internet messaging

The invention of social media platforms has brought the whole world closer. It has connected millions of people around the globe. The genius minds behind the development of such software and applications, deserve success and they have achieved it. From Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, in the US, to QQ in China, all the social media platforms are receiving a whacking response. Chinese internet entrepreneur, Ma Huateng, founded Tencent, which is the biggest internet firms in China, making him the richest man in China.

Early Life

Ma Huateng was born on 29th October 1971, in Dongfang, Hainan, China. His family moved to Shenzhen, near Hong Kong, as his father was a port manager, in Shenzhen. He enrolled at Shenzhen University, in 1989, to study software engineering, and graduated in 1993, with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science.

Early Career

After graduating, Ma took a job, as a software developer, with China Motion Telecom Development and developed software for pagers. In that job, he made around $176 per month. In his next job, Ma worked in the research and development department, for internet calling services, in Shenzhen Runxun Communications.

Founding Tencent

In 1998, Ma along with his four classmates founded Tencent. Ma had participated in a presentation, for ICQ, which was the world’s first internet instant messaging service, started by an Israeli company. In February 1999, Tencent launched its first ever product. The product was a similar version of ICQ, but with Chinese interface, and was named OICQ (where O stands for Open). This software received a huge response, and it gained more than a million registered users, just in the first year of its launch. OICQ, soon, became one of the largest internet instant messaging services, in China.

The early days of Tencent were hard and full of struggle, for all the four co-founders. In the beginning, the company was funded through the money they earned in the share market. The first few years proved to be crucial for the survival, and Ma took various roles, from janitor to website designer, in the company, during that time. Tencent’s initial services included e-mail and internet paging services.

After the launch of OICQ, there were several controversies, and Tencent also faced a lawsuit from America Online (AOL). After acquiring ICQ, AOL filed a lawsuit against Tencent, in the United States, and claimed that OICQ’s domain names OICQ.com and OICQ.net, violated ICQ’s intellectual property rights. Tencent loss the lawsuit, and also suffered heavy costs. They had to shut down both the websites. Soon, Ma changed the name of the software to QQ and decided to expand his business horizon.

Tencent became the largest instant messaging service, in China by 2004 and also launched an online gaming platform, which attracted more than a million online gaming people. The company also launched WeChat, in 2015, after they conducted a competition between two teams of engineers. WeChat is one of the largest instant messaging apps, used all over the world. Ma also plans to launch an internet hospital that will provide long-distance diagnosis and medicine delivery services to the needy.

Personal Life

Ma Huateng is also popularly known by his nickname Pony. The name is derived from the English translation of his family name, which translates to ‘horse’. He serves in the 12th National People’s Congress and is a great supporter of the Government. He believes in: “Ideas are not important in China – execution is.” He was awarded Innovative CEO of the Year, in 2015. He owns a palatial residence in Hong Kong and also supports charity.