Beijing's action against Didi appears to be just the beginning of a wider campaign to seize control of China's thriving tech sector. China's tech entrepreneurs are in for a rude awakening. Meanwhile, Washington's worries may have unfounded. The Chinese government seems to be doing everything in its power to lose its tech race with the US.
By Redaktion Table
The tone in China's fiercely competitive technology sector is getting rougher. The struggle for dominance and pluralism in the Chinese network world is shifting to the corporate level – the conflicts between Bytedance and the Internet giant Tencent are an exemplary lesson in the distribution battles.
By Christiane Kuehl
Tencent Holding is China's largest Internet group. The company is successfully represented in all relevant online sectors. The China.Table editorial team takes a look at the unknown giant.What does Tencent do? With an annual turnover of 35 billion US dollars and a profit of around 10 billion, Tencent is the largest Internet group in China. The company was founded in 1998. At that time, Tencent successfully launched QQ Messenger. They are now the world's largest game developer. Tencent is also a venture capitalist, in the music industry and in video streaming. The internet group has stakes in over 600 companies.One of its main drawing cards is WeChat. A social media application. It started as a Chinese version of WhatsApp. Meanwhile, Chinese people can use it to coordinate their daily lives. Via WeChat, users can shop and make doctor's appointments, among other things. The payment function WeChat Pay is three times bigger than PayPal with 600 million users. What belongs to Tencent? Tencent is active in many business areas. For example, the Chinese company owns five percent of Tesla shares. It also owns 15 percent of JD.com, an e-commerce platform based in the People's Republic. Tencent also founded the electric car brand Future Mobility and owns 12 percent of Snap Inc, the company behind Snapchat.The group is particularly involved in gaming. Through acquisitions and investments, Tencent Games China has become the global market leader in this field. For example, Tencent has bought Riot Games. The developers of League of Legends are a wholly owned subsidiary. So is Supercell, the creators of Clash of Clans. The Chinese also own 40 percent of Epic Games. The studio behind Fortnite, Unreal and Gears of War. Tencent Games The Tencent Gaming Platform (TGP) has been around for a few years. A gaming console comparable to the Playstation or the X-Box. So far, users can mainly use games from Tencent. However, third-party providers are to develop more software. In addition, there is a partnership between Tencent and PUBG.PUBG stands for the developer PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds. Its eponymous video game - an online multiplayer shooter - may be exclusively distributed by Tencent in China. At the core of the strategy is WeGame. A gaming portal with information and community. Games can be streamed and purchased here. It is a direct competitor to the provider Steam. Tencent products It is obvious that the group is also active in other entertainment areas. Tencent Music Entertainment Group, for example, is also part of its portfolio. The company is a joint venture with Spotify and develops streaming services for the Chinese market. Tencent Pictures is a film production company. It is involved in Wonder Woman, Venom and Kong: Skull Island, among others.The group is also active in more business-related areas. In response to Covid-19, the Chinese conglomerate launched Tencent Meeting, a cloud-based tool for video conferencing. TikTok and Tencent vs. Donald Trump In the summer of 2020, then-U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order that affected both Tencent's WeChat and ByteDance's TikTok apps. Transactions on the apps were banned. Unless an American company bought them. Tencent's other products are not affected.Tencent is also investing heavily in Germany. Tencent's subsidiary Tencent Cloud Europe GmbH in Frankfurt am Main, also known as Tencent Deutschland, is the European headquarters of the group from the People's Republic. The company has invested more than ten billion dollars in Europe in 2020. Above all, Tencent's cloud solutions and its IT services are intended to boost business in Germany. Tencent Analysis Tencent is one of the ten most valuable companies in the world with a market capitalization of almost 500 billion dollars. Between the years 2006 and 2016, the group increased its stock market value by 5,800 percent. The fortune of Ma Huateng, the founder of Tencent, is estimated at 67.7 billion dollars. All important Tencent news is available here from the China.Table editorial team.