One of the richest people in the world, who managed to build a business empire from scratch only thanks to his perseverance and passion. He has come a long way from a simple programmer to the owner of a giant company. Huateng is also called Pony Ma: because from the Chinese the surname Ma is translated as “horse”.
Childhood of a billionaire
Ma was born on October 29, 1971, in Chaoyang City, Guangdong Province, China. The boy grew up in Shenzhen, where the family moved because of his father’s work – he was the manager of the port. Here in 1993, Ma graduated from the university with a bachelor’s degree in computer science.
After Huateng got a job in a telecommunications company. He was engaged in online development, including for the Chinese government. Subsequently, the entrepreneur spoke positively about the introduced censorship, considering it necessary for the management of the Internet space.
The birth of a business giant
Huateng was preoccupied with the endless opportunities that the global network opened up for society. And in November 1998, he founded Tencent with friends from university. The initial investment amounted to $ 120 thousand, which was mostly received from the work in the stock market.
At first, the young entrepreneurs had a hard time. The company lacked staff, so Ma took on everything from cleaning the premises to designing. And already in February 1999, the instant messaging service ICQ (Open ICQ) was released. In October of the same year, the company sold a 20% stake for $ 2.2 million.
The messenger was renamed Tencent QQ – the original name was similar to the similar ICQ service. The program quickly became popular in China: it was free to use. However, things were not going as well as the founders of the Internet company expected – during the first three years, it practically did not bring profit. All this time, Ma and his partners have been actively seeking investors to expand Tencent’s activities.
In 2004, the company entered the video game market. Moreover, Huateng came up with the idea of not only selling the product itself, but also various virtual additions to it. Most of the profits came from this direction. By 2018, Tencent has become the largest video game manufacturer in the world.
In 2005, the company launched Paipai.com, an e-commerce portal. At that time, its main competitor was the legendary Alibaba.com, but gradually Tencent’s website became one of the most visited.
2011 saw another breakthrough with the launch of the Weixin instant messaging app (WeChat). Over time, it has become the world’s most popular communication service. In 2020, the number of its users exceeded 1.2 billion people.
In 2004, Tencent was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and four years later it was included in the main index. Today, the company’s capitalization is $ 930 billion. For comparison, the market value of Tesla is $ 752 billion, Facebook is $ 759 billion, and Alibaba Group Holding Limited is $ 726 billion.
Entrepreneur Personality
Huateng is married and has a daughter. He says he met his wife at Tencent QQ. Despite his huge fortune, the businessman lives modestly and does not like to communicate with the press.
He considers himself more an enthusiastic researcher than a businessman: he always puts science and IT development at the head of his work, not profit. Ma says that he is committed to creating something amazing – something that would not be possible without the latest technology. Together with other authors, he published a book on the digitalization of society “Digital Transformation of China. Experience of transforming the infrastructure of the national economy ”.
Today, the entrepreneur’s fortune is estimated at $ 71.6 billion – he is ranked 15th in the Forbes ranking. The same magazine 2014 named him one of the most influential people in the world.
Huateng also owns $ 150 million in Hong Kong real estate and works of art. He is actively involved in charity work through his foundation. So, in 2016, an entrepreneur donated $ 2 billion.
