Tencent

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Tencent Holdings Ltd.
腾讯 控股 有限公司

logo
legal form Corporation
ISIN KYG875721634
founding 1998
Seat Tencent Seafront Towers ,
33 Tian Er Road, Nanshan
Shenzhen , PRCChina People's RepublicPeople's Republic of China 
management
Number of employees 62,885 (2019)
sales 377.3 billion RMB (46.2 billion euros ) (2019)
Branch Internet
Website https://tencent.com/
As of December 31, 2019

Tencent Holdings Ltd. ( Chinese  騰訊 控股 有限公司  /  腾讯 控股 有限公司 , Pinyin Téngxùn Kònggǔ Yǒuxiàngōngsī , short 騰訊  /  腾讯 ) is an Internet company in the People's Republic of China with headquarters in Shenzhen , on the inner-Chinese border with the nearby Hong Kong Special Administrative Region . Among the diversified activities of Tencent primarily include business instant messaging services , social networking sites , online media (web portals), Internet value-added services (stationary and mobile), interactive entertainment (especially multiplayer - Online Games aka MMOG , MMORPG ), net trade (Electronic Trading ) and online advertising .

history

Tencent was founded in Shenzhen in November 1998 by Ma Huateng (also called Pony Ma, now Chairman) and Zhang Zhidong (also called Tony Zhang, now Chief Technology Officer) with the financial help of US venture capitalists . The first product was launched in February 1999 Instant Messenger OICQ later because of the name similarity with ICQ in Tencent QQ renamed. It was so successful that Tencent became China's first profitable internet company in just a few years. Since June 16, 2004 Tencent is at the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong ( SEHK listed) Since May 2007, the MSCI Emerging Markets Index since June 2008 at the Hang Seng Index . In 2006, Tencent launched the first charity foundation for a Chinese internet company, the Tencent Charity Fund . In 2007 Tencent invested over 100 million RMB in building the first Chinese research and development institute for Internet technologies, Tencent Research Institute , with offices in Beijing , Shanghai and Shenzhen. In March 2008, Qzone broke the 100 million user mark. In June 2008 Tencent founded a joint venture with MIH - a subsidiary of the South African media group Naspers for the Internet sector - which operates the Indian social network ibibo . In March 2010, QQ Instant Messenger exceeded 100 million active users for the first time. In April 2010, Tencent and Naspers acquired a stake in the Russian Internet company Digital Sky Technologies (DST, now Mail.ru Group ) and entered into a strategic partnership with them. Tencent's share in this investment was the equivalent of $ 300 million. During the World Expo 2010 , QQ.com was the exclusive internet service sponsor. In June 2010 Tencent announced its intention to enter into a long-term strategic development partnership with the US network technology provider Cisco Systems . In the same year Tencent acquired a 49.92% stake in the Thai Internet portal Sanook from its previous owner MIH, which is itself the main shareholder of Tencent. In January 2011 it was announced that Tencent was negotiating a cooperation with the discount coupon website Groupon for the Chinese market. Tencent already has an indirect stake in Groupon through its stake in the Russian Mail.ru Group.

In 2008, the group acquired 22.34% of the shares in the US game company Riot Games . At the beginning of February 2011 it was announced that Tencent had increased its stake in Riot Games to 92.78% by acquiring a majority stake worth approximately 230 million US dollars. At the beginning of January 2016, Riot Games was completely taken over by Tencent. In June 2012, it acquired about 48.4% of the issued shares of the US game developer Epic Games for 330 million US dollars . In July 2013, Tencent participated as a passive investor in the separation of Activision Blizzard and Vivendi . However, Vivendi still holds 12% of the shares in Activision Blizzard. Tencent holds 5% of Activision Blizzard. In June 2016, Tencent bought 84.3% of the Finnish developer studio Supercell for $ 8.6 billion.

In 2016 Tencent co-founded the Chinese joint venture Future Mobility Corporation with Foxconn (Hon Hai Precision Industry) and others for the development and manufacture of electric cars . In the first quarter of 2017, Tencent acquired a 5% stake in the US electric car maker Tesla , making it one of its largest shareholders. In addition, the company acquired shares in the online geodata service Here , in which Daimler , Audi and BMW are also involved. In June 2017, Tencent invested $ 71.7 million for a 2% stake in Ourpalm .

On June 29, 2020, Tencent, the free video-on-demand service for subscribers, acquired Iflix (“Netflix of Asia”), based in Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia .

Companies

"Tencent Building" - former HQ in Shekou , Shenzhen 2010
Tencent Seafront Towers - today's HQ in Nanshan , Shenzhen 2016

With a market capitalization of the equivalent of 491.3 billion US dollars (as of June 2018) , Tencent is the largest Internet company in the PRC and one of the most valuable companies in the world. Annual sales in 2017 were $ 35.3 billion with net income of $ 10.6 billion. Tencent is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and is included in the Hang Seng Index .

The Tencent Holding has the legal form of a Limited Liability Company (Ltd.) (LLC) and its legal seat in the British overseas territory of the Cayman Islands with favorable tax conditions . The company's headquarters are in the Shekou district of the city of Shenzhen in the southern Chinese coastal province of Guangdong . Executive director, chairman and chief executive officer of Tencent is its co-founder Ma Huateng (* 1971). More than half of Tencent's employees are research and development personnel. Tencent holds over 400 patents (as of 2009) in the areas of instant messaging , e-commerce, online payment systems , search engines , data security and online games. The largest single shareholder since 2001 has been the South African media group Naspers , held through its Internet subsidiary Myriad International Holdings (MIH). Initially, Naspers had a 46.5% stake; today, the stake is around 33%, and its value has multiplied. In addition to CEO Ma Huateng, other shareholders are the Vanguard Group and BlackRock . (As of January 2018)

Since 2017, the company has been based in the Tencent Seafront Towers in the Nanshan district of Shenzhen .

Participations (selection)

Companies Field of activity proportion of
Activision Blizzard Video games 5%
Epic Games Video games 48.4%
Frontier Development Video games 7.5%
Funcom Video games 100%
Grinding Gear Games Video games 80%
JD.Com E-commerce 18.1%
Mail.Ru e-mail 7.4%
Paradox Interactive Video games 5%
Riot Games Video games 100%
Snapchat Social media 12.1%
Spotify Streaming music 7.5%
Supercell Video games 84%
Tesla Electromobility 5%
Ubisoft Video games 5%

Sources: index.co reddit.com

Business figures

Fiscal year Sales
RMB [in billions] 		Profit
RMB [in billions]
2012 43.894 12.785
2013 60.437 15,563
2014 78.932 23.888
2015 102.863 29.108
2016 151.938 41,447
2017 237.760 72,471
2018 312.694 79.984
2019 377.289 118.694

Source: Tencent.com

Products (selection)

Development of concurrently active Tencent QQ users (until 2010)
  • Tencent QQ : launched in February 1999, today the most widely used instant messaging network in Asia byfar
  • QQ.com: launched in December 2003, since July 2006 the largest and most visited Internet portal in the PRC
  • QQ Games: multiplayer online game portal launched in September 2003 (e.g. QQ Sanguo); in October 2005 came the first self-developed MMOG . QQ Games peaked in the 2nd quarter of 2009 with up to 6.4 million concurrently active user accounts (based on mini-games )
  • Qzone: Commercial social network launched in May 2005, where you can write blogs , keep an online diary, send photos and listen to music. One of the largest social networks in China
  • QQ Player: a media player first released in 2008
  • 3G QQ: Social Network for Cellular Devices
  • SoSo: self-developed search engine launched in September 2009, temporarily cooperated with Google ( AdWords used )
  • PaiPai: started in March 2006, purchasing and sales platform ( consumer-to-consumer )
  • Tenpay: started in March 2006, online payment method
  • Tencent Traveler: one of the most popular web browsers in the PRC, it is based on the Trident technology of Microsoft's Internet Explorer
  • WeChat : Most popular chat service in China and number 2 in the Chinese mobile payment market.
  • WeGame : Internet sales platform

criticism

Tencent has been criticized by Amnesty International for failing to publicly state that it will not respond to government inquiries about messages sent through WeChat , for example .

In August 2019, it became known that Tencent was suing three bloggers who criticized the company on its social network WeChat . The defendant bloggers criticized that Tencent could have simply removed the relevant posts from their platform. These actions were seen by various media as an attempt to intimidate critical journalists and bloggers.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Annual Report 2019. (pdf) Retrieved on March 21, 2020 (English).
  2. ↑ M2 PRESSWIRE via COMTEX: Cisco and Tencent Sign MoU for Strategic Relationship. In: www.tmcnet.com. June 18, 2010, accessed August 8, 2019 .
  3. ^ Cisco and Tencent Sign MoU for Strategic Relationship. In: www.tencent.com. June 17, 2010, accessed August 8, 2019 .
  4. ^ Cisco and Tencent Sign MoU for Strategic Relationship. In: newsroom.cisco.com. June 18, 2010, accessed August 8, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Groupon wants to expand into China , ZDNet.de, January 17, 2011
  6. ^ Tencent Interim Report 2011, PDF; 871 kB ( memento of March 8, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), In: tencent.com, accessed on August 8, 2019 (English).
  7. ^ Matt Martin: Tencent paid $ 330m for 40% share in Epic Games. In: GamesIndustry.biz. March 22, 2013, accessed March 22, 2013 .
  8. ↑ Activision buys itself back from Vivendi for $ 8 billion ( Memento from January 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), In: www.joystiq.com, accessed on August 8, 2019 (English)
  9. ↑ Leo Sun: Should Investors Worry About Tencent's Stake in Activision Blizzard? October 15, 2019, accessed November 1, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Reuters: China wants to stir up the market with its own self-driving electric car by 2020. Retrieved February 5, 2017 .
  11. ↑ FMC: FMC Homepage. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on February 5, 2017 ; accessed on August 8, 2019 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / fmc.auto
  12. ↑ NavInfo, Tencent and GIC to invest in HERE; companies to develop location services for Chinese market . ( here.com [accessed January 4, 2018]). NavInfo, Tencent and GIC to invest in HERE; companies to develop location services for Chinese market ( Memento January 5, 2018 in the Internet Archive ), accessed August 8, 2019
  13. ↑ https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-06-20-tencent-invests-in-ourpalm-report
  14. ^ Tencent acquires the 'Netflix of Asia. In: telecoms.com. June 29, 2020, accessed on June 29, 2020 .
  15. ^ The World's Largest Public Companies . In: Forbes . ( forbes.com [accessed July 18, 2018]).
  16. ↑ 2010 Interim Report; PDF; 734 kB ( Memento from August 6, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on August 8, 2019 (English)
  17. ↑ 4-traders: Tencent Holdings Ltd company: Shareholders, managers and business summary | Stock Exchange of Hong Kong: 0700 | 4 traders. Accessed January 5, 2018 .
  18. ↑ Follow Tencent on Index.co. Retrieved April 12, 2020 (English).
  19. ↑ r / Security Analysis - Tencent Holdings Investment Portfolio List Update. Retrieved April 12, 2020 (American English).
  20. ↑ a b c d e Annual Report 2016. (pdf) Retrieved on March 21, 2020 (English).
  21. ↑ a b Annual Report 2018. (pdf) Retrieved on March 21, 2020 (English).
  22. ↑ Tencent 腾讯 - Investor Relations. Retrieved on August 16, 2018 .
  23. ↑ As of September 30, 2010: A total of around 1 billion user accounts, of which 636.6 million are active, which means that they are updated at least once a month; the peak value of the largest competitor at that time was 118.7 million active accounts; Measured by frequency of use, the market share in 2009 was 76.2%.
  24. ↑ As of September 30, 2010 (according to company information) 481.2 million active user accounts; for comparison: Facebook had a total of 287.1 million active members at the same time.
  25. ↑ How private are your favorite messaging apps? In: www.amnesty.org. October 21, 2016, accessed December 9, 2019 .
  26. ↑ China tech giant Tencent sues blogger who criticized the company on WeChat. In: Reclaim The Net. August 30, 2019, accessed April 22, 2020 (American English).
  27. ↑ Subscribe to read | Financial Times. Retrieved April 22, 2020 .
  28. ↑ Sep 5th 2019 10:47 am-Mike Masnick Thu: Chinese Giant Tencent Is Suing Bloggers Who Criticize The Company For 'Reputational Damage'. Retrieved April 22, 2020 .
  29. ↑ Martin Chorzempa 马永哲: Awful. Tencent is suing bloggers and journalists to silence critics. Note that thanks to social credit, if it wins case and writers can't pay damages, they go on a blacklist that can ruin their life. CN lacks personal bankruptcy, so can't escape obligationhttps: //www.ft.com/content/8ff662fe-c4b3-11e9-a8e9-296ca66511c9… In: @ChorzempaMartin. August 28, 2019, accessed April 22, 2020 .