluencers.

Environmental

Tencent participates in many carbon reduction programs and partnerships.Tencent’s Global Carbon Neutral Technology Alliance shares carbon neutrality patents and technologies for free and includes competitors like Alibaba and Microsoft.Tencent's CarbonX Program is abusiness acceleratorand digital capability program which aims to develop low-carbon technologies.In December 2022, Tencent launched TanLIVE, a climate a co-developed platform which aims to bring together resources for climate change solutions in China.

Tencent participates in the Science Based Targets initiative launched by the UN Global Compact, which provides a platform for setting science-based net-zero targets.In 2022, Tencent established a goal of making the company and its supply chaincarbon neutral.

Controversies

Allegations of copying

Many of Tencent's software and services share similarities to those of competitors,and to theirown.The founder andchairman,Huateng "Pony" Ma,famously said, "[To] copy is not evil." A former CEO and president ofSINA,Wang Zhidong,said, "Pony Mais a notorious king of copying. "Jack Maof Alibaba Group stated, "The problem with Tencent is the lack of innovation; all of their products are copies."

In 1996, an Israeli company namedMirabilisreleased one of the first stand alone instant messaging clients namedICQ.Three years later, Tencent released a copied version of ICQ, naming it OICQ, which stands for Open ICQ.After losing a lawsuit againstAOL,which bought ICQ in 1998, for violating ICQ'sintellectual property rights,Tencent released a new version of OICQ in December 2000 and rebranded itQQ.With its model of free-to-use and charging for customizing personal avatars, QQ hit 50 million users in its second year, 856 million users and at most 45.3 million synchronous users in 2008.

During early stages of company development and expansion, Tencent has been widely accused of stealing ideas from its competitors and creating counterfeit copies of their products.Some of the criticisms aimed at Tencent in this regard are that QQ farm was a direct copy ofHappy Farm,QQ dance originated fromAudition Online,and that QQ speed featured gameplay highly similar toCrazyracing Kartrider.In January 2023, Tencent's trailer for their new MMORPG,Tarisland,was said to resembleBlizzard'sWorld of Warcraft.

Tencent's acquisitions

In general, Tencent does not seek to acquire controlling stakes when it invests in other companies.It usually deems minority ownership sufficient to build connections and acquire technology.

In a partial effort to rebuild the reputation of Tencent lost from allegations of copying, Tencent adjusted its strategy by aggressively investing in the acquisition of other companies, rather than in the replication of them. By 2020, Tencent had invested in over 800 companies across the world.During 2012 and 2019, Tencent has invested from minority stakes to majority stakes in world-wide-famous game companies such asRiot Games,Epic Games,Activision Blizzard,SuperCell,andBluehole.While aggressive acquisitions may benefit Tencent due to factors such as reduction in competition and monopolization, it may not benefit the acquired companies in terms of their growth and innovation. Colin Huang, founder of Pinduoduo, said "Tencent won't die when Pinduoduo dies, because it has tens of thousands of sons."

Security concerns

In 2015, security testing firmsAV-Comparatives,AV-TESTandVirus Bulletinjointly decided to remove Tencent from their softwarewhitelists.The Tencent products supplied for testing were found to contain optimisations that made the software appear less exploitable when benchmarked but actually provided greater scope for delivering exploits.Additionally, software settings were detrimental to end-users protection if used.Qihoowas later also accused of cheating, while Tencent was accused of activelygamingthe anti-malware tests.

Major litigation

Since 2018, Tencent has been in litigation withByteDance.ByteDance and its affiliates brought a series ofunfair competitionlawsuits against Tencent, alleging that Tencent was blocking their content.As of at least early 2024, these lawsuits had not reached resolution, largely due to disputes about jurisdiction.Tencent filed two lawsuits against ByteDance and its affiliates, alleging that they were using WeChat and QQ profiles without authorization and illegally crawling data from public WeChat accounts.Tencent obtained an injunction barring ByteDance from this practice.

Censorship

Tencent'sWeChatplatform has been accused of blockingTikTokvideos and the censorship of politically sensitive content.In April 2018, TikTok sued Tencent and accused it of spreading false and damaging information on its WeChat platform, demandingRMB1 million in compensation and an apology. In June 2018, Tencent filed a lawsuit againstToutiaoand TikTok in a Beijing court, alleging they had repeatedly defamed Tencent with negative news and damaged its reputation, seeking a nominal sum of RMB 1 million in compensation and a public apology.In response, Toutiao filed a complaint the following day against Tencent for allegedlyunfair competitionand asking for RMB 90 million in economic losses.

However,Tim Sweeney,the CEO and founder ofEpic Games,maker of the popular gameFortnite,tweeted that his company would never follow suit and punish people for expressing their opinions, even though Tencent is a 40% stakeholder in Epic.In a statement, Sweeney said it would "never happen on [his] watch", and emphasized that Epic is an American company, implying that it would not compromise an ethos of free speech to curry favor with Chinese authorities in the pursuit of maximum profit.

Later in October 2019, Tencent announced it would stop broadcastingHouston RocketsNBAgames in China due to a tweet made byDaryl Morey,general manager of the Rockets, that was supportive of protestors in the2019–2020 Hong Kong protests.Although Morey's tweet was hastily deleted, news of it was quickly reported all around the world, and the NBA went on to spend months attempting damage control in China.

In December 2019, the Chinese government ordered Tencent to improve the firm's user data rules for its apps, which regulators regarded to be in violation of censorship rules.

In January 2021, a proposed class action lawsuit was filed in California against Tencent, alleging user censorship and surveillance viaWeChat.

In November 2022,Sustainalyticsdowngraded Tencent to "non-compliant" with theUnited Nations Global Compactprinciples due to complicity with censorship.

2020 U.S. executive order on WeChat

On 6 August 2020, PresidentDonald Trumpsigned twoexecutive orders,one directed at TikTok and one at WeChat. The TikTok order dictated that within 45 days from its signing (20 September 2020) that it would ban transactions involving the TikTok app with ByteDance, effectively banning the TikTok app in the United States, under threat of penalty.TikTok sued Trumpover the executive order, which was later revoked underJoe Biden'sadministration,causing the lawsuit to be dismissed in July 2021. The order for WeChat contained the same information but targeting the WeChat app and related transactions for Tencent. In the case of ByteDance, the order would be canceled should an American company acquire it, whichMicrosofthad been openly spoken of, but there are unlikely any immediate buyers for Tencent in the U.S.Los Angeles Timesreporter Sam Dean affirmed from the White House that this does not affect other facets of Tencent's ownerships in American companies such as with its video game companies.

See also

• Foxmail
• Pengyou
• QQ browser
• Qzone
• Sogou
• Tencent Maps

External links

• Official website
• Business data for Tencent:
  • Bloomberg
  • Google
  • Reuters
  • Yahoo!