Chapter 14 Ma Huateng Chief Architect of Business Thinking

Inside Tencent, there is a saying: Ma Huateng may not be as good as Yang Yuanqing in managing a large company, but if they are given the same funds to start a business, Ma has a better chance of winning.In short, Ma Huateng has a very keen business sense, knows what to learn, and knows how to improve what he has learned.In Ma Huateng's view, he is partial to technology and products, and is very pragmatic. Among the big names in the Internet, the styles of Ma Huateng and Ding Lei are relatively close.It is okay to grasp the direction and degree of strategy and products, but not good at management and external communication.

In the face of computers, he is like a fish in water, and the development of the "Stock Master Card" is an example. In 1994, when he was still working as a software engineer at Runxun Company, he saw that the computer board market was booming, so he combined his interest in stock trading and developed the "Shaba Card", which was once sold out in the electronic market in Shenzhen.The same logic happened during the birth of QQ. At the end of 1998, the 27-year-old Ma Huateng founded Tencent, and the OICQ he launched three months later was just a replica of the ICQ he loved to use in the past.Ma Huateng's QQ (formerly known as OICQ) has overcome some disadvantages of the long-established ICQ since the day it was born.

Through Ma Huateng's early experience, we seem to be able to get a glimpse of the core of his future business thinking: assess the situation and make a move when it is time to do so. In 2002, Ma Huateng was determined to enter the game market.At that time, netizens spent more time playing games in Internet cafes than playing QQ.In Ma Huateng's view, this is a threat to intangible assets.Tencent chose to enter casual chess and card games first. The reason is that the development cost of chess and card games is relatively low, and the correlation is relatively large, simple and can be integrated.Initially, Tencent only invested 4 people in the research and development of chess and card games, but it achieved unexpected success, and soon surpassed Lianzhong, the leader of casual games.

Subsequently, Ma Huateng represented a large-scale Korean online game, but the results were mediocre.The reason is also very simple. A large-scale online game is more like a blockbuster movie, and its success has more to do with itself than with your platform and derivatives.This cooperation has taught Tencent's game development and operation team a lesson.Since then, Tencent began to independently develop online games until the birth of the large-scale online game "QQ Fantasy". Ma Huateng has adopted a method of relying on his own people in Tencent's business line, and the same is true in setting up the company's management structure. In 2006, Ma Huateng began to withdraw from daily management, and Liu Chiping, an airborne soldier with McKinsey and Goldman Sachs background, took over the position of president from Ma Huateng.Chiping Lau had known Ma Huateng as early as 2003 when he helped Tencent go public. He was the former executive director of Goldman Sachs' Asia Investment Banking Department and was also an underwriting consultant for Tencent's IPO. At the beginning of 2005, Ma Huateng introduced Liu Chiping to Tencent as the chief strategic investment officer, and appointed him as the president a year later. In March 2007, Liu Chiping was promoted to the executive director of the company and became the most important role to assist Ma Huateng in the company's strategic deployment and operation.It was also the appointment of the president. Chen Tianqiao gave an order, and Tang Jun was in place in one step. The two of them had only met a few times before.

At present, there are many paratroopers in the top management of Tencent.Xiong Minghua, who was sent back to Shanghai by Microsoft from Seattle, was strongly invited by Zhang Zhidong, another founder of Tencent, to join Tencent in December 2005 and share the post of chief technology officer with Zhang Zhidong.Liu Shengyi, who is in charge of advertising and brand promotion (formerly the executive partner of Publicis-Publicis China), Xi Dan (from ZTE), director of human resources, Liu Chengmin (from Huawei), executive vice president of wireless business, chief editor of Tencent.com Chen Juhong (who served as an executive and editor-in-chief in "Southern Weekend", "Nanfengchuang" and other media) are all high-level talents who have been parachuted to Tencent.In this way, Ma Huateng has almost become the "chief architect" of Tencent. The article "Ma Huateng You Don't Know" sums up Ma Huateng's work as: "What Tencent will do in the future" from the outside, and "human issues" from the inside.Ma Huateng is now putting the most effort into participating in the incubation and tracking of new business lines.Every night, Ma Huateng spends his time on the Internet. From the technology channels of major portals to domestic IT communities such as DoNews, Techweb, and ChinaLab, he will visit them; he will download and use emerging foreign services and interesting products; Newly launched online games should also be played in it.Once a suitable innovation is found, find a way to transplant it to Tencent.

Apart from work, Ma Huateng has almost no other hobbies. Even after marriage, he still often works overtime until late at night.He is even one of the few entrepreneurs who is willing to say that he does not like reading: "Management books, it is enough to know. It will not be because you know that the company will be able to change, it still depends on what you do. .” Ma Huateng once expressed his attitude towards reading to the media.