Pulse2 Technology and Social Media News » Tencent Holdings

Tencent Restructuring Business Operations Into 6 Groups

Amit Chowdhry — Sat, 19 May 2012 18:38:30 +0000

Chinese media company Tencent Holdings said this past Friday that they are restructuring their business operations into 6 groups. The company also named Ren Yuxin as the new COO and head of the company’s media and social networking groups as they prepare to move beyond their gaming business. The restructuring will benefit smaller operations of the business like mobile, search, and e-commerce.

Tencent CEO Ma Huateng that the restructuring will help move the company “incubate new businesses.” Huateng added the restructuring “will pool certain of our technology and engineering teams to further develop core technologies and operational platforms so as to better support future business growth.”

Tencent’s six groups are going to be comprised of corporate development, interactive entertainment, mobile Internet, online media, social networking, and technology and engineering. Tencent is also setting up a wholly owned subsidiary called Tencent E-Commerce Holding Company. Yuxin was previousy the president of the company’s interactive entertainment business.

Weibo and Tencent Disables Comments Due To Impending Political Coup

Amit Chowdhry — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 18:21:36 +0000

Weibo and Tencent have temporarily banned the comment features on both of their services following their role promoting the speculation of a political coup. The comment features being banned were allegedly pushed for by the Chinese government. The shut-down is happening up until April 3rd. The authorities also closed down 16 websites and detained 6 people. Rumors were spreading of “military vehicles entering Beijing and something wrong going on in Beijing.” Community Part member and Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai was dismissed recently causing a shock to the nation.

Expedia and Tencent Invest $125.6 Million Into eLong.com

Amit Chowdhry — Tue, 17 May 2011 07:04:16 +0000

Tencent Holdings Ltd (HKG:0700) and Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE) have invested $125.6 million into online Chinese travel service website eLong.com. Tencent put in $84.4 million for a 16% stake and Expedia put in $41.2 million to increase their stake to 56%.

Tencent may set up a business partnership with eLong to distribute their hotel database to Tencent’s community of 674 million. eLong covers 150,000 hotels across the world, including 19,000 in China and 130,000 internationally.

[AllThingsD]

Groupon Launches In China Under The Name Gaopeng.com

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 05:31:42 +0000

Groupon has launched in China under the name Gaopeng.com. The website will initially cover Beijing and Shanghai. Tencent Holdings and Yunfeng Capital are investors in Gaopeng. Yunfeng Capital is a private equity fund started by Alibaba.com Chairman Jack Ma. Some of Gaopeng.com’s competitors include Lashou.com and Meituan.com. [Bloomberg]

Tencent Invests $300 Million Into Digital Sky Technologies

Amit Chowdhry — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 22:44:50 +0000

Digital Sky Technologies (DST) is an investment company that is known for investing in social networking companies such as Zynga and Facebook. Chinese Internet company Tencent has invested $300 million in DST for 10.26% ownership in the company. Tencent will also get 0.51% voting power in DST.

Digital Sky Technologies owns 1.9% of Facebook through a $200 million investment. DST invested $180 million in Zynga. DST raised about $1 billion in funding themselves through 2009. DST and Tencent are both rumored to be making bids in AOL’s ICQ messenger service. [paidContent]

Riot Games Raises $8 Million Series B

Amit Chowdhry — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 20:44:23 +0000

Riot Games is a social game development company that is best known for creating the League of Legends. Earlier this week Riot Games announced that they have raised about $8 million in Series B. The investors include Benchmark Capital, FirstMark Capital, and Tencent Holdings. Rather than making revenue from advertising, Tencent and Riot games depend on the sales of virtual goods.

Riot Games is currently developing an online game platform which is what the funding will go towards. Considering that Tencent is one of the largest virtual good dealers in China, they may even lend their expertise to Riot Games. The company is licensing the League of Legends in China and will launch in the country by 2010.

Tencent is the parent company of Internet portal QQ.com. They sell virtual goods through their portal, IM software, social networks, and games. These virtual goods include pets, clothing, wallpapers, etc. Tencent made about $700 million last year according to BusinessInsider.