Exclusive | Pony Ma steers Tencent to 20th anniversary with eye on industrial internet

The arthritic lifts heave their way up the scaffolding-encased building, twitching to a stop before disgorging the smartphone-glued occupants into hospital-like corridors, who promptly disappear into offices that bear signs warning off door-to-door salespeople.

It may be hard to imagine, but back in 1998, this well-kept but now ageing building in SEG Science and Technology Park in Shenzhen's Huaqiangbei electronics wholesale district was home to a scrappy little messaging outfit called Tencent, started by a group of mostly Shenzhen University alumni including one called Pony Ma Huateng.

Tencent Holdings has since become one of China’s most celebrated companies, the first Asian company to breach US$500 billion in market cap, though the recent global sell-off has cut that valuation by almost half. The company’s success has propelled Ma into the ranks of China’s wealthiest private entrepreneurs, with an estimated net worth of US$29 billion.

As co-founder, chairman and chief executive, the 47-year-old is at the helm of a sprawling internet empire built on the pillars of online gaming, social networking and mobile payments, with a growing portfolio of investments in companies involved in everything from meal delivery to steel trading.

But as the Shenzhen-based company turns 20 next week and completes its move into a brand-new 50-storey headquarters, Ma is faced with reinventing the company yet again, this time by shepherding its resources to the industrial internet which provides services for businesses instead of consumers.

“We believe that the first stage of the mobile internet, the consumer internet, is drawing to a close and the second stage, the industrial internet, is kicking off,” Ma wrote in an open letter on Wednesday. “It became clear to us that if objects and services are not fully digitalised, the connection between them and people cannot be improved.”