Ma Huateng

Ma Huateng is a Chinese business magnate, engineer, investor, philanthropist,

and entrepreneur, best known as one of the founders and the CEO of one of
Asia’s most valuable companies, ‘Tencent.’ ‘Tencent’ also happens to be one
of the biggest internet and technology companies in the world and the biggest
gaming and entertainment conglomerate, too.

Ma Huateng was born in Badagang, Guangdong (now Dongfang City), China,

on October 29, 1971, into a humble household. His father, Ma Chenshu,
moved to Shenzhen to work as a port manager when Huateng was quite young.
Ma completed his remaining schooling from there and found a keen interest in
computer technologies. Ma enrolled at ‘Shenzhen University’ in 1989. He
studied computer science and graduated with a BS degree in 1993. Following
his college graduation, Ma started working at a telecommunications company named ‘China Motion Telecom
Development’ (CMTD). ‘CMTD’ was engaged in the supply of communication services and products, and
Ma’s job in the company was the development of software for pagers. Since he was earning less than $200 a
month, Ma left the company later and worked at the R&D department of another internet and
telecommunications company for a while. Simultaneously, he also kept toying with the idea of starting his own
company and got in touch with four of his college classmates to make his business dreams come true.

By 1998, Ma Huateng joined four of his friends and laid the foundation of the company ‘Tencent,’ the initial
funding for which came via venture capitalists. When he thought about launching the first product, Ma recalled
attending an event where ‘ICQ,’ the world’s first instant-messaging service, was being launched. ‘Tencent’
had already sunk its teeth in the Chinese telecommunications market, but in order to show profit and to avoid
takeovers by bigger companies, the company expanded its operations. ‘QQ.Com,’ the company’s ow n portal,
was launched in 2003. This was regarded as ‘Tencent’s official foray into the online gaming market. In 2004,
Ma’s sharp marketing brain invented many fresh ideas related to online gaming, such as selling virtual goods
to support online gaming. It strengthened the company’s influence. Around the same time, Ma thought of
venturing into the e-commerce zone, another fast-growing and highly lucrative field. In 2011, ‘Tencent’ had
another major breakthrough when the company launched another instant-messaging app, ‘Weixin,’ known in
English as ‘WeChat.’ For the development of the app, ‘Tencent’ took the same route as Bill Gates had taken
for ‘Microsoft.’ The company created two teams to work on the product simultaneously. Over time, ‘WeChat’
became the most popular instant-messaging service in the world. Most of the credit of its success goes to its
easy interface and the inclusion of paid and unpaid emoticons and ringtones. The biggest chunk of Ma’s profit
came from online video games, which had become a major market in the 2010s, as internet access had become
easier by then. ‘Tencent Games,’ a ‘Tencent’ division, works toward the development of video games under
‘Tencent Interactive Entertainment.’ Founded in 2003, ‘Tencent Games’ became the biggest video -game
company in the world by 2018.

In 2018, ‘CEOWORLD Magazine’ honored him with a place on their list of the ‘Most Powerful People in the
World.’ He has often been compared with Warren Buffett, one of the most successful investors in the world.
With a net worth of about $51.1 billion, as of March 2018, Ma is the richest man in China and 14th -richest
man in the world. In November 2017, he became the first Chinese businessman to be featured on ‘Forbes’s list
of the top 10 richest men in the world.