Ma Huateng

Pony Ma, Beijing 2011

Ma Huateng ( Chinese  馬化騰  /  马化腾 , Pinyin Mǎ Huàténg ; born October 29, 1971 in Chaoyang , Guangdong Province , People's Republic of China ) is a Chinese entrepreneur . He is known internationally under the name Pony Ma . Pony is the translation of his Chinese surname Ma ( 马 = horse).

Life

Ma studied engineering and computer science at Shenzhen University and graduated in 1993. He began his career as an employee of China Motion Telecom Development Limited, where after some time he was made responsible for developing pager services over the Internet. In 1998, with modest means, he founded Tencent , which initially developed technologies for text-based instant messaging . Shortly afterwards, he developed a Chinese version of the software AOL Instant Messenger and developed by five Israelis ICQ , which he as a platform in 1999, Tencent QQ (OICQ previously or Open ICQ), an instant messaging - service started. At the end of the same year, he received $ 2.2 million from two venture capitalists. The company grew rapidly and was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on July 16, 2004 . It has since made strong gains there. In 2011 he launched the WeChat platform , which is now the largest instant messenger in the world.

Ma is said to have a determined leadership style and a great gift for adapting international trends to Chinese tastes. He was able to put together a talented team who found a way to financially benefit in the Chinese market with services free to users.

Ma heads the Chinese company Tencent (as of 2019) and holds a stake of almost 10 percent. Ma is married and has a daughter. He lives in Shenzhen .

Ma Huateng was a delegate of the National People's Congress and is considered an advocate of the restrictive Chinese Internet policy ("We are a great supporter of the government in terms of information security"). The WeChat messenger service is intensively censored . However, Ma is not a member of the Chinese Communist Party as of the end of 2018 .

capital

Ma Huateng is a multi-billionaire. In 2005, at the age of 34, he was 68th among the richest Chinese. He ranks 17th on the Forbes list for 2018 and his fortune is reported at 45.3 billion US dollars .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Sunny Li Sun and Martina Jing Quan: Ma, Huateng . In: Wenxian Zhang and Ilan Alon (Eds.): Biographical Dictionary of New Chinese Entrepreneurs and Business Leaders . Edward Elgar, 2009, ISBN 978-1-84720-636-7 , pp. 111-112 .
2. ^ Christian Fuchs: Culture and Economy in the Age of Social Media. Routledge, 2015, p. 296.
3. ↑ 关于 改革 开放 杰出 贡献 拟 表彰 对象 的 公示. People.cn, November 26, 2018, accessed April 8, 2019 (Chinese). 
4. ↑ Ma Huateng. Forbes, March 8, 2018, accessed March 8, 2018 . 

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Ma is the family name here, Huateng is the first name.