Inside The Next Moves Of Tencent, The First-Ever $500B Tech Company
CONTRIBUTOR
Pony Ma Huateng, Chairman and CEO of Tencent Holdings Ltd., speaks during a press conference to announce his companies' annual results in Hong Kong Wednesday, March 19, 2014. Mainland internet giant, Tencent, said profit rose 22 percent last year to HK$15.5 billion (US$ 2 billion).Fast forward to today and the company is now valued at US$ 500 billion. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
In case you missed it during the pre-holiday rush, Tencent, a leading provider of Internet value-added services, became the first-ever tech company ever to be valued at more than $500 billion, and in doing so has surpassed Facebook's valuation as well. At only 19 years old, Tencent clearly shows no signs of slowing down its pace and is indicative of the massive China surge in tech advancement. While gaming makes up a large part of Tencent's revenue, those of us in the U.S. may be most familiar with the company's WeChat mobile messaging chat platform. Tencent recently announced a suite of advertising solutions and resources that now enable U.S. marketers to directly engage Chinese consumers on Tencent platforms both in China and while they travel abroad, including WeChat. These new offerings, as well as the creation of a dedicated U.S.-based support team, provide U.S. brands and agencies with unprecedented ways to drive brand preference and s among Chinese consumers (particularly Millennials) while also creating yet another revenue stream for the tech behemoth.
I had the opportunity connect with Steven Chang, Corporate Vice President Online Media Marketing Solutions and Advertising Business of Online Media Group (OMG), Tencent, on new developments.
Lauren deLisa Coleman: What are the biggest challenges around enabling US marketers to reach Chinese consumers?
Steven Chang: In China, most individuals do not use the same social media platforms or apps popular in the United States. Therefore, if a marketer or advertiser is trying to reach a Chinese tourist in the U.S., they need to deliver an advertisement through an app (such as WeChat) that the Chinese consumer will already be using to connect to their friends and family in China and around the world. WeChat has more than 963 million monthly active users and individuals spend more than 55 percent of their mobile internet usage on Tencent products.
LdC: What are your thoughts on certain brands imposing/introducing new types of values to Chinese consumers (i.e. certain luxury brands now messaging about sustainability where such a mindset has not existed before in China)?
SC: Many brands have a story they would like to share in China. Nowadays, Chinese customers are curious to seek for experience outside China and then decide what is important or relevant to their lives. Our role is to support and enable conversations between brands and consumers through platforms like WeChat and QQ.
LdC: How might the company create a greater future intersection with media and entertainment (i.e. original, on-demand content, etc)?
SC: We are very focused on creating, promoting and distributing content across our many products and services. Our WeChat platform is the top social messaging and mobile lifestyle application for Chinese consumers around the world, Other leading mobile services include Tencent Video, the top video app by mobile video views, TencentNews, the top mobile news app, and QQ Music & JOOX, the top music app in China and some Asian countries, it provide varieties of digital content to users. We are also developing content for film and video through TencentPictures and Tencent Video. We see more opportunities to deliver great experiences and grow our business.
LdC: What is a typical day like for you regarding work on this new advertising initiative?
SC: As the Vice President in Tencent International Business Group, currently I am working closely with different U.S. marketers to understand their needs in China market opportunities and to share our experience in China together with our on-ground U.S. sales team. It is an exciting experience to us to help U.S. marketers to serve their exact needs and educate them how to maximize their marketing effort to better drive overall cost effectiveness and campaign ROI.
LdC: How might the company be preparing for advertising across platforms such as Virtual Reality?
SC: We see many opportunities to deliver a great experience for brands and users on our platforms, but have nothing to announce related to VR at this time.
LdC: When it comes to tech innovation such as the recent Qudian IPO, what you are doing at Tencent and more, what is it that you feel gives China it's particular edge in the tech realm?
SC: I am not the best person to comment on Chinese innovation, in general, but what I can say is that Tencent’s approach to innovation is based on a strong focus on users, products and a unique corporate culture that celebrates and rewards risk-taking, innovation and continuous improvement.
Indeed, given that Tencent posted a profit of $2.7 billion last quarter alone, the philosophy seems to be paying huge dividends and further strengthens China's overall position as a formidable leader in the tech space.
My ebook "America's Most Wanted: The Millennial - how to quad decode and trend forecast" can be found here.
Elite CIOs, CTOs & execs offer firsthand insights on tech & business.
POST WRITTEN BY
Mark Minevich
I'm the principle founder of Going Global Ventures and venture partner of GVA Capital in Silicon Valley.
Mark Minevich, FORBES COUNCILS
Shutterstock
When artificial intelligence started becoming more than just a science fiction buzzword, Slovenia was one of the first countries to embrace it -- as far back as the early 1970s. The investment continues to this day, and the Financial Times reports that Slovenia and the Czech Republic both continue to spend as much on research and innovation as other larger western European countries.
Made Possible By The JSI
As a result of its dedication to the field, Slovenian AI research has achieved international attention. Many projects involve collaborations with organizations and nations around the world. The Event Registry is an example of an entirely Slovenian project developed with the aid of European funding. The tool is a system that analyzes more than 100,000 text news sources in various languages to track how news spreads from one location to the rest of the globe, including story development and the context in which the news is mentioned.
It’s also capable of making predictions concerning the spread of news, which has proved to be especially enticing for media publishers. At present, Event Registry is limited in the scope of its analysis to text sources, such as blogs and tweets, but researchers hope to include televised news in the future.
COPCAMS (which stands for cognitive and perceptive cameras) was the fruit of a partnership between institutes of seven European countries, including the Jožef Stefan Institute in Slovenia (JSI). Its goal was to create large-scale AI vision systems. Networks of cameras known as cognitive and perceptive video systems are able to use visual or auditory information to decide which video streams are the most important to transmit. Applications include the surveillance industry, monitoring of traffic patterns and advanced manufacturing.
A collaboration between researchers in Japan and those at the JSI aims to advance multiobjective optimization for real-world applications. The project will allow for the design of evolutionary algorithms, which it then combines with visualization tools and real-world applications.
Recommended by Forbes
Over many business trips to Slovenia, I learned more about the history of Slovenian AI and the JSI’s leadership. Key researchers said one of their biggest challenges was bringing AI developments to commercial markets in the United States. As the former vice chairman and chief strategist at Comtrade Group, the largest IT solutions and software company in Slovenia, I was able to bridge the gap for JSI researchers. With the help of Comtrade Group, scalable solutions are now being deployed for both U.S. and European markets.
Businesses in the United States looking to leverage some of the developments within the artificial intelligence community can take these important steps:
1. Identify the area where you need expertise. Slovenian research covers a huge swath of subjects, from data mining and analysis to semantic web technologies. Slovenian AI is proficient in human language technologies, machine learning and cognitive modeling, to name a few, so narrow the scope of your search to find the best fit for your specific needs.
2. Engage the Comtrade Group. This is a solid way to gain access to AI solutions. Comtrade Group’s collaboration with research institutes in Slovenia will allow these institutes to deliver solutions and bridge them to clients in the United States and Europe. And it will be even easier to connect with Comtrade Group -- and the Slovenian AI experts it can introduce you to -- as the software firm announcedit would set up a headquarters in Boston to improve its name recognition in the United States.
3. Find digital AI experts in Slovenia. Slovenian digital experts have experience in machine learning, data mining, network analysis and data visualization, so find someone who specializes in the field you need to master and form a relationship with him or her. You’ll want to work closely with that person to develop the best AI solutions for you and your company.
For example, start a dialogue with Dr. Blaž Zupan, who heads the Bioinformatics Lab at the University of Ljubljana Faculty of Computer and Information Science. He believes crafting simple tools anyone can use to understand data is essential to advancements of humanity and democracy. His labs developed Orange, a fully open-source, ever-evolving data mining suite with a visual programming interface.
Also consider talking with JSI's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, which has several employees and students who have developed a range of software tools for multimodal data analysis and are experts in various AI spaces.
Useful data is all around us, and capturing vast amounts of data is easier and more expected than ever. Skilled data scientists are less ubiquitous, however. Data science, in fact, has become increasingly challenging and, to master it, one needs a deep understanding of math, statistics and computer science. This complexity drives away many potential data explorers and consumers, leaving the joy of data-based discovery to a few enlightened gurus.
The JSI employs almost 1,000 people and plays the largest role in AI in Slovenia. Still, there are no fewer than 10 institutes and laboratories in the country involved in AI research and development, and the area remains a prime location for those looking to leverage the incredible computational power of artificial intelligence.
Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
