'Your Projects Can't Even Survive As A Business', Tencent Founder Pony Ma Tells Staff

Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings founder Pony Ma told employees that many “corruption” issues were discovered in the company and mismanagement was draining its vitality, according to a Reuters‘ report quoting two employees familiar with the matter. Tencent is Asia’s biggest social media and gaming company.

At a year-end meeting with staff last week, Pony Ma said internal reviews this year had exposed unspecified corruption in the company, the reported said citing sources.

He also lambasted senior managers after one of the toughest years for Tencent since its founding in 1998, with revenue battered by a regulatory crackdown and headwinds from measures to stop the spread of COVID-19.

“Your projects can’t even survive as a business – they are living on life support, but still you just cheerily play ball on the weekend,” Ma said during the call, according to one employee who heard the comments and another who was briefed on them.

The meeting was first reported by Chinese local media outlet Jiemian, as per Reuters.

Tencent reported a second straight quarterly revenue drop last month as China’s economic slowdown and regulatory scrutiny hit its ad and gaming businesses. Up to the previous quarter, Tencent had reported double-digit growth for almost every three-month reporting period since going public in 2004.

Ma, who mostly stays out of public view, also said the company needed to focus on short video for future growth, and described the WeChat Video Account, Tencent’s short video platform, as the “hope” of the Shenzhen-based company, the sources said.

He warned that the video gaming business group would have to get used to Beijing’s strict licensing regime, and the number of new games China would approve would remain limited in the long run.

Last month, Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings also reportedly began a new round of job cuts targeted at its video streaming, gaming and cloud businesses. The layoffs affect three out of Tencent’s six business divisions — platform and content (PCG), which comprises of its video and news platforms, its gaming-focused interactive entertainment department (IEG) and cloud and smart industries group (CSIG).

(With Inputs From Reuters)

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