Recently, I just finished reading "Tencent Biography" written by Mr. Wu Xiaobo, which tells the history of Tencent's enterprise development from its birth in 1998 to the end of 2016, and it is also a synchronous history of the development of China's Internet.
I believe that many years ago, no one would believe that with Penguin as the corporate image, such a low-key instant messaging company will grow into an Internet giant with a market value of nearly 4 trillion yuan today, the Internet economy is full of uncertainty, everything is open, and So is Tencent.
Personally, I like the view of the Russian thinker and master deconstructivist Bakhtin quoted in the book: "Nothing summative has happened in the world, nor has anyone said anything about the world, or the final summary of the world." The world is open and free, and everything remains to be done in the future, and always will be. ”
Tencent started from QQ, realized the original accumulation of users, realized the profitability of user resources with innovative and imitated profit models, and rapidly grew into the world's top Internet giant, however, as mentioned above, this is not inevitable, behind it is the uncertainty of entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial environment, and I think more of the interaction between the two.
"The character and talents of a founding entrepreneur will ultimately determine all the personalities of this business. Just as Apple has never belonged only to Jobs, Tencent belongs only to Ma Huateng in the sense of temperament and soul. The book summarizes the 7 core competencies of Ma Huateng's team:
(1) Product minimalism. "Less is appropriate", "Don't make me think", "Let the function exist in the invisible", these have become the most lethal corporate philosophy in the mobile Internet era.
(2) User-driven strategy. Tap into consumer psychology and optimize and innovate based on user experience.
(3) Internal horse racing mechanism. Innovation in the Internet world is almost always subversive, suddenly on the edge of insignificance, requiring the middle and grassroots to make independent innovation breakthroughs on the edge that is difficult for companies to detect.
(4) Trial and error iteration strategy. There is no such thing as perfection in the Internet economy, and iterative trial and error quickly is the key to success.
(5) Ecological cultivation mode. In the face of the uncertainty of the Internet, Tencent has become an ecological organization with blurred boundaries.
(6) Capital integration ability. Turn the advantages and strategic assumptions of traffic into the impetus of capital.
(7) Focus on the original intention of entrepreneurship. The need to improve the wealth situation gives way to personal interest and the passion to transform society, immersed in the product itself.
In Tencent's top decision-making level, the vast majority of people have a low-key and pragmatic personality, this team has maintained a considerable degree of stability, which is very different from companies such as Alibaba and Baidu; such a "quiet" decision-making team can lead the company further with the most resolute and calm style, in their language world, complex data and constantly iterative facts are two kinds of materials that build history, rather than flashing aphorisms and texts.
Tencent was born in 1998 and then in 1999, is a period of frequent global Internet events, the acquisition of Netscape by The United States Online, the browser war between Microsoft and Netscape, Jobs's return to Apple, Yahoo's Yang Jerry Fenghua Zhengmao, Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded Google, in China, the Internet portal era of the three giants Sina, Sohu and NetEase stand out, online games, e-commerce and search engines and other non-portal models have also quietly emerged, Lianzhong, Nine Cities, JD.com, Alibaba, Ctrip, Dangdang, Baidu, 3721 and so on were born. In this period, the world is experiencing the wave of the Internet, and Tencent is precisely the most inconspicuous one.
It is in this era of male deer that the low-key and calm Tencent finally came out and stood at the peak of China's Internet.
Let's take a look at the big events of Tencent's development:
1998 Tencent was founded.
1999 OICQ was released.
In 2000, it received investment from IDG and Yingke, valued at US$5.5 million; OICQ changed its name to QQ and launched mobile and telecom value-added services.
In 2001, it received MIH investment at a valuation of US$60 million, and in the same year, Tencent became the first profitable Internet company in China.
In 2002, Q coin was born; QQ launched a group chat function.
2003 Tencent Online Launched, QQ Show Launched, Becoming a Revolutionary Paid Product, Tencent Games Was Born and QQ Games Was Launched.
2004 Listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange; launched mini homepage.
In 2005, QQ defeated MSN, redefined instant messaging, and launched QQ space.
2006 Launched Super QQ and Mobile QQ; Launch of Tenpay.
2007 Tencent Charity Foundation was established.
In 2008, the games "Crossfire" and "Dungeons and Dragons" were launched, and Tencent games achieved explosive growth. Proposed the MIND model to redefine Internet advertising.
2009 Happy Farm was launched in QQ space; Tencent Games established the first in the domestic game market.
2010 3Q Wars.
2011 Launch of the open platform strategy; WeChat launch; WeChat added voice intercom function; launch of Tencent Video; investment in a majority stake in Riot Games.
In 2012, the "pan-entertainment strategy" was officially proposed; the strategic investment was Made in Epic Games and Kakao; the circle of friends and WeChat public platform were launched; and the total registered accounts of WeChat and WeChat exceeded 200 million.
2013 Put forward the new propositions of "connecting everything" and "Internet +"; open the era of mobile games; release Tencent Literature; strategically invest in Sogou and Didi Taxi.
In 2014, WeBank was approved to establish a private bank, launched Wealth Management Pass, Tencent's game revenue topped the world's first place, established a strategic partnership with JD.com, Dianping, and 58.com, was born in WeChat red envelopes, and the highest number of online accounts in QQ exceeded 200 million.
2015 Proposed to focus on two things in the future: connection and content; Tencent Pictures debuted; and "Glory of Kings" was launched.
In 2016, the market capitalization exceeded HK$2 trillion, becoming the highest market capitalization company in Asia; the acquisition of Supercell; the establishment of Tencent E-sports; the number of monthly active accounts combined by WeChat and WeChat reached 846 million; and the number of monthly active accounts of QQ reached 877 million.
While reliving Tencent's history, I found that I had actually grown up with this penguin, it really integrated into people's lives, from the first QQ number registration, it has never left, and now, WeChat covers almost all social classes, from senior white-collar workers, entrepreneurs, intellectuals to civil servants, making Tencent a real public super enterprise. WeChat has grabbed an irreplaceable entrance for Tencent in the era of mobile Internet.
In 2015, Ma Huateng clearly proposed two things that Tencent would focus on in the future – connectivity and content. The first thing is to focus more on the core, that is, to take social and communication as the core, with WeChat and QQ as the platform and connector, to build a simplest connection, connecting all people and information, services. The second thing is the content industry, Tencent Interactive Entertainment has a total of four major platforms of Tencent Games, Tencent Animation, Tencent Literature and Tencent Pictures.
This "Tencent Biography" was written until 2016, in 2021 this time dimension, today's Tencent is still integrated into people's daily lives, still firmly controlling the entrance of the mobile Internet, always focusing on connection and content.
But this state is not constant, as Ma Huateng once asked Kevin Kelly: "In your opinion, who will become Tencent's future enemy?" Kevin Kelly laughed and said, "In the internet world, the person who is about to wipe you out never appears in a given list." ”
Inspired by KK, Ma Huateng has been advocating for ecological organization within the company, as he said in his article "Grayscale of Management": "The Internet is becoming more and more like nature, pursuing not simple growth, but leaps and evolutions." ”