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After raising US$8.3 billion in loans, what’s Tencent going to do next?
This appeared in The Millennial Source
Whatever Tencent’s future plans, its recent loan acquisitions demonstrate that the company still has strong financial support.
Tencent Holdings Ltd. has raised a staggering US$8.3 billion in loans.
The tech company is one of China’s biggest, along with its competitor, Alibaba Group Holding Limited.
The founder of Tencent, Pony Ma, is known for keeping a lower public than his Alibaba counterpart, Jack Ma. That might be a good thing, in light of the recent fallout that resulted after Jack Ma openly criticized the Chinese government.
What is Tencent?
Tencent was co-founded in 1998 by Ma Huateng (better known as Pony Ma) and four friends. In 1999, the company launched its first product, a free PC-based instant messaging service that served as the foundation of what would eventually become WeChat.
While their messaging service gained one million users within its first year, Tencent remained unprofitable. The company’s first profits came following the launch of its messaging platform for mobile phones in 2001 and, within three years, Tencent was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
