Tencent needs to see market gap before expanding further overseas, says executive
Tencent signed a trade deal with Britain in May to develop creative partnerships with organisations such as the BBC
Chinese internet giant Tencent will only take its social networking platforms, music and gaming services to an international audience if it believes there is a gap in the market it can fill, a senior executive told Reuters on Thursday.
Tencent runs China’s biggest social network, music and gaming systems, with its billion user-strong WeChat messaging app sitting at the heart of the country’s booming internet economy.
But the company remains largely unknown to Westerners outside technology or financial circles. Speculation has grown that Tencent would expand internationally, following a string of investments and English language content partnerships abroad.
Tencent Senior Executive Vice President Seng Yee Lau said the company had to ask itself if they could create a user base in different countries.
“People ask, when are we bringing WeChat to different countries,” he told Reuters. “Our answer has always been, for any digital services or products, … if they have a better way of meeting the needs of the local customers, then they have a basis to be in there.
“If they haven’t figured out a way to be a better alternative then we have no basis of being there.”