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Influence Empire: The Story of Tencent and China's Tech Ambition
*SHORTLISTED FOR THE FINANCIAL TIMES BUSINESS BOOK 2022*
*A TIMES BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEARS 2022*
*A FORBES ESPANA TOP TEN BOOK 2022*
*A PROJECT SYNDICATE 2022 BEST READ*
‘A fascinating study of the tech giant and its symbiotic relationship with the Chinese government’ – Guardian
‘Vital . . . More than a corporate hagiography, Ms. Chen’s book offers insight into the company via executive interviews and exclusive details.’ New York Times
‘Influence Empire by Lulu Yilun Chen is so much more than the long-awaited story of Tencent and its vital everything app, WeChat, the messaging tool used by 1.3 billion people. It’s also the sobering account of an entire generation of high-flying Chinese tech entrepreneurs, whose wings were clipped by the omnipotent hand of their own government.’ — Brad Stone, author of Amazon Unbound and The Everything Store
ORDER the first definitive look at Tencent, one of the world’s largest tech companies.
__________
In 2017, a company known as Tencent overtook Facebook to become the world’s fifth largest company. It was a watershed moment, a wake-up call for those in the West accustomed to regarding the global tech industry through the prism of Silicon Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft.
Yet to many of the two billion-plus people who live just across the Pacific Ocean, it came as no surprise at all.
Founded by the enigmatic billionaire Pony Ma, the firm that began life as a simple text-message operator invested in and created some of China’s most iconic games en route to dreaming up WeChat – the Swiss Army knife super-app that combines messaging, shopping and entertainment. Through billions of dollars of global investments in marquee names from Fortnite to Tesla and a horde of start-ups, Ma’s company went on to build a near-unparalleled empire of influence.
In this fascinating narrative – crammed with insider interviews and exclusive details – Lulu Chen tells the story of how Tencent created the golden era of Chinese technology, and delves into key battles involving Didi, Meituan and Alibaba. It’s a chronicle of critical junctures and asks just what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur in China.
__________
‘There’s so much fascinating detail here.’ — The Times
‘Lulu Yilun Chen has written a sharply informed, smart and compelling account of the rise of some of the most powerful companies in China, which also stand among the biggest and richest tech giants in the world. Despite their enormous size and power, few outside of China know of or understand these companies. Now, thanks to Influence Inside the Story of Tencent and China’s Tech Ambition, that will finally change.’ — Howard French, former NY Times Shanghai bureau chief and author of Everything Under the How the Past Helps Shape China’s Push for Global Power
‘A book that tells Tencent’s story has been long overdue, and Lulu Chen’s account is not only comprehensive, but also a gripping business narrative. The globally influential company finally has the account it deserves.’ — David Barboza, The Wire
Reviews
'Influence Empire by Lulu Yilun Chen is so much more than the long-awaited story of Tencent and its vital everything app, WeChat, the messaging tool used by 1.3 billion people. It's also the sobering account of an entire generation of high-flying Chinese tech entrepreneurs, whose wings were clipped by the omnipotent hand of their own government.' -- Brad Stone, author of Amazon Unbound and The Everything Store
Lulu Yilun Chen has written a sharply informed, smart and compelling account of the rise of some of the most powerful companies in China, which also stand among the biggest and richest tech giants in the world. Foremost among them is the biggest behemoth of them all, Tencent, a Swiss Army Knife of a company that combines the services of a half dozen or more of the best-known internet giants in the West. The immense wealth and reach deep into every household in China of companies like these has recently placed them at the center of Beijing's regulatory and political attention. Despite their enormous size and power, few outside of China know of or understand these companies. Now, thanks to Influence The Story of Tencent and China's Tech Ambition, that will finally change. - - Howard French, former NY Times Shanghai bureau chief and author of Everything Under the How the Past Helps Shape China's Push for Global Power
Lulu Yilun Chen's Influence Empire is the compelling story of one of the world's most important, but least understood companies. It is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand how the curious collision of business, technology and politics in today's China will reshape our world. - - Peter Martin, author of China's Civilian Army
In Influence Empire, the long-time tech reporter narrates the emergence of China's tech titans their often-haphazard rises to success, and the struggles between then for revenue and domination of the marketplace... The book ...
*A TIMES BUSINESS BOOK OF THE YEARS 2022*
*A FORBES ESPANA TOP TEN BOOK 2022*
*A PROJECT SYNDICATE 2022 BEST READ*
‘A fascinating study of the tech giant and its symbiotic relationship with the Chinese government’ – Guardian
‘Vital . . . More than a corporate hagiography, Ms. Chen’s book offers insight into the company via executive interviews and exclusive details.’ New York Times
‘Influence Empire by Lulu Yilun Chen is so much more than the long-awaited story of Tencent and its vital everything app, WeChat, the messaging tool used by 1.3 billion people. It’s also the sobering account of an entire generation of high-flying Chinese tech entrepreneurs, whose wings were clipped by the omnipotent hand of their own government.’ — Brad Stone, author of Amazon Unbound and The Everything Store
ORDER the first definitive look at Tencent, one of the world’s largest tech companies.
__________
In 2017, a company known as Tencent overtook Facebook to become the world’s fifth largest company. It was a watershed moment, a wake-up call for those in the West accustomed to regarding the global tech industry through the prism of Silicon Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft.
Yet to many of the two billion-plus people who live just across the Pacific Ocean, it came as no surprise at all.
Founded by the enigmatic billionaire Pony Ma, the firm that began life as a simple text-message operator invested in and created some of China’s most iconic games en route to dreaming up WeChat – the Swiss Army knife super-app that combines messaging, shopping and entertainment. Through billions of dollars of global investments in marquee names from Fortnite to Tesla and a horde of start-ups, Ma’s company went on to build a near-unparalleled empire of influence.
In this fascinating narrative – crammed with insider interviews and exclusive details – Lulu Chen tells the story of how Tencent created the golden era of Chinese technology, and delves into key battles involving Didi, Meituan and Alibaba. It’s a chronicle of critical junctures and asks just what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur in China.
__________
‘There’s so much fascinating detail here.’ — The Times
‘Lulu Yilun Chen has written a sharply informed, smart and compelling account of the rise of some of the most powerful companies in China, which also stand among the biggest and richest tech giants in the world. Despite their enormous size and power, few outside of China know of or understand these companies. Now, thanks to Influence Inside the Story of Tencent and China’s Tech Ambition, that will finally change.’ — Howard French, former NY Times Shanghai bureau chief and author of Everything Under the How the Past Helps Shape China’s Push for Global Power
‘A book that tells Tencent’s story has been long overdue, and Lulu Chen’s account is not only comprehensive, but also a gripping business narrative. The globally influential company finally has the account it deserves.’ — David Barboza, The Wire
Reviews
'Influence Empire by Lulu Yilun Chen is so much more than the long-awaited story of Tencent and its vital everything app, WeChat, the messaging tool used by 1.3 billion people. It's also the sobering account of an entire generation of high-flying Chinese tech entrepreneurs, whose wings were clipped by the omnipotent hand of their own government.' -- Brad Stone, author of Amazon Unbound and The Everything Store
Lulu Yilun Chen has written a sharply informed, smart and compelling account of the rise of some of the most powerful companies in China, which also stand among the biggest and richest tech giants in the world. Foremost among them is the biggest behemoth of them all, Tencent, a Swiss Army Knife of a company that combines the services of a half dozen or more of the best-known internet giants in the West. The immense wealth and reach deep into every household in China of companies like these has recently placed them at the center of Beijing's regulatory and political attention. Despite their enormous size and power, few outside of China know of or understand these companies. Now, thanks to Influence The Story of Tencent and China's Tech Ambition, that will finally change. - - Howard French, former NY Times Shanghai bureau chief and author of Everything Under the How the Past Helps Shape China's Push for Global Power
Lulu Yilun Chen's Influence Empire is the compelling story of one of the world's most important, but least understood companies. It is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand how the curious collision of business, technology and politics in today's China will reshape our world. - - Peter Martin, author of China's Civilian Army
In Influence Empire, the long-time tech reporter narrates the emergence of China's tech titans their often-haphazard rises to success, and the struggles between then for revenue and domination of the marketplace... The book ...
320 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 14, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 88 reviews
October 15, 2022
Very informative. This book took the readers beyond just its inception and the product, but really told the story about the people behind. I was most surprised by how close some of these companies were to shutting down during their early years. Hardworking doesn’t even come close to describing what it’s like for the people in these startups. I found the stories to be inspirational and couldn’t stop highlighting notes
October 19, 2022
The state of tech analysis by banks in Asia is downright a joke these days. This book does a far better job of breaking down the company history, risks and bigger macro trends that shape China internet than any analyst report I've seen out there. The issue with China internet is that you can't approach it from a pure industry or company prism, the framework to think about things has completely changed, and as the writer so rightly points out, it's a mistake for people not to pay attention to the bigger risks that come from policy
October 15, 2022
I loved reading this book so much I couldn’t stop talking about it. It is story about people at the heart of the story. It really captured the urgency, cutthroat competitive business landscape in china
September 11, 2022
It's not easy to write a good book on such a big, complex company as Tencent.
In some dimensions, Chen has succeeded: there's a lot of information on who's Pony Ma, on relationships with other Chinese tech moguls, on acquisitions, and even on interventions of the state.
But it's all surprisingly ... shallow:
* we don't really know WHY it was Tencent who succeeded in the end (e.g. how they evolved their product, what was their competitive edge, etc.)
* we lack details on mechanisms forced by the state (except the info that they are there)
* it's not covered in detail why e.g., Didi (heavily invested in by Tencent) has won in a battle against Uber (well, except the fact that they were in a war of attrition and both of them have secured heavy funding)
In the end, I had a feeling that this book is simply a product of harvesting info from public sources. A good compilation but not something that adds more value (by more investigative journaling or at least deeper product analysis). I'm glad this book was created, but I've expected more "meaty" details.
In some dimensions, Chen has succeeded: there's a lot of information on who's Pony Ma, on relationships with other Chinese tech moguls, on acquisitions, and even on interventions of the state.
But it's all surprisingly ... shallow:
* we don't really know WHY it was Tencent who succeeded in the end (e.g. how they evolved their product, what was their competitive edge, etc.)
* we lack details on mechanisms forced by the state (except the info that they are there)
* it's not covered in detail why e.g., Didi (heavily invested in by Tencent) has won in a battle against Uber (well, except the fact that they were in a war of attrition and both of them have secured heavy funding)
In the end, I had a feeling that this book is simply a product of harvesting info from public sources. A good compilation but not something that adds more value (by more investigative journaling or at least deeper product analysis). I'm glad this book was created, but I've expected more "meaty" details.
July 31, 2022
An overview of the Chinese Internet industry, with a special focus on Tencent who is the owner of the WeChat and QQ platforms, and who is a big investor in many Internet and gaming companies across the world. Alibaba, Didi, Riot Games and others take a large part of the book as well.
You won't find much original material here, most of the information can be found on the Web. To the book's credit, it includes extracts from past interviews and articles authored by Lulu Chen, who is a tech journalist.
Although the book is about big business and billionaires, the author pulls off the feat of making it all seem a hellish way to live and not at all enviable, with gruelling working hours, ruthless competition between teams within companies and between companies, companies ripping off ideas from each other, little innovation, borderline stealing (such as when Jack Ma takes Ant/AliPay from under the nose of majority Alibaba investor Yahoo), no-holds-barred battles between competing companies, and government crackdown.
Here is a quote from the book:
"A popular saying in China is that all private companies have original sin – whether it be in the form of evading taxes, polluting the environment or bribery."
You won't find much original material here, most of the information can be found on the Web. To the book's credit, it includes extracts from past interviews and articles authored by Lulu Chen, who is a tech journalist.
Although the book is about big business and billionaires, the author pulls off the feat of making it all seem a hellish way to live and not at all enviable, with gruelling working hours, ruthless competition between teams within companies and between companies, companies ripping off ideas from each other, little innovation, borderline stealing (such as when Jack Ma takes Ant/AliPay from under the nose of majority Alibaba investor Yahoo), no-holds-barred battles between competing companies, and government crackdown.
Here is a quote from the book:
"A popular saying in China is that all private companies have original sin – whether it be in the form of evading taxes, polluting the environment or bribery."
December 22, 2022
Engaging account of the rise of the Chinese internet sector over the last ten years, mostly about Tencent and its rivals. Pacy prose – a too pacy at times, skating over details I’d like to have dwelled on longer – but I still learned a lot.
July 16, 2023
Tech people are the same anywhere it seems, obsessed with work, socially ruthless, politically mercenary; but there's an interesting story in here about how they've constructed an enormous and heavily censored parallel internet squeezing out the US giants, in amongst a lot of 'meh'.
December 23, 2025
เพิ่งเคยอ่านหนังสือธุรกิจจีน สนุกมากๆ การทำธุรกิจในจีนโหดมากก เพราะถ้าคุณทำธุรกิจอะไรขึ้นมาดี จะมีอีก 30 บริษัททำตามคุณ คุณบอกจะให้เงินโบนัสพิเศษกับคนขับในแอพ คนขับจีนก็จะหาทางเรียกรถปลอมให้ได้โบนัสเยอะๆ คุณจะทำแอพเพลงลิขสิทธิ์แข่งกับ spotify คนก็ขำเพราะตอนนี้ทุกคนฟังแบบละเมิดลิขสิทธิ์หมด คุณกะหารายได้จากการจ่ายเงินอัพเกรดในเกมส์ แต่คนดันจ้างคนอื่นที่เล่นเกมส์เก่งให้เล่นแทนจนไม่ต้องอัพ แล้วยังมีธุรกิจจากอเมริกาที่มีทรัพยากรพร้อมทุกอย่างมาบุกตลาดจีนให้คุณต้องฟาดฟัน มีรัฐบาลที่อยู่ดีๆก็สามารถออกนโยบายที่ทำให้ต้องเบรก IPO หรือถอนรากกันทั้งอุตสาหกรรมเลย
เอาจริงๆก่อนอ่านก็ไม่รู้ Tencent ทำอะไรแน่ เพราะดูทำไปหมดทุกอย่าง อ่านแล้วก็พบว่าทำทุกอย่างจริงๆ แรกๆได้ชื่อเป็นบริษัทขี้ก็อป คือใครทำอะไรออกมาดี Tencent จะลอก ทำให้ start-up เล็กๆตายมาเยอะแล้ว เพราะสุดท้ายสู้บริษัทใหญ่อย่าง Tencent ไม่ได้ จนมาถึงจุดนึงก็เริ่มสำนึกตัวและใช้วิธีไปลงทุนในบริษัทอื่นๆแทน ให้เขามีอิสระพัฒนาสินค้าและบริการของตัวเอง ในขณะที่ Tencent ก็ช่วยเรื่องเงินทุนและขยายตลาดจีน
หนังสือเล่าถึงผู้ก่อตั้ง ผู้บริหารคนสำคัญๆ วัฒนธรรมองค์กรใน Tencent ที่เน้นให้คนข้างในแข่งกันเอง เล่าครอบคลุมธุรกิจหลักๆทั้งหมด และเส้นทางการเติบโต/ควบรวมของแต่ละธุรกิจ wechat (อาณาจักรอันศักดิ์สิทธิ์ที่สุดในบริษัท PM หวง traffic มากๆ และมองว่าโมเดลธุรกิจที่ขายโฆษณาของ facebook มันช่างดักดาน), Wechat pay (ชอบที่เกิดจากการให้อั่งเปาดิจิทัลกันในบริษัท), didi (ตอน ipo แล้วสุดท้ายต้อง delist นี่สนุก), meituan (สั่งอาหาร delivery ที่จีนถูกกว่านั่งกินที่ร้านเหรอเนี่ย ต้องเผาเงินกันขนาดไหน?), และธุรกิจเกมส์ทั้งหลาย (ชอบตอนที่จะไปเจรจาลงทุนเกมส์ clash of clans แล้วผู้บริหารของ tencent เล่นเกมส์เอาเป็นเอาตายจนติดอันดับ 97 ของโลก เจ้าของบริษัทเกมส์ไม่เชื่อให้ลองเล่นแข่งกับพนักงานตัวเทพ ปรากฎพนักงานแพ้ ฮ่าๆๆๆ) เกี่ยวโยงกับ Alibaba หลายครั้งด้วยเพราะเป็นคู่แข่งหลัก อ่านเล่มนี้แล้วเหมือนเห็นภาพรวมธุรกิจเทคในจีนทั้งหมด และความบ้างานบ้าพลังของคนจีน (มีคนปวดหลัง หมอนรองกระดูกเสื่อม ผ่าตัดสะโพก ผ่าเอาคอนแทคเลนส์ออกเพราะตาแห้งมาก😭)
แน่นอนว่ามีพาร์ทที่เล่าเรื่องการเมืองระหว่างสหรัฐ-จีน และภายในจีนเองที่กำลังเข้มงวดกับอุตสาหกรรมเทคโนโลยีและอินเตอร์เน็ต ซึ่ง Tencent ก็ดูเป็นเด็กดีเชื่อฟังผู้ใหญ่มากๆ จบที่คำถาม Tencent จะเข้าสู่อนาคตพร้อมเอาใจเจ้านายทางการเมืองไปด้วยได้ยังไง
เอาจริงๆก่อนอ่านก็ไม่รู้ Tencent ทำอะไรแน่ เพราะดูทำไปหมดทุกอย่าง อ่านแล้วก็พบว่าทำทุกอย่างจริงๆ แรกๆได้ชื่อเป็นบริษัทขี้ก็อป คือใครทำอะไรออกมาดี Tencent จะลอก ทำให้ start-up เล็กๆตายมาเยอะแล้ว เพราะสุดท้ายสู้บริษัทใหญ่อย่าง Tencent ไม่ได้ จนมาถึงจุดนึงก็เริ่มสำนึกตัวและใช้วิธีไปลงทุนในบริษัทอื่นๆแทน ให้เขามีอิสระพัฒนาสินค้าและบริการของตัวเอง ในขณะที่ Tencent ก็ช่วยเรื่องเงินทุนและขยายตลาดจีน
หนังสือเล่าถึงผู้ก่อตั้ง ผู้บริหารคนสำคัญๆ วัฒนธรรมองค์กรใน Tencent ที่เน้นให้คนข้างในแข่งกันเอง เล่าครอบคลุมธุรกิจหลักๆทั้งหมด และเส้นทางการเติบโต/ควบรวมของแต่ละธุรกิจ wechat (อาณาจักรอันศักดิ์สิทธิ์ที่สุดในบริษัท PM หวง traffic มากๆ และมองว่าโมเดลธุรกิจที่ขายโฆษณาของ facebook มันช่างดักดาน), Wechat pay (ชอบที่เกิดจากการให้อั่งเปาดิจิทัลกันในบริษัท), didi (ตอน ipo แล้วสุดท้ายต้อง delist นี่สนุก), meituan (สั่งอาหาร delivery ที่จีนถูกกว่านั่งกินที่ร้านเหรอเนี่ย ต้องเผาเงินกันขนาดไหน?), และธุรกิจเกมส์ทั้งหลาย (ชอบตอนที่จะไปเจรจาลงทุนเกมส์ clash of clans แล้วผู้บริหารของ tencent เล่นเกมส์เอาเป็นเอาตายจนติดอันดับ 97 ของโลก เจ้าของบริษัทเกมส์ไม่เชื่อให้ลองเล่นแข่งกับพนักงานตัวเทพ ปรากฎพนักงานแพ้ ฮ่าๆๆๆ) เกี่ยวโยงกับ Alibaba หลายครั้งด้วยเพราะเป็นคู่แข่งหลัก อ่านเล่มนี้แล้วเหมือนเห็นภาพรวมธุรกิจเทคในจีนทั้งหมด และความบ้างานบ้าพลังของคนจีน (มีคนปวดหลัง หมอนรองกระดูกเสื่อม ผ่าตัดสะโพก ผ่าเอาคอนแทคเลนส์ออกเพราะตาแห้งมาก😭)
แน่นอนว่ามีพาร์ทที่เล่าเรื่องการเมืองระหว่างสหรัฐ-จีน และภายในจีนเองที่กำลังเข้มงวดกับอุตสาหกรรมเทคโนโลยีและอินเตอร์เน็ต ซึ่ง Tencent ก็ดูเป็นเด็กดีเชื่อฟังผู้ใหญ่มากๆ จบที่คำถาม Tencent จะเข้าสู่อนาคตพร้อมเอาใจเจ้านายทางการเมืองไปด้วยได้ยังไง
October 1, 2022
I wish there was a lot more emphasis on how Tencent grew from 100 people to 30,000.
As with many other non-fiction books, I felt that the story while well presented could've done with better editing.
As with many other non-fiction books, I felt that the story while well presented could've done with better editing.
November 21, 2022
I am so glad I read this book. It is unputdownable from the first line. It is a journey where in the author let’s you discover not only about tencent but about other key players, communist China, controlled society, key personalities and behaviour of people. It is a gripping journey and gives us the reader a compelling read.
The dilemmas, the audacity , the challenge, the fight , the game , the race to finish and winner takes it all yet no matter how big you are remember there is God or the party is what the book is made of
Definitely one of the best business books I read of the year. Go for it
The dilemmas, the audacity , the challenge, the fight , the game , the race to finish and winner takes it all yet no matter how big you are remember there is God or the party is what the book is made of
Definitely one of the best business books I read of the year. Go for it
September 18, 2022
Enjoyable read that chronicles the development of a key player in China’s internet industry.
February 4, 2024
A good introduction to Tencent and the Chinese technology sector. The company is most known for its app WeChat, which is used by 1.3bn people (or almost all Chinese people) today. Users communicate, find news, order taxis, and pay for food through the super app - there is almost no need for another application in your daily life with WeChat. The transaction volume through WeChat Pay is some USD 300bn per year. The company structure is quite complicated to grasp, as Tencent owns at least a share of many of the companies that make up the transactions on its platform (Didi for ride-hailing, Meituan for food delivery).
What is more, Tencent is the largest gaming company in the world, through canny acquisitions and internal development. Its portfolio includes Epic Games (Fortnite), Riot (League of Legends), Supercell (Clash of Clans), and has developed the most popular game, Honor of Kings, in China. This is a USD 160bn global market (US box office revenues are ca USD 10bn).
The book is written as most classical business books are written: chronological history, key people involved, main inflection points of the business, risks, and opportunities for the future. What makes it interesting is that there are not many such books from China. This is a great introduction to the subject, as it is well-researched, but not in-depth enough to scare away those who do not understand the intricacies of tech companies or the Chinese market.
What is more, Tencent is the largest gaming company in the world, through canny acquisitions and internal development. Its portfolio includes Epic Games (Fortnite), Riot (League of Legends), Supercell (Clash of Clans), and has developed the most popular game, Honor of Kings, in China. This is a USD 160bn global market (US box office revenues are ca USD 10bn).
The book is written as most classical business books are written: chronological history, key people involved, main inflection points of the business, risks, and opportunities for the future. What makes it interesting is that there are not many such books from China. This is a great introduction to the subject, as it is well-researched, but not in-depth enough to scare away those who do not understand the intricacies of tech companies or the Chinese market.
April 24, 2024
I enjoyed this for how much I learned about China’s tech industry and the growth of its largest companies. However the book never really gets far enough beyond just describing the events. It mentions, but ultimately glosses, over the CCP’s all-powerful ability to both censor the internet and access the personalised data of every person in the country (nor does it delve into the consequences of this for ordinary Chinese citizens). It touches on, but doesn’t fully explore, the relationship between the Government and private enterprise, or the darkest shades of what could happen when executives fail to adhere to “the regulators” wishes. It seems to me these are the far more important questions, over and above mergers, acquisitions and share prices and I wish this book had gone deeper on these.
March 13, 2023
Good book.
Offers great insight into almost everything from Tencent, fintech, m&a, leveraged buyouts and most importantly China’s regulatory environment.
I recommend it to anyone whose interested in the subjects I have got listed above.
Offers great insight into almost everything from Tencent, fintech, m&a, leveraged buyouts and most importantly China’s regulatory environment.
I recommend it to anyone whose interested in the subjects I have got listed above.
May 9, 2023
4.0/5.0. Very interesting content though the book itself isn’t that well-written.
May 20, 2025
The aftertaste of the final chapter, with its excitement about web3 and the metaverse, is hard to wash away. Reading that in 2025 was painful. But the main beat of the book, the biography of Pony Ma and showcasing the intense and competitive world of Chinese tech in the 21st century, was well done. In addition, the book gets so many points for detailing important origin stories that have gotten little coverage in the western press. As someone who was around in the early years of WeChat, it was fun to read about what was going on behind the scenes. I also enjoyed learning about the history of QQ, which I had not experienced.
Some of the detours into other Chinese companies and figures like Didi or Jack Ma, took me out of the book. It seemed liked Lulu Chen was unable to find enough of a backstory on Pony Ma or Martin Lau, or didn't find them compelling enough figures. The deep dive into Riot Games seemed completely superfluous to me. Overall, there was a great core business book in there but it felt padded with random other newspaper articles.
Some of the detours into other Chinese companies and figures like Didi or Jack Ma, took me out of the book. It seemed liked Lulu Chen was unable to find enough of a backstory on Pony Ma or Martin Lau, or didn't find them compelling enough figures. The deep dive into Riot Games seemed completely superfluous to me. Overall, there was a great core business book in there but it felt padded with random other newspaper articles.
June 7, 2025
I have been so much inspired by this book. It depicts the establishment and growth of Tencent while looking at the Chinese Tech environment from a bird’s eye view. The perspective is objective and most of the time the Author uses her journalist skills to explain the background story of the events. It is a fairly easy read, I recommend you to read this book if you want to start exploring the Chinese tech companies. It can be counted as an introductory book for further readings.
August 7, 2024
A good read for business students who want to familiarize themselves with these top companies in China. Perhaps 10-20 yrs down the road, this would be a good history book showing what restrictive governance can do to innovation and growth. 10-20yrs after Deng opened up China, great companies sprang up and the country grew. 10-20yrs after current restrictions, let’s see where things go.
January 28, 2025
The story of Tencent and what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur in XJP's China.
Tencent's founder = Ma Huateng (Pony) =/= Jack Ma = Alibaba
I loved the use of the expression 鲤跃龙门 that the author used as the guideline => poetic and cultural
Meaning: China's internet tycoons like Pony Ma is a gene of carp becoming dragons ubt tese idealist geeks who ventured to change the world, are now shackled and have become part of a system that they wanted to change.
ORIGINS
Shenzhen: famous corporate citizens like Huawei, DJI (1st drone producer) & Tencent
时不我待 In Pony's school people will repeat this type of epigrams
Pony's start-up with old classmates (3) + a sales Jason Zeng Liqing => for a year, Tencent's owner was Pony's mom bc Poney and Zhang Zhidong haven't resigned at the time
Beginning of Tencent/OICQ = copycat of ICQ (Israelis instant-messaging platform) / like other largest internet companies: Shohu/Yahoo, Baidu/GG, Weibo/Twitter, Alibaba/eBay
OICQ's advantage = conversation data on cloud so don't need to use only 1 computer
1 year after creation, no money so needed I from IDG
Koos Bekker rich bc he invested in Tencent
David Wallerstein (US) I in OICQ bc all the young people in internet cafés were on it.
Phone calls too expensive so Chinese use texts, 2002 C generated 1/3 of global SMSs => add it to QQ , 60c a month for alerts on mobile if msgs on QQ desktops.
But Yahoo & Skype & other competitors also created their own instant-msg platforms => lost 30% of the market.
So for QQ's 3rd birthday, free use so to make money, sell virtual coins for custom Avatar
Social media with music, news
Bi-weekly meetings with core mana team => 16h for final decision
Pony met his wife on QQ, the app he created => apparently, he received a msg of a stranger asking 'Who are you?' he replied 'I'm penguin dad" and she answered 'then I'm penguin mom."
On the day of Tencent's listing, regulators issued rules demnading a clean-up bc of frauds & pronographic content.
Stock tanked & fell to No.4 from the top
MICROSOFT BATTLE
In 2004, MSN already user base in China + has a chic & stramline interface for urban population + copy Tencent
Begining of War: Pony laid bare his vision for QQ in a media conference + turned down proposition of MSN for connect the 2 platforms
小步快跑 快速迭代 Practice widely adopted by Chinese tech indus
Pb with MSN: slower dvlp bc more prudent / China's refulators so curb revue growth / key user data on US server so slower bc C banned foreign companies from operating their own data centres and Microsoft refused to put its data on those provided by local providers
=> end of Microsoft = they add MSN's chat to MSN Live (//website)
Chinese winners against foreign tech titans: Tencent vs Microsft / eBay & Amazon vs Alibaba / Didi vs Uber
Jeff Xiong Minghua from Microsoft joined T
SHIFT
Pony & Jack Ma were called 'tu bie' = local softshell turtles // 'bumpinks'
Then WeChat => msg tool to the one app that rules them all (Moments/Official ccounts/Mini Programs/Video Accounts)
Tencent with mobile games: Riot (LoL), Activision Blizzard (CoD, WoW), Epic (Fortnite) & Supercell (Clash of clan) = largest game factory of the world => desktop to console to phone
ALIBABA ARCH-NEMESIS
Alibaba = C's today online payment / op sys for co in C & the future
Jack began with China Pages (yellow pages-like directory in the US), then Alibaba.com = businesses sell to each other
To counter eBay, A started Taobao (indiv sellers cound trade with eo) publicly declaring war for media coverage: 'By generating a pb-relations battle with eBay, there would be a lot of buzz abt T, & therefore with every dollar that eBay spent, it would help feed this buzz abt T'
'eBay is a shark in the ocean, we are a crocodile in the Yantgtze River, if we fight in the ocean, we will lose, but if we fight in the river, we will win' said Jack
Alipay = Alibaba-managed escrow account that users paid into
Then grow so bad S quality so create Quick pay (sort of Central Bank)
With the grow of mobile, hesitation between QR codes (//WeChat) or NFC (near-field communications) => decided QR codes for merchants bc T took all the market
Mobile payments with WeChat red packet
MEITUAN COUP
The folden rule in C's tech landscape was that smaller start-ups had to take I from one of the 2 giants: Alibaba or Tencent (support in internet traffic and resources but also threat polarise future I // The Godfather
Meituan took money from A
Dianping-T vs Meituan-A but A wanted to intergrate Meituan but disagree so A stoped investing in Meituan. So T invested in Meituan for a Merger between Dianping & Meituan
WECHAT
Tencent strategy: allow multiple interal teams to compete with each other, it's a trademark of the company's that ensures innovation
Wechat was competing against other teams but won even if bad, and copied with TalkBox (voice msgs)
First T wanted to buy TalkBox but wanted its independance: 'I buy you and kill you or I just plagiarise you and you die mentality'
But self-/censorship on WX: gov monitoring tool, explains why can't expand in Western market
Allen for WX rules for design:
- product needs to be creative, innnovation
- useful
- beautiful
- easy to use
- reserved not flamboyant
- honest
- log-lasting & withstand the test of time
- don't leave out any details
- resource saving, not wasteful
- minimise design, less is more
But WX no money so decided to build WX into a connector (Meituan, Didi...)
RIDE-HAILING BATTLE
Cheng failed his exams so bad college and then foot masseur scam. Didi seledom ad bc he thinks it's all a scam
He entered A and asked for a job and got it lol (sales)
Richard Peng, T's head of M&A wanted to I in Didi but test the founder: he asked the significance of car-hailing app and Cheng told him that increasing efficiency in getting taxis & rides in other's car was the future => talk abt the busniess in a global perspective, big-picture thinker
+ key to make his business successful?, answer: algorithms
Didi & Kuaidi merge bc too much competition (the 7 days & 7 night battle, Li Hairu slept for only 2h per day)
Uber invasion: both burned 1B$ a year, finally Uber agreed to withdraw, selling Chn business to Didi in return of a significant stake in Didi.
GAMING CRUSADE
When T creates a breakout game (Honour of Kings), alert WX users when their freinds were duking it out online
T copycats Crazy Arcade, sue but win.
T's own legal team goew 200+ = 'Nanshan Indomitables'
LoL: US, T bought Riot but stay indep, 94% for $400mio
Fortnite Battle Royale: T bought Epic $330mio for 40%
Underdog vs Apple: Apple takes 30% of the revenue developers get from paid apps, in-app-purchases and subscription, no competing stores. Tim Sweeney (Epic CEO), said Apple is un-American and uncompetitive. So Fortnite banned from Applestore & Playstore, but also on Steam (desktop) so now on Deep Silver
MOBILE GAMES
T asked Colin Yao Xiaoguang's team (in competition with others) to create a hit game & coordinate witg multiple other teams within T (14 diff departments).
Negative feedback for their game so Colin took a deep dive into the issues within its team: '7 sins' plaguing the studio: cronyism (10/11 leaders came from the same former company), managers only delegating and not getting hands dirty, too many executives with inflated titles, promotions beyong competency, staff not adapted to T's culture and being inefficient, lack of quality control, & finally complacency
Virtual mercenaries: Colin ordered 100 people to revamp design => Honour of Kings => 54% of Female players, so popular that people played for social networking, bridge connection so race to impress with paying pro to help climb both social and gaming ladders
Clash of clans: T takeover of Supercell (Finnish company with a collective of small teams, cells for high efficiency and zero bureaucracy) to buy Supercell, Martin Lau (T) went. He was 97th highest scor ein the world, CEO of Supercell scepticism and challenged to play against an accomplished employee, Martin won and soon after, T acquired a controlling interest in Supercell.
E-sports clubs: 'E-sports is entering a golden age in China and globally, it's one of those few areas where China has a real chance of coming out on top to compete with dvlp countries' said Edward Cheng Wu (T's lieutenant)
T wanted create a pro network of clubs as serious as the NBA
Entertainment empire: T bought the rights to a lot of Japanese anime franchises for worldwide multimedia brand (DC/Disney): for example Naruto, but also Men in black, Venom, Kong, Top Gun
Music streaming: Tencent Music Entertainment but 24 record label lawsuit so employed Andy Ng for convincing big labels to work with T (stoped TME for 4y): HIM, Jay Chou, Huayi brothers
T was the 1st to reach out to the labels so more trust
With distribution rights, T lawsuit against NetEase & Alibaba so T's dominance of the market.
QQ Music for subscription S for downloads and perks like priority access to concert tickets
Wanted to partner woth Spotify bc Western market, 1st talks lasted 7 minutes lol bc 'take it or leave it' offer from Spotify, but 2nd time, share-swap structure : 10% of each enterprise (Spotidy & Tencent Music)
STATE VS GOLIATH
Government scared of prevalence of violence in gamesand fow it was fostering addiction among the nation's youth (Officials even criticized T for growing myopia among children)
All games 2 steps approval process in China: register with Ministry of Culture & Tourism, and check for sensitive content / then 2nd agency to grant licence and allow commercialisation.
T got stuck with PUBG & Fortnite so T's shares tanked in NY
So T limit time children spend on games / police database to verufy ages and identities
US Inspection: blacklist telecom equipment giant as threat to national security
The model of raising American money to fund Chinese startups in the world's biggest internet market has worked successfully for 2 decades. PE & VC firms wanted this model to persist.
US regulators: if company couldn't show that it wasn't under foreign gov countrol, or if the Board wasn't able to audit the company for 3 consecutive y, then the company's securities would be banned from American exchanges => so HongKong
Ant planned to list simultaneously in HK and China'snew tech board on Shanghai (IPO) but China Securities REgulatory Commission said no.
Then Anti-trust authority, anti-monopoly rules
Alibaba & Didi restrictions
T too bc the CCP didn't knew how much power it has (data)
THE METAVERSE AND BEYOND
Tencent Cloud = C2B2C strategy = WX's teleconference and Mini App programs hav been instrumental in help company expand its cloud business beyond just gaming companies (even Nike, McDo, Gap)
Pony also wanted to create a Metaverse (before Zuck), Quan Zhen internet
Also another concept: Web3, internet restored to its decentralised origins by building S on top of blockchains, and peer-to-peer distributed networks. Term coinedbu Ethereum co-founder Wood = world where all data and content is put in the hands of content creators, hand bakc control to end-users, and cuting out gov and corpo.
'Society was bound to imprint itself back on the web. The internet today is broken by design. We see wealth, power, and influence placed in the hands of the greedy, the megalomaniacs or the plain malicious' said Gavin Wood => executable Magna Carta
Last paragraph:
'In the I ching, also known as the Book of Changes, the ancient Chinese script confers a note of wisdom: that an overconfident dragon will have cause for remorse. If Pony's generation of entrepreneurs spent the first half of their lives swimming upstream like carps to leap over the gates of the Yellow River hoping to become dragons, then following ancient wisdom, the second part of thei fate lies in knowing when to bow out - or perhaps becoming part of the system they once wished to change.'
Tencent's founder = Ma Huateng (Pony) =/= Jack Ma = Alibaba
I loved the use of the expression 鲤跃龙门 that the author used as the guideline => poetic and cultural
Meaning: China's internet tycoons like Pony Ma is a gene of carp becoming dragons ubt tese idealist geeks who ventured to change the world, are now shackled and have become part of a system that they wanted to change.
ORIGINS
Shenzhen: famous corporate citizens like Huawei, DJI (1st drone producer) & Tencent
时不我待 In Pony's school people will repeat this type of epigrams
Pony's start-up with old classmates (3) + a sales Jason Zeng Liqing => for a year, Tencent's owner was Pony's mom bc Poney and Zhang Zhidong haven't resigned at the time
Beginning of Tencent/OICQ = copycat of ICQ (Israelis instant-messaging platform) / like other largest internet companies: Shohu/Yahoo, Baidu/GG, Weibo/Twitter, Alibaba/eBay
OICQ's advantage = conversation data on cloud so don't need to use only 1 computer
1 year after creation, no money so needed I from IDG
Koos Bekker rich bc he invested in Tencent
David Wallerstein (US) I in OICQ bc all the young people in internet cafés were on it.
Phone calls too expensive so Chinese use texts, 2002 C generated 1/3 of global SMSs => add it to QQ , 60c a month for alerts on mobile if msgs on QQ desktops.
But Yahoo & Skype & other competitors also created their own instant-msg platforms => lost 30% of the market.
So for QQ's 3rd birthday, free use so to make money, sell virtual coins for custom Avatar
Social media with music, news
Bi-weekly meetings with core mana team => 16h for final decision
Pony met his wife on QQ, the app he created => apparently, he received a msg of a stranger asking 'Who are you?' he replied 'I'm penguin dad" and she answered 'then I'm penguin mom."
On the day of Tencent's listing, regulators issued rules demnading a clean-up bc of frauds & pronographic content.
Stock tanked & fell to No.4 from the top
MICROSOFT BATTLE
In 2004, MSN already user base in China + has a chic & stramline interface for urban population + copy Tencent
Begining of War: Pony laid bare his vision for QQ in a media conference + turned down proposition of MSN for connect the 2 platforms
小步快跑 快速迭代 Practice widely adopted by Chinese tech indus
Pb with MSN: slower dvlp bc more prudent / China's refulators so curb revue growth / key user data on US server so slower bc C banned foreign companies from operating their own data centres and Microsoft refused to put its data on those provided by local providers
=> end of Microsoft = they add MSN's chat to MSN Live (//website)
Chinese winners against foreign tech titans: Tencent vs Microsft / eBay & Amazon vs Alibaba / Didi vs Uber
Jeff Xiong Minghua from Microsoft joined T
SHIFT
Pony & Jack Ma were called 'tu bie' = local softshell turtles // 'bumpinks'
Then WeChat => msg tool to the one app that rules them all (Moments/Official ccounts/Mini Programs/Video Accounts)
Tencent with mobile games: Riot (LoL), Activision Blizzard (CoD, WoW), Epic (Fortnite) & Supercell (Clash of clan) = largest game factory of the world => desktop to console to phone
ALIBABA ARCH-NEMESIS
Alibaba = C's today online payment / op sys for co in C & the future
Jack began with China Pages (yellow pages-like directory in the US), then Alibaba.com = businesses sell to each other
To counter eBay, A started Taobao (indiv sellers cound trade with eo) publicly declaring war for media coverage: 'By generating a pb-relations battle with eBay, there would be a lot of buzz abt T, & therefore with every dollar that eBay spent, it would help feed this buzz abt T'
'eBay is a shark in the ocean, we are a crocodile in the Yantgtze River, if we fight in the ocean, we will lose, but if we fight in the river, we will win' said Jack
Alipay = Alibaba-managed escrow account that users paid into
Then grow so bad S quality so create Quick pay (sort of Central Bank)
With the grow of mobile, hesitation between QR codes (//WeChat) or NFC (near-field communications) => decided QR codes for merchants bc T took all the market
Mobile payments with WeChat red packet
MEITUAN COUP
The folden rule in C's tech landscape was that smaller start-ups had to take I from one of the 2 giants: Alibaba or Tencent (support in internet traffic and resources but also threat polarise future I // The Godfather
Meituan took money from A
Dianping-T vs Meituan-A but A wanted to intergrate Meituan but disagree so A stoped investing in Meituan. So T invested in Meituan for a Merger between Dianping & Meituan
Tencent strategy: allow multiple interal teams to compete with each other, it's a trademark of the company's that ensures innovation
Wechat was competing against other teams but won even if bad, and copied with TalkBox (voice msgs)
First T wanted to buy TalkBox but wanted its independance: 'I buy you and kill you or I just plagiarise you and you die mentality'
But self-/censorship on WX: gov monitoring tool, explains why can't expand in Western market
Allen for WX rules for design:
- product needs to be creative, innnovation
- useful
- beautiful
- easy to use
- reserved not flamboyant
- honest
- log-lasting & withstand the test of time
- don't leave out any details
- resource saving, not wasteful
- minimise design, less is more
But WX no money so decided to build WX into a connector (Meituan, Didi...)
RIDE-HAILING BATTLE
Cheng failed his exams so bad college and then foot masseur scam. Didi seledom ad bc he thinks it's all a scam
He entered A and asked for a job and got it lol (sales)
Richard Peng, T's head of M&A wanted to I in Didi but test the founder: he asked the significance of car-hailing app and Cheng told him that increasing efficiency in getting taxis & rides in other's car was the future => talk abt the busniess in a global perspective, big-picture thinker
+ key to make his business successful?, answer: algorithms
Didi & Kuaidi merge bc too much competition (the 7 days & 7 night battle, Li Hairu slept for only 2h per day)
Uber invasion: both burned 1B$ a year, finally Uber agreed to withdraw, selling Chn business to Didi in return of a significant stake in Didi.
GAMING CRUSADE
When T creates a breakout game (Honour of Kings), alert WX users when their freinds were duking it out online
T copycats Crazy Arcade, sue but win.
T's own legal team goew 200+ = 'Nanshan Indomitables'
LoL: US, T bought Riot but stay indep, 94% for $400mio
Fortnite Battle Royale: T bought Epic $330mio for 40%
Underdog vs Apple: Apple takes 30% of the revenue developers get from paid apps, in-app-purchases and subscription, no competing stores. Tim Sweeney (Epic CEO), said Apple is un-American and uncompetitive. So Fortnite banned from Applestore & Playstore, but also on Steam (desktop) so now on Deep Silver
MOBILE GAMES
T asked Colin Yao Xiaoguang's team (in competition with others) to create a hit game & coordinate witg multiple other teams within T (14 diff departments).
Negative feedback for their game so Colin took a deep dive into the issues within its team: '7 sins' plaguing the studio: cronyism (10/11 leaders came from the same former company), managers only delegating and not getting hands dirty, too many executives with inflated titles, promotions beyong competency, staff not adapted to T's culture and being inefficient, lack of quality control, & finally complacency
Virtual mercenaries: Colin ordered 100 people to revamp design => Honour of Kings => 54% of Female players, so popular that people played for social networking, bridge connection so race to impress with paying pro to help climb both social and gaming ladders
Clash of clans: T takeover of Supercell (Finnish company with a collective of small teams, cells for high efficiency and zero bureaucracy) to buy Supercell, Martin Lau (T) went. He was 97th highest scor ein the world, CEO of Supercell scepticism and challenged to play against an accomplished employee, Martin won and soon after, T acquired a controlling interest in Supercell.
E-sports clubs: 'E-sports is entering a golden age in China and globally, it's one of those few areas where China has a real chance of coming out on top to compete with dvlp countries' said Edward Cheng Wu (T's lieutenant)
T wanted create a pro network of clubs as serious as the NBA
Entertainment empire: T bought the rights to a lot of Japanese anime franchises for worldwide multimedia brand (DC/Disney): for example Naruto, but also Men in black, Venom, Kong, Top Gun
Music streaming: Tencent Music Entertainment but 24 record label lawsuit so employed Andy Ng for convincing big labels to work with T (stoped TME for 4y): HIM, Jay Chou, Huayi brothers
T was the 1st to reach out to the labels so more trust
With distribution rights, T lawsuit against NetEase & Alibaba so T's dominance of the market.
QQ Music for subscription S for downloads and perks like priority access to concert tickets
Wanted to partner woth Spotify bc Western market, 1st talks lasted 7 minutes lol bc 'take it or leave it' offer from Spotify, but 2nd time, share-swap structure : 10% of each enterprise (Spotidy & Tencent Music)
STATE VS GOLIATH
Government scared of prevalence of violence in gamesand fow it was fostering addiction among the nation's youth (Officials even criticized T for growing myopia among children)
All games 2 steps approval process in China: register with Ministry of Culture & Tourism, and check for sensitive content / then 2nd agency to grant licence and allow commercialisation.
T got stuck with PUBG & Fortnite so T's shares tanked in NY
So T limit time children spend on games / police database to verufy ages and identities
US Inspection: blacklist telecom equipment giant as threat to national security
The model of raising American money to fund Chinese startups in the world's biggest internet market has worked successfully for 2 decades. PE & VC firms wanted this model to persist.
US regulators: if company couldn't show that it wasn't under foreign gov countrol, or if the Board wasn't able to audit the company for 3 consecutive y, then the company's securities would be banned from American exchanges => so HongKong
Ant planned to list simultaneously in HK and China'snew tech board on Shanghai (IPO) but China Securities REgulatory Commission said no.
Then Anti-trust authority, anti-monopoly rules
Alibaba & Didi restrictions
T too bc the CCP didn't knew how much power it has (data)
THE METAVERSE AND BEYOND
Tencent Cloud = C2B2C strategy = WX's teleconference and Mini App programs hav been instrumental in help company expand its cloud business beyond just gaming companies (even Nike, McDo, Gap)
Pony also wanted to create a Metaverse (before Zuck), Quan Zhen internet
Also another concept: Web3, internet restored to its decentralised origins by building S on top of blockchains, and peer-to-peer distributed networks. Term coinedbu Ethereum co-founder Wood = world where all data and content is put in the hands of content creators, hand bakc control to end-users, and cuting out gov and corpo.
'Society was bound to imprint itself back on the web. The internet today is broken by design. We see wealth, power, and influence placed in the hands of the greedy, the megalomaniacs or the plain malicious' said Gavin Wood => executable Magna Carta
Last paragraph:
'In the I ching, also known as the Book of Changes, the ancient Chinese script confers a note of wisdom: that an overconfident dragon will have cause for remorse. If Pony's generation of entrepreneurs spent the first half of their lives swimming upstream like carps to leap over the gates of the Yellow River hoping to become dragons, then following ancient wisdom, the second part of thei fate lies in knowing when to bow out - or perhaps becoming part of the system they once wished to change.'
February 23, 2023
If you don’t know anything about Tencent/ Chinese tech companies, this is a good book to start. A lot of easy and fun stories to read from the book. But for me, I was looking more deeper analysis.
July 29, 2024
This book was my first foray into the tech landscape of China. I have always read books on Silicon Valley and its tech landscape and while I was reading this book it felt China has been more of a different universe (mirror world) than a part of the wider tech ecosystem of the world. It's almost scary to see how BAT (Baidu-Alibaba-Tencent) are dominating and spurring the economic and tech innovation in the country. Obviously the part of Chinese surveillance is a little unsettling and makes me count my blessings. (Until we realise one day that our governments have been doing the same on some level)
February 24, 2023
This book told the story of TenCent, a Chinese internet company that during the last decade has become a behemoth of a corporation through internal growth and acquisition. Started as a chat app known as QQ it has morphed into a giant company in China with social media, music, online sales, gaming and news components. It is like an Amazon, Facebook, Shopify combined.
It was interesting to learn about such a large company that had I not listened to investment podcasts I would be unfamiliar with. It is funny that such a large important company in the west is off of our radar. It was interesting to see how an internet company was able to grow so quickly.
What I didn't like about the book was that the author wrote in the manner of a Chinese propagandist. The whole book was written in a celebratory manner of how TenCent was able to vanquish the evil Western companies and the evil Alibaba. Because of this writing manner I really sensed that I was missing out on the whole murky story of how TenCent was able to rise to the top. What role did the Chinese government play in the ascension of TenCent. What were the negative impacts to the Chinese consumer of having one company exert an almost monopolistic control on much of the entire population. The author did elude to how the Chinese government was able to use WhatsApp during COVID to control the population. What other controls were exerted through WhatsApp. I suspect that the author only presented a saccharin view of TenCent.
The last chapter was probably the most interesting when the author tells the story of how the Chinese government in 2021 clamped down on China's internet countries over their fear of losing control of the large corporations. This sent a shiver through the Western investment world as these companies value fell considerably. I guess this demonstrates the danger of investing in a company with no rule of law. One is left to the whims and desires of the President and his advisors.
The book dragged alot and was an effort to finish. I was really surprised that it had been nominated for a 2022 best business book of the year. I could easily have taken a pass on reading the book.
It was interesting to learn about such a large company that had I not listened to investment podcasts I would be unfamiliar with. It is funny that such a large important company in the west is off of our radar. It was interesting to see how an internet company was able to grow so quickly.
What I didn't like about the book was that the author wrote in the manner of a Chinese propagandist. The whole book was written in a celebratory manner of how TenCent was able to vanquish the evil Western companies and the evil Alibaba. Because of this writing manner I really sensed that I was missing out on the whole murky story of how TenCent was able to rise to the top. What role did the Chinese government play in the ascension of TenCent. What were the negative impacts to the Chinese consumer of having one company exert an almost monopolistic control on much of the entire population. The author did elude to how the Chinese government was able to use WhatsApp during COVID to control the population. What other controls were exerted through WhatsApp. I suspect that the author only presented a saccharin view of TenCent.
The last chapter was probably the most interesting when the author tells the story of how the Chinese government in 2021 clamped down on China's internet countries over their fear of losing control of the large corporations. This sent a shiver through the Western investment world as these companies value fell considerably. I guess this demonstrates the danger of investing in a company with no rule of law. One is left to the whims and desires of the President and his advisors.
The book dragged alot and was an effort to finish. I was really surprised that it had been nominated for a 2022 best business book of the year. I could easily have taken a pass on reading the book.
January 23, 2023
Really interesting account of Tencent's rise and its competition with Alibaba (in particular) and various western tech companies (more broadly). Chen goes to some lengths to address some of the pitfalls of doing business in China operationally, particularly with regards to how regulation and politics get in the way. But the book is written very much in favour of entrepreneurial enterprise, in an idealist fashion. The founders and the strivers are highlighted here. It rests very much in the cult of the founder.
Chen alludes to teams having to put in 80-hour+ weeks, sometimes losing their families (and for what?). The author rarely touches on the negative societal impacts beyond some of the government's statements in various crackdowns (eg on gaming and addiction). Chen probes the government's often capricious involvement in business and how it might impact the future but never really digs too deep. Still, she lifts enough of the lid to get an idea of what's going on in the pot.
The only disappointing chapter is the final one, which is a shame because the rest of the book is rather good. Chen chooses to leave us with some thoughts on the future and it's here that the book is at its weakest, looking at the "Metaverse" and "Web 3.0" as definite drivers for Tencent but I think confusing things in the process (and inferring clearly in several instances). "Web 3.0" has more-or-less already conceptually fallen apart and what's exciting about the "Metaverse" is touched upon but ignored in favour of focusing on Roblox: how augmented reality might be used across various industries (including entertainment). Tantalising but disappointing.
Still well worth reading.
Chen alludes to teams having to put in 80-hour+ weeks, sometimes losing their families (and for what?). The author rarely touches on the negative societal impacts beyond some of the government's statements in various crackdowns (eg on gaming and addiction). Chen probes the government's often capricious involvement in business and how it might impact the future but never really digs too deep. Still, she lifts enough of the lid to get an idea of what's going on in the pot.
The only disappointing chapter is the final one, which is a shame because the rest of the book is rather good. Chen chooses to leave us with some thoughts on the future and it's here that the book is at its weakest, looking at the "Metaverse" and "Web 3.0" as definite drivers for Tencent but I think confusing things in the process (and inferring clearly in several instances). "Web 3.0" has more-or-less already conceptually fallen apart and what's exciting about the "Metaverse" is touched upon but ignored in favour of focusing on Roblox: how augmented reality might be used across various industries (including entertainment). Tantalising but disappointing.
Still well worth reading.
May 7, 2024
1) "Back in the real world, Pony didn't have a clue what his startup's business model would be. The rough idea was that they would create a product that combines the pager and the then-nascent internet. Pony reconnected with two other classmates: Chen Yidan, who was working at the Shenzhen quarantine bureau, and Xu Chenye, who was part of the telecommunications bureau. They had one big problem: none of them knew anything about sales.
Enter Jason Zeng Liqing. Unlike the initial founding quartet of self-proclaimed nerds, Jason was an outgoing, articulate and towering presence. A cadre at the Shenzhen telecommunications bureau, he once convinced a local property developer to invest 1.2 million yuan in building the first walled-off compound in the country to be entirely covered by broadband. The five clicked, and Jason took on responsibility for sales.
Pony would take charge of product and strategy. That division of duties between the founders, and Jason's own dominant personality, planted the seeds of a rift that would eventually see Jason marginalised.
Pony registered a startup for 500,000 yuan, equivalent to sixty-two years of the average Chinese wage at the time. His dad helped him file for the company name. After trying out three that were already taken, he requested the moniker Teng Xun - the first character alluding to part of Pony's Chinese name (Ma Huateng), the second meaning speed and information. In English, the name Tencent paid homage to Lucent Technologies. Because both Pony and Zhang Zhidong hadn't officially resigned at the time, they put Pony's mother down as owner - for about a year, the Chairman of Tencent was his mum, Huang Huiqing."
2) "How times have changed. Nowhere was that transformation more evident than in the capital of Beijing itself. That national psyche is reflected in the speed of change the capital constantly undergoes. Every few months, it's stippled with a new skyscraper, subway station, night club or luxury residential complex with names like Palm Springs or Park Avenue. In a city where the pollution can be so thick with particles that the act of breathing is akin to eating air, the willow-flanked streets spewing catkins in spring are bulldozed every few months and reborn with monikers like Innovation Street.
The landlocked city still shrouds you in the scent of sulphur dioxide and coal the moment you step off the plane. For those passing through, it presages coughs and rhinitis; some would joke 'ten years off your health.' But to me it's always the scent of home - burning stubble in the wheat fields outside the Fourth Ring Road, where the Olympic Bird's Nest Stadium now stands; kebab stalls tucked in the hutongs around the iconic Drum Tower, fanned by grizzled migrants with pastel-hued blow-dryers; whiffs of petrichor washing away the humidity after the first autumn rain; and tobacco-choked night clubs near the Worker's Stadium, where Lamborghinis moonlight as Uber rides to pick up girls. One of my foreign friends calls it 'the developing economy scent.' To me, in an ironic way, it's the scent of hope and ambition."
3) "In late November 2013, Pony brought up a concept known as Internet+ that would be elevated by the government to a national strategic level within two years. The idea was you could topple and revolutionise any industry if you linked it with the internet. Link the web with retail and you get e-commerce, with entertainment and you get online gaming, But there could be a lot more sectors that could be transformed, such as transportation, logistics, manufacturing and - most immediately - neighbourhood services."
4) "In early 2012, Wang and Cheng saw a smartphone app called Momo, a Tinder-like dating app that allowed people to identify the location of other users on an online map. Wang says that the notion of tracking attractive females on phones piqued their interest in the enormous potential of a smartphone's GPS capabilities."
5) "'The most important thing is to drive yourself to a state of despair, and then God will open a window for you. So up till today, we think that money is just one element of resources, but it is never the most important. There will always be someone who is richer than you. The most important thing is your persistence,' said Cheng."
6) "Wang says Didi contemplated expanding into the US. Instead, in September 2015, it invested $100 million in Uber's American rival, Lyft.
According to Wang, it was less about undermining Uber than about gaining negotiating leverage. 'The purpose of them grabbing a lock of our hair and us grabbing their beard isn't really to kill the other person, he says.
'Everyone is just trying to win a right to negotiate in the future.'"
7) "The metaverse, in its simplest terms, is embodied by the world depicted in Stephen Spielberg's Ready Player One, where people live and play in an immersive virtual reality. It's a place where they're free to parachute off Mount Everest, ascend the Great Pyramids of Giza, race against King Kong across New York in a sports car. It's a place where people could spend the better part of their day at work, presiding over meetings with hundreds of others, even (eventually) feel another person's grip via special suits with sensors that can physically manifest their online avatars actions in the real world."
8) "Pony's conundrum is how to propel Tencent into the future while appeasing his political masters - an incredibly delicate manoeuvre with unimaginable stakes. Given the extraordinary achievements of the past two decades, some may argue Pony is duty-bound to try. Who better than the visionary founder of the world's largest online entertainment empire to square that circle, to fashion a formula that will work for a fifth of the global population?
And so the billionaire might not be bowing out anytime soon. Perhaps it's not even up to him. For the Party, it would be much easier to have one mighty all-knowing yet obedient company to rule all than play whack-a-mole with potentially disruptive forces."
Enter Jason Zeng Liqing. Unlike the initial founding quartet of self-proclaimed nerds, Jason was an outgoing, articulate and towering presence. A cadre at the Shenzhen telecommunications bureau, he once convinced a local property developer to invest 1.2 million yuan in building the first walled-off compound in the country to be entirely covered by broadband. The five clicked, and Jason took on responsibility for sales.
Pony would take charge of product and strategy. That division of duties between the founders, and Jason's own dominant personality, planted the seeds of a rift that would eventually see Jason marginalised.
Pony registered a startup for 500,000 yuan, equivalent to sixty-two years of the average Chinese wage at the time. His dad helped him file for the company name. After trying out three that were already taken, he requested the moniker Teng Xun - the first character alluding to part of Pony's Chinese name (Ma Huateng), the second meaning speed and information. In English, the name Tencent paid homage to Lucent Technologies. Because both Pony and Zhang Zhidong hadn't officially resigned at the time, they put Pony's mother down as owner - for about a year, the Chairman of Tencent was his mum, Huang Huiqing."
2) "How times have changed. Nowhere was that transformation more evident than in the capital of Beijing itself. That national psyche is reflected in the speed of change the capital constantly undergoes. Every few months, it's stippled with a new skyscraper, subway station, night club or luxury residential complex with names like Palm Springs or Park Avenue. In a city where the pollution can be so thick with particles that the act of breathing is akin to eating air, the willow-flanked streets spewing catkins in spring are bulldozed every few months and reborn with monikers like Innovation Street.
The landlocked city still shrouds you in the scent of sulphur dioxide and coal the moment you step off the plane. For those passing through, it presages coughs and rhinitis; some would joke 'ten years off your health.' But to me it's always the scent of home - burning stubble in the wheat fields outside the Fourth Ring Road, where the Olympic Bird's Nest Stadium now stands; kebab stalls tucked in the hutongs around the iconic Drum Tower, fanned by grizzled migrants with pastel-hued blow-dryers; whiffs of petrichor washing away the humidity after the first autumn rain; and tobacco-choked night clubs near the Worker's Stadium, where Lamborghinis moonlight as Uber rides to pick up girls. One of my foreign friends calls it 'the developing economy scent.' To me, in an ironic way, it's the scent of hope and ambition."
3) "In late November 2013, Pony brought up a concept known as Internet+ that would be elevated by the government to a national strategic level within two years. The idea was you could topple and revolutionise any industry if you linked it with the internet. Link the web with retail and you get e-commerce, with entertainment and you get online gaming, But there could be a lot more sectors that could be transformed, such as transportation, logistics, manufacturing and - most immediately - neighbourhood services."
4) "In early 2012, Wang and Cheng saw a smartphone app called Momo, a Tinder-like dating app that allowed people to identify the location of other users on an online map. Wang says that the notion of tracking attractive females on phones piqued their interest in the enormous potential of a smartphone's GPS capabilities."
5) "'The most important thing is to drive yourself to a state of despair, and then God will open a window for you. So up till today, we think that money is just one element of resources, but it is never the most important. There will always be someone who is richer than you. The most important thing is your persistence,' said Cheng."
6) "Wang says Didi contemplated expanding into the US. Instead, in September 2015, it invested $100 million in Uber's American rival, Lyft.
According to Wang, it was less about undermining Uber than about gaining negotiating leverage. 'The purpose of them grabbing a lock of our hair and us grabbing their beard isn't really to kill the other person, he says.
'Everyone is just trying to win a right to negotiate in the future.'"
7) "The metaverse, in its simplest terms, is embodied by the world depicted in Stephen Spielberg's Ready Player One, where people live and play in an immersive virtual reality. It's a place where they're free to parachute off Mount Everest, ascend the Great Pyramids of Giza, race against King Kong across New York in a sports car. It's a place where people could spend the better part of their day at work, presiding over meetings with hundreds of others, even (eventually) feel another person's grip via special suits with sensors that can physically manifest their online avatars actions in the real world."
8) "Pony's conundrum is how to propel Tencent into the future while appeasing his political masters - an incredibly delicate manoeuvre with unimaginable stakes. Given the extraordinary achievements of the past two decades, some may argue Pony is duty-bound to try. Who better than the visionary founder of the world's largest online entertainment empire to square that circle, to fashion a formula that will work for a fifth of the global population?
And so the billionaire might not be bowing out anytime soon. Perhaps it's not even up to him. For the Party, it would be much easier to have one mighty all-knowing yet obedient company to rule all than play whack-a-mole with potentially disruptive forces."
December 8, 2022
This book is very informative, providing many details of Tencent’s founding, growth, and current status collected from website posters, books, and press. Not only that, but the author also puts Tencent into a bigger picture, to imply the uncertain future for the whole China’s Tech industry.
What I like about this book is that the author’s writing follows the style of journalism, with the facts presented with sources and an objective perspective adopted. I haven’t read Wu’s book about Tencent, but I’ve read his other books like China Emerging. It was a really bad reading experience as Wu likes to add many unfounded psychological activities into his narrative. Besides, the position of such a famous Chinese writer has determined the tone of his book, and many stories are destined to be intentionally omitted.
Like Chen, I have witnessed the flourishing of Tencent, Alibaba, and other Chinese tech companies, and one day suddenly realized their products have become indispensable in my ordinary life. But in hindsight, I have no clear idea, like the general public, of exactly how they have achieved their success. This book presents the complete stories of these two giants battling over Meituan, Didi, and other fields. And how Tencent has laid out the pillars of its empire, QQ, Wechat, gaming, music, cloud computing, etc.
And those talents behind these stories, like Martin Lau for Tencent and Joseph Tsai for Alibaba. It is very interesting to find that great talents educated abroad have both played big roles in Tencent and Alibaba’s success.
In addition, Chen has also shown us the approaching dangers lurking around the empire. The Iron Fist, like the sword of Damocles, shadows everyone. Jack and Pony are no exception.
If any chance this book gets to be reprinted, hope these latest events in November would be included. And other things like health color codes and travel codes, constituents of a tightly woven cyber surveillance net, cannot be done without contributions from Wechat and Alipay. Haha.
Such a loss that there would be no non-censored Chinese version of this book.
What I like about this book is that the author’s writing follows the style of journalism, with the facts presented with sources and an objective perspective adopted. I haven’t read Wu’s book about Tencent, but I’ve read his other books like China Emerging. It was a really bad reading experience as Wu likes to add many unfounded psychological activities into his narrative. Besides, the position of such a famous Chinese writer has determined the tone of his book, and many stories are destined to be intentionally omitted.
Like Chen, I have witnessed the flourishing of Tencent, Alibaba, and other Chinese tech companies, and one day suddenly realized their products have become indispensable in my ordinary life. But in hindsight, I have no clear idea, like the general public, of exactly how they have achieved their success. This book presents the complete stories of these two giants battling over Meituan, Didi, and other fields. And how Tencent has laid out the pillars of its empire, QQ, Wechat, gaming, music, cloud computing, etc.
And those talents behind these stories, like Martin Lau for Tencent and Joseph Tsai for Alibaba. It is very interesting to find that great talents educated abroad have both played big roles in Tencent and Alibaba’s success.
In addition, Chen has also shown us the approaching dangers lurking around the empire. The Iron Fist, like the sword of Damocles, shadows everyone. Jack and Pony are no exception.
If any chance this book gets to be reprinted, hope these latest events in November would be included. And other things like health color codes and travel codes, constituents of a tightly woven cyber surveillance net, cannot be done without contributions from Wechat and Alipay. Haha.
Such a loss that there would be no non-censored Chinese version of this book.
December 8, 2022
This book isn’t what you think it is, and the positive reviews here are almost certainly from people who haven’t read the book — or if they have, they haven’t read much else.
It’s poorly written, poorly edited, poorly typeset. It reads like it was commissioned by the Tencent Board of Directors.
The author misrepresents things that have been widely documented. It is common knowledge by now that firms like Tencent and Alibaba succeeded in large part because they were sponsored by the Chinese government. Copyright and IP infringement, outright theft of technology, and an unfair competitive environment have helped build these companies into the giants they are today. But you wouldn’t know that by reading this book. I started looking up contradictory sources for various claims made in the book (about the reasons for the absence of Twitter, Uber and Spotify in China, the debacle that was Didi’s IPO, among others), but there were too many.
It’s not a secret that the Chinese government uses data collected by companies like Tencent to manipulate, monitor and limit the freedom of Chinese citizens. The author acknowledges this, but only as a way to show how Tencent was able to leverage this as a competitive advantage — bowing to invasive and harmful policy in order to force out international competitors.
On top of that, the author credits Pony Ma for the successes of companies that Tencent has a passive investment in - often the investment comes even after the success, but is used as a proof point for Tencent's prodigiousness.
The last bit of the book (finally) starts to be critical of the Chinese government, but only because it made moves in 2021 that were damaging to Tencent and Alibaba (insert face-eating leopard meme here).
The book is a hagiography for Pony Ma and a few other Chinese businessmen. It’s laughable. I only finished it so that I could be thorough in my review.
It’s the worst nonfiction book I’ve read in years.
It’s poorly written, poorly edited, poorly typeset. It reads like it was commissioned by the Tencent Board of Directors.
The author misrepresents things that have been widely documented. It is common knowledge by now that firms like Tencent and Alibaba succeeded in large part because they were sponsored by the Chinese government. Copyright and IP infringement, outright theft of technology, and an unfair competitive environment have helped build these companies into the giants they are today. But you wouldn’t know that by reading this book. I started looking up contradictory sources for various claims made in the book (about the reasons for the absence of Twitter, Uber and Spotify in China, the debacle that was Didi’s IPO, among others), but there were too many.
It’s not a secret that the Chinese government uses data collected by companies like Tencent to manipulate, monitor and limit the freedom of Chinese citizens. The author acknowledges this, but only as a way to show how Tencent was able to leverage this as a competitive advantage — bowing to invasive and harmful policy in order to force out international competitors.
On top of that, the author credits Pony Ma for the successes of companies that Tencent has a passive investment in - often the investment comes even after the success, but is used as a proof point for Tencent's prodigiousness.
The last bit of the book (finally) starts to be critical of the Chinese government, but only because it made moves in 2021 that were damaging to Tencent and Alibaba (insert face-eating leopard meme here).
The book is a hagiography for Pony Ma and a few other Chinese businessmen. It’s laughable. I only finished it so that I could be thorough in my review.
It’s the worst nonfiction book I’ve read in years.
April 10, 2024
This is a fascinating account of the rise of Tencent and the Chinese internet startup ecosystem in general. Chen profiles Pony Ma and other key players in the ecosystem and provides a compelling and fast-paced play-by-play of the challenges these organizations had to navigate. He frankly provides multidimensional perspective on the business decisions Ma and other leaders make and their outcomes, and he also describes the role of state intervention.
That being said, it did feel like Chen glazed over the details that are a bit more murky and interdimensional. I would have loved to learn more about DiDi's market domination and about Tencent's differentiation in the context of the broader market (unless the implication is that state intervention or luck is more relevant here). This inconsistent treatment of the details leads to a less cohesive narrative and left me with more questions at the end of the book (which is okay, but I think it was within scope for the author to answer them)!
Also, I felt like the narrative in this book was a bit one-sided and lacked some more clarity or nuance about the broader situation. This is okay - Chen does such a great job sharing information that it's okay that the story lacks strong opinions. I just would have liked to have more of that!
I enjoyed reading this book and learned a lot! My reservations are mainly surface-level and I am glad I read it overall.
That being said, it did feel like Chen glazed over the details that are a bit more murky and interdimensional. I would have loved to learn more about DiDi's market domination and about Tencent's differentiation in the context of the broader market (unless the implication is that state intervention or luck is more relevant here). This inconsistent treatment of the details leads to a less cohesive narrative and left me with more questions at the end of the book (which is okay, but I think it was within scope for the author to answer them)!
Also, I felt like the narrative in this book was a bit one-sided and lacked some more clarity or nuance about the broader situation. This is okay - Chen does such a great job sharing information that it's okay that the story lacks strong opinions. I just would have liked to have more of that!
I enjoyed reading this book and learned a lot! My reservations are mainly surface-level and I am glad I read it overall.
September 28, 2024
Picked this book up because it was a relevant industry for my work and it was shortlisted for the Financial Times book of the year award - that made me avoid reading the introduction and checking out the contents, like I would do with a normal book I was curious about, before deciding to buy. Stale writing and lack of any real insight other than an overblown list of events with the most minimal of colour made it one hell of a disappointing read. Unless someone finds the early years of Tencent (I was hoping for more insight into things that happened in their mature stages ie why they invested in record labels) or their founders or business in China (although it will provide the most minimum of insight) particularly interesting, this will be a dull read. Based on some of the advertising I thought it would be similar to Too Big To Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin, which read like a business thriller, but it was more like watching grass grow. Regretfully it put me off reading for the best part of a year, a habit which I have thankfully recently recovered, and I would have been better off if I classified it as a "did not finish" / DNF and moved on to another book which would have been more valuable. (I also find it absurd how many 5 star reviews people have given this!!!)
January 8, 2025
The story of Tencent mirrors that of Alibaba. Both started by guys who wern't educated in the west and both grew into mega corporations controlling everything in China. Tencent started by ripping-off other businesses, which is normal in China. They took ideas from start-ups, integrated them with WeChat and imporved them with superior technologies. Tencent eventually switched approaches to a more founder friendly method, taking a hands-off aproach when investing. Tencent also has a policy of not showing too many ads to users as well as not making them pay up-front for games. Tencent became a global player in the video game sector by investment and created very sucessful titels in China (most of which seem to be copycats of western brands which they own). The copyright laws and anti-monopoply laws the Western world has would have prevented Tencent from becoming what it is now in China. The book ends on a note saying how at the time of writing the Chinese government is taking a hard stand against gaming and the tech sector in China. This book is short but goes into lots of detail, I like that it focuses more on facts rather than the personality of Pony Ma for example.
January 8, 2023
One of the biggest tech giants of the world, the story of Tencent may not be known much outside of China. And that is why this book’s title may catch many readers’ attention - at least if you enjoy business stories. Lulu Chen’s narrative showcases how the company has kept changing over the years, how it has benefitted from the tech boom seen in China for the past decade or so, how it has managed its in-house growth while also strategically investing in inorganic growth, and how at one stage it became too big that the Chinese government could no longer ignore it. The writing is straightforward, well-researched, and focuses quite effectively on the human side of running businesses other than the technology of course. Through Tencent’s story, Chen covers the tales of other tech companies too that are woven with Tencent, most notably Didi. The story of Tencent is far from over and once you have read this book, you too will definitely be keeping an eye out on where this giant is headed next…
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