Ma Huateng

Mǎ Huàténg
Native name 马化腾
Born (1971-10-10) October 10, 1971
Dongfang, Hainan, China
Residence Shenzhen
Nationality Chinese
Alma mater Shenzhen University
Occupation Founder, Chairman and CEO of Tencent
Net worth Decrease US$42.4 billion (July 2018)[1]
Website qq.com

Ma Huateng (Chinese: 马化腾; pinyin: Mǎ Huàténg, born on October 29, 1971), also known as Pony Ma,[2] is a Chinese business magnate, investor, philanthropist, engineer, internet and technology entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Tencent, Asia's most valuable company, one of the largest Internet and technology companies, and the biggest investment, gaming and entertainment conglomerates in the world.[3][4][5] The company controls China’s biggest mobile instant messaging service and its subsidiaries provide media, entertainment, payment systems, smartphones, internet-related services, value-added services and online advertising services, both in China and globally.

In 2007, 2014[6], and 2018, Time magazine called him one of the world's most influential people[7], while in 2015, Forbes credited him as one of the world's most powerful people. In 2017, Fortune ranked him as among the top businessmen of the year.[8][9] Ma is a deputy to the Shenzhen Municipal People’s Congress and in the 12th National People’s Congress.[5]

Being one of "Fortune world's greatest leaders",[10] Ma is known for his low profile entrepreneur style as compared to Jack Ma's outgoing personality, Ma has been closely compared to Warren Buffett for their similarity in investments, and often described as an "aggressive acquisitor".[11][12][13][14][15][16][17]

As of March 2018, he is China's richest man, and the 14th wealthiest in the world, with a net worth of US$51.1 billion. On 21 November 2017, he surpassed both Larry Page and Sergey Brin to become the ninth richest man in the world, and the first Chinese to enter Forbes' top 10 richest men list.[18][19][20][21]

Early life and education

Ma was born in Chaoyang District, Shantou, Guangdong. When his father, Ma Chenshu, got a job as a port manager in Shenzhen, near Hong Kong, the young Ma accompanied him.[22] He was enrolled in Shenzhen University in 1989 and then graduated in 1993 with a Bachelor of Science in computer science.[23]

Career

Founding of Tencent and early career

Ma’s first job was with China Motion Telecom Development, a supplier of telecommunications services and products, where he was in charge of developing software for pagers. He reportedly earned $176 per month.[24] He also worked for Shenzhen Runxun Communications Co. Ltd. in the research and development department for Internet calling services.[25]

Alongside four other classmates, Ma Huateng went on to co-found Tencent in 1998. The company’s first product came after Ma participated in a presentation for ICQ, the world’s first Internet instant messaging service, founded in 1996 by an Israeli company.[25] Inspired by the idea, Ma and his team launched in February 1999 a similar software, with a Chinese interface and a slightly different name – OICQ (or, Open ICQ).[26] The product quickly became popular and garnered more than a million registered users by the end of 1999, making it one of the largest such services in China.[27]

Talking about the founding of Tencent, he told China Daily in a 2009 interview that “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants,” paraphrasing a quote attributed to Isaac Newton and referencing the similarities between ICQ and OICQ. "We knew our product had a future, but at that time we just couldn't afford it," Ma remembered.[25] In order to solve the problem, Ma asked for bank loans and even talked about selling the company.[28]

Since Tencent's prized service OICQ was offered free of charge, the company looked to venture capitalists to finance its growing operational costs. In 2000, Ma turned to US investment firm IDC and Hong Kong’s telecom carrier Pacific Century CyberWorks (PCCW) who bought 40% of Tencent’s shares for $2.2 million.[29] With the pager market declining, Ma improved the messaging platform by allowing QQ users to send messages to mobile handsets. Afterwards, 80% of the company’s revenue came from deals struck with telecom operators who agreed to share message fees.[28]

AOL lawsuit and business expansion

After AOL (America Online) bought ICQ in 1998, the company filed a lawsuit against Tencent with the National Arbitration Forum in the United States, claiming that QICQ’s domain names QICQ.com and QICQ.net were in violation of ICQ’s intellectual property rights. Tencent lost and had to shut down the websites.[25] In December 2000, in order to stave off other costly lawsuit, Ma changed the name of the software to QQ (with "Q" and "QQ" used to stand for the word "cute")[30]

After the AOL lawsuit, Ma Huateng decided to expand the business portfolio of Tencent. In 2003, Tencent released its own portal (QQ.com) and made forays into the online games market. By 2004, Tencent became the largest Chinese instant messaging service (holding 74% of the market),[28] prompting Ma to list the company on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.[25] After the company raised $200 million in June’s IPO, Ma quickly became one of the richest people in China’s telecom industry.

In 2004, Tencent launched an online gaming platform and started selling virtual goods to support the games published on that platform (weapons, gaming power), as well as emoticons and ringtones.[27]

At Ma’s behest, Tencent launched in 2005 the C2C platform Paipai.com, a direct competitor to e-ecommerce giant Alibaba.[31]

Mimicking Bill Gates’ Microsoft, Ma Huateng created two competing teams of engineers in 2010 and charged them with creating a new product. After two months, one team presented an app for text messaging and group chat – Weixin – which launched in January 2011. In 2015, Weixin (or WeChat in English), is the largest instant messaging platform in the world, used by 48% of all Internet users.[27][32]

Other diverse services provided by Tencent include web portals, e-commerce, and multiplayer online games.[8] Online games such as Legend of Yulong and Legend of Xuanyuan boosted revenue by more than half, up to US$ 5.1 billion, with a US$ 1.5 billion profit margin.[7]

In December 2015, Ma Huateng announced that Tencent will build an "internet hospital" set up in Wuzhen that will provide long-distance diagnoses and medicine delivery.[33]

Politics

According to the official Tencent website, Ma is a deputy to the 5th Shenzhen Municipal People’s Congress and serves in the 12th National People’s Congress.[5]

Because of Tencent’s dominance of the social network and instant messaging markets in China, Ma Huateng’ relationship with the Chinese Communist Party has repeatedly come under scrutiny. Speaking of censorship at a tech conference in Singapore, Ma was quoted as saying "Lots of people think they can speak out and that they can be irresponsible. I think that's wrong […] We are a great supporter of the government in terms of the information security. We try to have a better management and control of the Internet”.[34]

Personal life

Ma uses the nickname Pony, derived from the English translation of his family name, which means “horse.”[28] Ma Huateng seldom appears in the media and is known for his secretive lifestyle.[35] He believes in the maxim: “Ideas are not important in China – execution is.”[32]

Ma Huateng’s wealth comes from the 9.7% stake in Tencent Holdings. He reportedly owns property in Hong Kong and art pieces worth $150 million.[36] He owns a redeveloped palatial residence of 19,600 sq ft in Hong Kong.[36]

In 2016, Ma transferred $2 billion worth of Tencent shares, to his charitable foundation. However Forbes has not decreased his net worth as the shares are still listed under his name.[37]

References

  1. ↑ "Ma Huateng". Forbes.
  2. ↑ "Pony Ma, the global strategist with deep pockets". Financial Times. 6 January 2018. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  3. ↑ "Tencent posts 69 percent jump in quarterly net profit; becomes the most valuable company in Asia". Tech2.
  4. ↑ Investing in China: The Emerging Venture Capital Industry Jonsson Yinya Li, Google Book Search
  5. 1 2 3 Tencent Tencent official site
  6. ↑ "The 100 Most Influential People in the World". Time. April 24, 2014.
  7. ↑ Biographical Dictionary of New Chinese Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders, Pg. 111 Ilan Alon and Wenxian Zhang. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2009. Google Book Search.
  8. ↑ "Businessperson of the Year". Fortune. 16 November 2017.
  9. ↑ Schuman, Michael. "Ma Huateng - pg.49". Forbes.
  10. ↑ "world's greatest leaders 2018".
  11. ↑ "Tencent's Pony Ma is Asian tech spaces' new Warren Buffett". www.dealstreetasia.com.
  12. ↑ "Huateng "Pony" Ma". Fortune. 24 March 2016.
  13. ↑ "Internet mogul Pony Ma named most generous Chinese philanthropist". South China Morning Post.
  14. ↑ Flannery, Russell. "Tencent Rally Adds Billions to Chairman's Philanthropy Pile, Highlights China Influence". Forbes.
  15. ↑ Flannery, Russell. "China Billionaire Horse Race: Tencent's Ma Huateng Is Asia's Richest Again". Forbes.
  16. ↑ "Asia's Tech Scene Gets a New Warren Buffett". Bloomberg Quint.
  17. ↑ Chanchani, Madhav (7 August 2015). "After Alibaba Holdings, Tencent makes first investment in Indian firm". The Economic Times.
  18. ↑ Walters, Natalie (17 August 2017). "Asia's Richest Man Jack Ma Has Become Much Wealthier This Year - See The Number". TheStreet.
  19. ↑ "Tencent Chief Overtakes Wanda's Wang as China's Second-Richest Person". Bloomberg.com. 20 July 2017.
  20. ↑ "Ma Huateng". Forbes.
  21. ↑ "Ma Huateng became one of the top 10 richest men in the world, surpassing Larry Page and Sergey Brin". Forbes.
  22. ↑ "Tencent's Ma Huateng is China's second-richest man on WeChat mania". www.livemint.com/. Retrieved 2016-01-12.
  23. ↑ "Pony Ma - Founder, Executive Director & CEO @ Tencent Holdings | CrunchBase". www.crunchbase.com. Retrieved 2016-01-12.
  24. ↑ "Tencent's Ma becomes China's second-richest man". www.businessspectator.com.au. Retrieved 2016-01-12.
  25. 1 2 3 4 5 "A mysterious message millionaire". www.chinadaily.com.cn. Retrieved 2016-01-12.
  26. ↑ "Ma Huateng | Chinese entrepreneur". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 2016-01-12.
  27. 1 2 3 "Tencent: The Secretive, Chinese Tech Giant That Can Rival Facebook and Amazon". Fast Company. Retrieved 2016-01-12.
  28. 1 2 3 4 "Pony Ma Biography - life, family, name, young, born, time, year, Career, Sidelights - Newsmakers Cumulation". www.notablebiographies.com. Retrieved 2016-01-12.
  29. ↑ "Ten Years of Tencent -- Beijing Review". www.bjreview.com. Retrieved 2016-01-12.
  30. ↑ "Language Log » A New Morpheme in Mandarin". languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu. Retrieved 2016-01-12.
  31. ↑ "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem". www.techinasia.com. Retrieved 2016-01-12.
  32. 1 2 M, Swathi R. "Internet Users In Malaysia Are More Active On WhatsApp And Facebook Than Those In US, UK And China [REPORT]". Dazeinfo. Retrieved 2016-01-12.
  33. ↑ "What are the next big things in the world of high technology? Let China's internet giants tell you". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 2016-01-12.
  34. ↑ Fuchs, Christian (2015-01-09). Culture and Economy in the Age of Social Media. Routledge. ISBN 9781317558194.
  35. ↑ "Pony Ma and his Tencent". Luxatic. Retrieved 2016-01-12.
  36. 1 2 "Ma vs. Ma: The most expensive house in Hong Kong belongs to one of China's internet kings - but is it Jack or Pony?". South China Morning Post. Retrieved 2016-01-12.
  37. ↑ "Ma Huateng". Forbes. Retrieved 2017-05-07.
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