Tencent boss Pony Ma pledges to serve society despite slower business growth
- The internet giant aims to change its focus from consumers and industries to serving the whole society, Ma says in a new report
- Tencent has been under regulatory pressure to follow antitrust guidelines and obey new data security and gaming regulations
Pony Ma Huateng, founder, chairman and chief executive of Tencent Holdings, said the company will keep moving towards serving society despite slower business growth, in a statement that echoes similar pledges that have been made since last year.
“Tencent is facing a new phase in which challenges and development coexist,” Ma wrote in Tencent’s first sustainable social values report released on Monday. “On one hand, profit and revenue growth are slowing; on the other hand, we can use [the opportunity] to change gears and create higher-quality development.”
The internet giant aims to change its focus from consumers and industries to serving the whole society, following its strategic upgrade last year to make sustainable social values the core of Tencent’s mission, Ma said.
Ma, 50, who founded China’s most valuable technology company in 1998, has made no major public appearances since early 2021, when he showed up at the country’s annual parliamentary gathering in Beijing.
While Ma, a National People’s Congress delegate, submitted his proposals for the 2022 session, there was no video or photos showing that he attended the meetings in person.
Tencent, which runs the world’s largest video gaming business by revenue and China’s biggest social media platform WeChat, has been under regulatory pressure to follow antitrust guidelines and obey new regulations, ranging from data security to game time restrictions on minors.