When the question under discussion is billionaire around the world, some names are remembered more than others. In fact, some names are less peddled in the mainstream media. One of these lesser-known billionaires is Tencent Chairman and CEO Ma Huateng.
Elusive, introverted, media-shy words that describe the man many have come to know as Pony Ma (an English translation of his surname, which means “horse”). The presence of its conglomerate and its subsidiaries in Chinese life is the opposite of its owner. It’s literally everywhere. Tencent Holdings Limited is a conglomerate with interests in mobile games, robotics, artificial intelligence, retail, social media, multiplayer online games, music, web portals, e-commerce, services Internet, payment systems and smartphones.
The sheer size of the Chinese market means that any company the size of Tencent has an already huge potential market ready to patronize its services. This and the less liberal political climate in China has resulted in the likes of Tencent and its owner, by extension, making huge profits. One of the world’s largest messaging apps, WeChat, is owned by Ma Huateng’s Tencent.
7 things you didn’t know about Ma Huateng
Youth
Born on October 29, 1971 in Ma Chenshu (a port manager in Shenzhen) and Huang Huiqing. There is no information about his formative years; however, it is already known that he and his family moved around a lot until they finally settled in Shenzhen when his father found a job.
Education and career
Ma Huateng attended Shenzhen University from where he graduated with a degree in computer science in 1993. He worked briefly with China Motion Telecom Development as a software developer before founding Tencent alongside Zhang Zhidong, Zeng Liqing, Xu Chenye and Chen Yidan in 1998. Ma is chairman and CEO of Tencent.
Under his leadership, the company grew to become Asia’s most valuable company with a market value of $500 billion. It is also the largest game company in the world. Tencent Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of the parent company, has 120 million paid subscribers and over 700 million active users.
Family/personal life
Pony is a deeply private man. Easily the most reclusive of all Techs. billionaires, Ma met his wife Wang Dan-ting through one of the messaging apps (QQ) built by his company. They talked for 3 months before finally fixing a date. Ma rarely gives interviews and has never spoken publicly about his wife or children.
Philanthropy
Ma is involved in philanthropy and is easily considered China’s most generous billionaire after selling 100 million of his shares in Tencent for an estimated $2 billion. The shares were transferred to the Ma Huateng Global Foundation.
Ma Huateng’s political orientations
He is a member of the National People’s Congress, which is essentially China’s Legislative Assembly, and seems to have a cordial relationship with the ruling party. Like most of the best Chinese technologies. Ma Huateng has taken advantage of the protection offered by government restrictions on foreign capital to dominate China’s smartphone and PC gaming market.
The Chinese government’s banning of websites such as Facebook, Gmail, Google, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, among others, have played a major role in the growth of Internet service-based companies such as Ma Huateng’s Tencent, not their allowing no external competition for China’s population of 1.4 billion potential users.
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Net value
Ma Huateng is undoubtedly the richest man in China and the first Asian to enter the top 10 of the Forbes wealth list. The top spot in China swung between him and Alibaba’s Jack Ma. Most of Ma Huateng’s fortune is the result of his 9.7% stake in Tencent. Its Tencent shares are held through its holding company Advanced Data Services.
Ma has been compared in many ways to the Oracle of Omaha – Warren Buffett. Both men share similar values of personal conservatism and simplicity, but are seen as aggressive but smart investors. According to Forbes, Ma Huateng has a net worth of $40 billion.
Real estate and artistic investment
Beyond its investment interests in Tencent, Map has a healthy property portfolio that includes prime properties in Hong Kong and a 19,600 sqm private residence. He is also an avid art collector with a collection worth $150 million.