Tencent sees focus of internet development shifting from consumers to business in next two decades

The next 20 years of internet development will centre on “2B”, or services to businesses, shifting from a focus on consumers in the past two decades, according to Tencent Holdings executives at the company’s partners’ day in Nanjing, China.

“Tencent will play a role of being an assistant to help the internet integrate smart retail, medical, education as well as the manufacturing sectors,” Dowson Tong, president of Tencent’s newly established Cloud & Smart Industries Group, said in the opening speech at the two-day event. “In the coming two decades, Tencent will join with all partners to embrace industrial internet.”

The comments by Tencent executives about embracing the so-called industrial internet come on the heels of an open letter by co-founder and chairman Pony Ma Huateng, who said that the company wants to enable greater connectivity across Chinese industry, leveraging the capabilities and expertise it has built to serve the billion-plus users of its consumer-facing platforms, enhancing products and services.

The new direction is in line with China’s wider ambitions to lift its industries up the value chain and better compete globally in emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, in what has been dubbed the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The Nanjing event is Tencent’s first large-scale gathering since it announced the strategic reorganisation.

Ma did not take to the stage to give a speech, allowing his lieutenants to outline the group’s various business initiatives in the medical, education as well as fintech fields.

Tencent vice-president Qiu Yuepeng said the company will increase its investment incloud business and will establish a business school devoted to cloud enterprise with Peking University’s Guanghua School of Management. Ma will be the honorary head of the new school.

“The usage amount of cloud will be an important index to measure a country’s economy development,” Qiu added.