Pony Ma or Ma Huateng, founder of the Chinese technology giant Tencent, is known as a calm person. However, not long ago, he was angry at some Tencent employees who he thought were incompetent.
As quoted from Benzinga, last week Ma Huateng gathered employees at a town hall event. So there, he criticized some employees for their work in the social media business, internet content to video games.
He targets employees who he calls lazy. "You can't survive in business, but you instead relax on the weekends, play football," said one of his angry outbursts.
Tencent's business has recently declined due to tough competition and more and more regulations from the government. In fact, Tencent has been subject to large fines several times, partly because it is considered to have a monopoly.
He criticized the game division for issuing too many titles but not paying attention to the quality. Then Tencent's social media and content also began to lose to TikTok, which is now loved by young people.
Tracing his life history, Ma Huateng was born in the Chaoyang district, Shantou 50 years ago. His father was a port manager in Shenzhen. He attended Shenzhen University and graduated in 1993 majoring in Computer Science.
Ma Huateng and several of his colleagues then founded Tencent in 1998. The company continued to lose money in the first 3 years and relied on funding from investors.
Their first product to hit big was the instant messaging service QQ, which quickly became Tencent's main source of income. Then they penetrated the gaming world with popular titles such as CrossFire, Dungeon Fighter Online to League of Legends.
Ma Huateng was increasingly successful and became one of China's richest people. Moreover, the WeChat service is also very popular. He is known as a calm and private person, but business pressures may make him unable to remain silent any longer.