Pony Ma Profile
Ma Ma, male, Han nationality, born in 1971, a member of the Communist Party of China, and a native of Shantou, Guangdong. One of the main founders of Tencent, he is currently the chairman and CEO of Tencent’s board of directors. He founded Tencent in 1998 and launched the instant messaging software QQ, for which he is also known as the "father of QQ". Benefiting from the reform and opening up environment, he founded and led Tencent from a small business with only 5 people to one of the most influential Internet companies in the world. Vigorously promote the popularization of Internet applications such as WeChat, QQ, and online payment, promote digital transformation and upgrading from the aspects of people’s livelihood and government affairs, living consumption, production services, life and health, and ecological and environmental protection, and play an important role in the integrated development of the real economy and the digital economy, traditional industries, and technological innovation. On December 18, 2018, Pony Ma, as the explorer of the’Internet + ‘action, was awarded the title of "Reform Pioneer" by the Party Central Committee and the State Council.
"Tencent has come to this day, first of all, it should be attributed to this era." In 2018, after being awarded the title of "Reform Pioneer" by the Party Central Committee and the State Council at the celebration of the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up, Pony Ma sighed.
Pony Ma has been working and living in Shenzhen for more than 30 years, and is a witness, participant and beneficiary of the great process of reform and opening up. Pony Ma has led Tencent to build a product system covering more than one billion users from the original operation of OICQ to the present, from a five-person start-up company to a giant enterprise with more than 40,000 employees. He has experienced the whole process of the development of China’s Internet from scratch and from weak to strong. He has always adhered to independent innovation to lead and promote the harmonious and sustainable development of China’s Internet industry. The development history of Tencent is a vivid embodiment of the rapid development of China’s Internet and a clear footnote to the miracle of China.
Founding Tencent to shape a new way of life
Pony Ma was born in Bashogang, Dongfang City, Hainan Island, and the second largest in his family. In 1984, the 13-year-old Pony Ma moved from Hainan to Shenzhen with his parents.
Pony Ma has a passion for the Internet in his heart. After he took the college entrance examination, he applied for the computer major of the Department of Electronic Engineering of Shenzhen University. During his time in school, Pony Ma showed his talent in computers. His technical level is among the best in the whole department. During his internship, he developed a stock trading software, which was later bought by the internship company for 50,000 yuan.
After graduating from college in 1995, Pony Ma spent nearly 50,000 yuan in his spare time, equipped 4 phone lines and 8 computers at home, and opened a BBS build website program – Huiduo.com’s Shenzhen station. Wu ******, author of "Tencent Biography", commented that Pony Ma was called "China’s first product manager", and his product awareness and user thinking were developed during Huiduo.com.
In 1998, Pony Ma summoned his college classmate Zhang Zhidong. After the two had a cup of coffee in a cafe, Pony Ma suddenly said to Zhang Zhidong: "Let’s start a business together." At the time, he never imagined that the Internet business he founded would one day become the Internet Tech Giants of China and the world. "Even my parents didn’t expect that I, a nerd, could start a company." Pony Ma once teased himself on several occasions.
Pony Ma not only found a partner at the outset when he founded the business, but also well regulated the responsibilities and rights of the entrepreneurial team. Lin Jun, author of "Boiling for Fifteen Years – China Internet 1995-2009", believes that this decided from the very beginning that Pony Ma was not in the pool, and one day he would "carp leap over the dragon gate".
The initial project of Tencent’s entrepreneurial team was not successful, and Pony Ma decided to "raise" a social software OICQ that did not know how to make money. In November 2000, OICQ was renamed QQ, which became a new starting point for Tencent’s development. In February 2002, QQ online users successfully broke through the 1 million mark, and the number of registered users increased to 20 million. With the increasing number of users, QQ gradually developed into a national-level instant messaging tool in the Internet era, changing the way of life of many people. People’s daily office or making friends gradually changed from making phone calls and sending text messages to logging in to QQ to chat. The success of QQ has allowed Tencent to enter almost any field of the Internet, obtain a stable user base of sufficient magnitude, and obtain more income. After entering online games and portals one after another, in 2004, QQ integrated music, webcast and video services one after another. After that, QQ users rose steadily, one step a year, and on April 11, 2014, the number of QQ simultaneous online users exceeded 200 million. Since then, QQ has entered a stage of stable development.
In 2011, WeChat, the national instant messaging app of the mobile Internet era, was born, and Tencent once again revolutionized people’s lifestyles. People can chat with voice, video, pictures and text for free through the Internet; they can also use service plugins such as shared streaming content-based data and location-based social plug-ins "Shake a Shake", "Drifting Bottle", "Moments", "Public Platform" and "Voice Notepad". With the launch of WeChat, people can more easily maintain the world of real-world friends through a mobile phone, and it is more convenient to understand unfamiliar friends. As of December 31, 2021, the combined monthly active accounts of WeChat and WeChat reached 1.268 billion.
Relying on the two core social platforms of QQ and WeChat, Pony Ma has overcome all obstacles and led Tencent to achieve development on the road of diversification. Tencent provides users with comprehensive internet services including social networking, communication, entertainment, education and learning, Internet applications such as WeChat Pay and Tencent Cloud, and digital cultural products such as online literature, music, games and animation. These products and services have profoundly changed the way Chinese people work, live, study and play.
Pony Ma’s vision is that Tencent will fully meet the needs of people at different levels of online life, hoping that products and services will be integrated into life like water and electricity.
Embrace "Internet +" and promote the integration of the real economy and the digital economy
Nowadays, the Internet industry has penetrated into people’s daily lives and the business activities of enterprises. The Internet has gradually formed a comparative advantage, which has prompted the concept of "Internet +" to come into being.
Since 2013, Pony Ma has been actively advocating the "Internet +" proposition, calling for and hoping that more and more traditional industries can use the power of the Internet to achieve transformation, upgrading and innovative development. As a representative of the National People’s Congress, he submitted the "Proposals on Driving the Economic and Social Innovation and Development of our country" in 2015, proposing that the national "Internet +" development strategy should be formulated. In the same year, promoting "Internet +" was included in the government work report and became a national action plan.
"Internet +" has become a field that Ma Jintao often runs for. A senior domestic Internet commentator said: "Whether it is from the ‘***** or the implementation of the strategy, Ma Jintao has been promoting the implementation of’Internet + ‘and becoming the’evangelist’ of’Internet + ‘in China."
The Tencent ride code is a classic example of "Internet + transportation", with which you can take public transportation with your mobile phone. In terms of promoting the Tencent ride code, Pony Ma has spared no effort to attend the signing ceremony of cooperation with many cities. He has also personally used the ride code to take the subway in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, take the riverway in Chongqing, and take the bus in Hefei…
In line with the national policy of promoting the integration of the real economy and the digital economy, Tencent has carried out "Internet +" exploration and innovation around people’s livelihood services, living consumption, production services, ecological environmental protection and rural revitalization to help digital transformation and upgrading.
Tencent is a pioneer in low-carbon development, enabling low-carbon transformation through digital technology. Since the launch of the Tencent conference, more than 15 million tons of carbon emissions have been achieved after deducting the carbon emissions generated by operating data centers. This is equivalent to the emission reduction caused by each person voluntarily stopping driving for 14 days 229 million private car owners in the country. The average carbon emission reduction per online meeting is equivalent to the carbon sinks generated by about 20 trees every year.
Tencent Cloud, AILAB, Youtu Lab, WeChat AI Team, Robotics Lab, Quantum Lab, etc. have been established one after another. Tencent has completely opened up its technology accumulation of more than 20 years and used it as Tencent’s future-oriented technology output system. Moreover, in key areas such as "Internet + Precision Poverty Alleviation", "Internet + Finance" and "Internet + Healthcare", Tencent has been contributing its own strength. In the future, Pony Ma hopes to use scientific and technological innovation to promote the further development of reform and opening up, better help the integration of the real economy and the digital economy, and continue to play his role in the process of reform.
Actively transform and become a "digital assistant" for industrial upgrading
In 2018, as Tencent celebrates its 20th birthday, Pony Ma made a decision: Tencent will carry out a large-scale organizational restructuring, transforming from the consumer Internet to the industrial Internet. He bluntly said: "Tencent has always said that it focuses on connectivity, hoping to connect people and people, people and things, and people and services. But we increasingly find that in addition to realizing the connection between people, if a large number of’things’ and’services’ cannot be fully digitally upgraded, then the connection between people and things and people and services will be difficult to iterate." Tencent wants to further become the "digital assistant" of the industry itself.
During the transition period, Tencent continued to deepen the "connection between people and services", so that Internet technology can benefit more ordinary people.
Tencent is an active participant in the reform and construction of Guangdong’s digital government, and Guangdong is also the starting point for Tencent to participate in the construction of the national digital government. Under the guidance of relevant units, Tencent provides technical support to help Guangdong successively create "Guangdong series" products such as "Guangdong Provincial Affairs", "Guangdong Business Connect" and "Guangdong Political Exchange", which help Guangdong’s economic and social development improve quality and efficiency in many aspects such as facilitating people’s livelihood, optimizing the business environment, enhancing government efficiency, and enhancing governance capabilities. The "Guangdong Provincial Affairs" Government WeChat Mini Program provides more than 2,400 high-frequency services such as social security, maternity, provident fund, entry and exit, driver’s license, and tax payment certificate for residents in Guangdong Province. After the COVID-19 epidemic occurred, the "Guangdong Business Pass" platform launched the "Enterprise Appeal Response Platform", which accepted enterprises’ labor, financing, tax, export and other appeals about the impact of the epidemic online, accurately distributed them to relevant departments across the province, and responded quickly within 24 hours to achieve "If the enterprise has a call, the government must respond". The new model of government handheld coordination represented by "Guangdong Political Affairs" has provided more choices for the government to operate more efficiently, and related products and solutions have been put into practice in many provinces and cities. In the process of scientific and technological anti-epidemic, Guangdong’s experience has also become an important reference. In February 2020, the country’s first health code "deep i you" was launched, and then quickly popularized across the country. At present, Tencent health code has been landed in 500 cities and counties, serving 1.10 billion users.
Supported by advanced technologies such as big data, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things, Tencent is gradually deploying the digital upgrade of "things" and "services", and the expansion of regional industrial Internet across the country has been fully rolled out. On December 23, 2020, Tencent’s Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Industrial Internet Base was launched in Foshan. The base will jointly build a regional industrial Internet platform with Foshan City, establish a new benchmark for industrial Internet construction, promote the transformation and upgrading of Foshan’s manufacturing industry, and radiate the Greater Bay Area and surrounding enterprises with Foshan as the center, accelerate the release of regional economic vitality, and create a national-level industrial Internet demonstration platform.
On March 6, 2021, at the National People’s Congress, the Guangdong delegation held a plenary session to review the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the draft outline of the long-term goals for 2035. National People’s Congress deputy Ma Jintao made a speech on the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, scientific and technological innovation, and basic research
Pony Ma said that the transformation of the industrial Internet has just begun, and there is still a long way to go in the future. In this process, Tencent needs to provide infrastructure such as cloud and big data to solve the "last mile" connection problem for all walks of life. "We will continue to work hard in the direction of’Internet + ‘, strive to become a digital assistant of various industries, and actively help economic and social development," Pony Ma said.
Build a foundation platform and create a new pattern of public welfare
In June 2007, the Tencent Foundation was officially established. As the first public welfare foundation initiated by an Internet company, the Tencent Foundation is committed to promoting the deep integration and development of the Internet and public welfare charities, and promoting the development of the public welfare industry through the technology and services of the Internet, especially mobile Internet.
Pony Ma once said: "The development of business promotes social progress, and public welfare makes society more warm and friendly. With the help of Internet technology, everyone can do public welfare at their fingertips and solve social problems. We connect everything and people’s hearts, hoping to gather every goodwill into the best power, empower everyone in need, and light up our common future."
The Tencent Foundation established an emergency assistance plan at the beginning of its establishment, and has been actively organizing and participating in the fight against natural disasters. It has taken the lead in creating a "three-dimensional rescue model" of online and offline interaction for major disasters in China. It has successively participated in the Kashgar earthquake, Wenchuan earthquake, Yushu earthquake, Ya’an earthquake, Haiti earthquake and other domestic and foreign earthquake relief and natural disasters such as floods and droughts.
Tencent practices public welfare innovation in all internal product lines, encourages employees to participate in public welfare, and creates colorful "scene-based" public welfare attempts, such as: the "QQ City-wide Help" platform for finding missing children, which has been online for more than a year and has successfully recovered 16 missing children; WeChat Pay "electronic donation box" makes it possible to integrate public welfare into daily payment; "Cloud Public Welfare" opens free cloud resources and IT technology training services to public welfare organizations; computer housekeepers and mobile phone housekeepers cooperate to launch "Clean Up +", encouraging netizens to donate love through online garbage cleaning, and promoting offline public welfare donations….
In April 2021, Tencent proposed the "Sustainable Social Value Innovation" strategy and announced an initial investment of 50 billion yuan to establish a "Sustainable Social Value Division" to promote the implementation of the strategy. This 50 billion yuan is specifically used for sustainable social value innovation, exploring areas such as basic science, educational innovation, rural revitalization, carbon neutrality, FEW (food, energy and water), public emergency response, elderly care technology and public welfare digitalization. In August 2021, Tencent announced another increase of 50 billion yuan in funding, launched the "Common Prosperity Special Project Plan", and deeply combined its own digital and technological capabilities to provide continuous assistance in areas such as rural revitalization, income increase for low-income people, improvement of the primary health care system, and balanced development of education.
Pony Ma once expressed his original intention in a letter to employees: all efforts are to root the foundation of sustainable social value innovation in the social soil; Tencent will "continue to respond to the needs of the country and the times, and coexist and prosper with the constantly developing society".
From an ordinary entrepreneur to the head of one of the most influential Internet companies in the world, Pony Ma has truly achieved "roots down, upgrades up, and inclusive development". In 2018, Pony Ma announced Tencent’s new mission: "First, we must breathe with the times and share the same destiny as the country; second, our products and services must improve all aspects of people’s lives; third, we must develop together with industrial partners. Only by achieving these three points can we truly become the’most respected Internet company ‘and have more confidence and confidence in the development of the next 20 years."
