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Tencent founder Pony Ma warns company is replaceable in leaked speech signalling a low-key future
- In a speech reported online, the tech giant’s chief executive emphasised Tencent’s role as an ‘assistant and connector’
- Ma said the operator of China’s largest social media and video gaming businesses should avoid crossing any lines after a year of increasing regulatory pressure
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Pony Ma Huateng, the founder and chief executive of Tencent Holdings, warned employees last month that the company could be replaced at any time in a speech emphasising the company’s role in providing a service to society, according to a report by online Chinese media outlet LatePost.
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During a year-end meeting, Ma described the country’s biggest social media and video gaming giant as an ordinary company that has benefited from China’s rapid development, according to the report published on Monday.
He added that the tech giant should do its job without crossing any lines, reiterating a past theme about the company serving as an ‘assistant and connector’.
Shenzhen-based Tencent declined to comment on the report. Its shares gained 4.5 per cent in Hong Kong on Tuesday.
The 50-year-old entrepreneur has only occasionally spoken in public in recent years about the business he created, making Ma’s reported comments a rare glimpse at the thinking behind the company’s response to an increasingly tough regulatory environment.
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