Ma Huateng Biography

Childhood & Early Life

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). His 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.

Foundation of Tencent

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. The idea got stuck in Ma’s head, and he thought of launching something similar for the Chinese market. In February 1999, Ma officially unveiled ‘OICQ,’ an instant-messaging service. Shortly after its launch, ‘OICQ’ faced a lawsuit from ‘ICQ.’ Thus, it was renamed ‘QQ.’ However, the company was initially not as successful as Ma thought it would be. It registered practically no profit in its first 3 years.

Despite the company not performing as good (because ‘OICQ’ was offered free of charge), the product was an immediate hit with the Chinese people. Experiencing substantial growth, the company looked for more investors to bear their operational costs. ‘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 own portal, was launched in 2003. This was regarded as ‘Tencent’s official foray into the online gaming market.

Within a year, ‘Tencent’s success shot up rapidly. It became the largest instant-messaging service provider by 2004, with a 74% stake in the Chinese market. The share market of Hong Kong listed ‘Tencent.’ Soon, the company raised $200 million, making Ma one of the richest Chinese businessmen.

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 2005, Ma launched ‘Paipai.com,’ a direct competitor to China’s biggest e-commerce platform, ‘Alibaba.com.’ By then, ‘Tencent’ had become a massive force to reckon with, in the field of internet gaming, e-commerce, media, entertainment, and instant messaging.

In 2011, ‘Tencent’ had another major breakthrough when the company launched another instant-messaging app, ‘Weixin,’ known in English as ‘WeChat.’ 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. ‘Tencent Games,’ a ‘Tencent’ division, became the biggest video-game company in the world by 2018.

Other Ventures

Apart from running its own gaming division, ‘Tencent’ occupied major stakes in many other gaming companies. Other ventures of ‘Tencent’ include ‘Tenpay’ and ‘Tencent Pictures.’ In 2014, ‘Tencent’ also collaborated with major music-production companies such as ‘Sony’ and ‘Warner Music Group’ for in-China distribution contracts.

Honors & Achievements

Ma Huateng has been honored by various publications. He has been featured on ‘Time’s list of the most influential people in the world in 2007, 2014, and 2018. He has also been featured on ‘Forbes’ list of the most powerful people in the world and ‘Fortune’s list of the top businessmen of the world.

With a net worth of about $51.1 billion, as of March 2018, Ma is the richest man in China and the 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.

Family & Personal Life

Ma Huateng is married to Wang Dan-ting and has a daughter named Ma Manlin. Ma leads an extremely simple personal life and does not like to interact with the media. He has often being compared with Chinese businessman Jack Ma, but as opposed to the extroverted Jack, Ma Huateng is media-shy.

Ma Huateng is also called “Ma Pony” by his peers, as his Chinese name translates to “horse” in English. He also runs a charitable foundation that he has established on his own. In 2016, he transferred $2 billion to his charity. Ma has clarified that he has a positive outlook toward internet scrutiny, which is essential in terms of information security.