Tencent’s co-founder Pony Ma tells Chinese state media that fate played a role in the company’s success

Chinese billionaire Pony Ma Huateng attributes the success of his internet giant Tencent Holdings to fate and “the era” in which the company grew up in, according to an interview the low profile tech leader gave to People’s Daily, the ruling Communist Party's mouthpiece.

“Tencent has been favoured by fate up to now and [our success] should be attributed to the era,” Ma is quoted saying in the interview, without elaborating. The interview was one of a series of features on “outstanding private entrepreneurs” published by People’s Daily to celebrate the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening up.

Started by a group of mostly Shenzhen University alumni in 1998, Tencent has become one of China’s most celebrated companies – the first Asian company to breach US$500 billion in market cap, though the recent global tech sell-off has cut that valuation by almost half. The company’s success has propelled its co-founder and chief executive Ma into the ranks of China’s wealthiest private entrepreneurs, with an estimated net worth of US$32 billion.

“The key to weather the difficulties is to innovate relentlessly,” Ma said, citing WeChat, Tencent’s messaging and social media app with over one billion users, as an example of the company’s technological innovation.

Tencent has applied for over 25,000 patents globally with 8,000 granted so far, according to the People’s Daily report, adding that the company has the second biggest number of patent applications worldwide in the field of the internet.