New Opportunities for Tencent: Embracing Challenges in the Gaming Industry
The gaming industry is constantly evolving, presenting both opportunities and challenges for companies like Tencent Holdings. Pony Ma, the CEO and co-founder of Tencent, recently acknowledged the fierce competition in the industry but emphasized that the company is keeping pace with the development of artificial intelligence (AI). During Tencent’s annual conference held in Shanghai, Ma admitted that while the company focused on its established games, competitors were releasing new blockbuster hits. The main question now is whether Tencent, the world’s largest gaming company and operator of China’s biggest social network, WeChat, can maintain its leading position in a country that is experiencing increased competition and new technologies.
According to a leaked portion of Ma’s speech published by Jiemian, a well-informed source confirmed its content. In his speech, Ma stressed that Tencent faced significant challenges in the past year. The emergence of new products from competitors left Tencent feeling helpless as it lagged behind in introducing new offerings. Ma added that the company’s recent game releases did not achieve the expected success.
Tencent has been overshadowed by Chinese game developers MiHoYo and NetEase, who have released popular games like “Genshin Impact” and “Eggy Party.” Although Tencent’s earlier successes, such as “Honor of Kings” and “PUBG Mobile,” continue to generate substantial revenue, their newer products are falling short of expectations.
Regarding AI, Ma stated that Tencent has caught up with industry leaders. “Finally, we can keep up with these leading companies. We don’t consider ourselves as leaders, but at least we’re not too far behind,” he said. Ma added that Tencent is currently focused on integrating its “Hunyuan” AI model into various business scenarios to enhance efficiency, rather than rapidly transforming AI into products.
Another important topic in Ma’s speech was live-streaming e-commerce. For several years, Tencent has been aiming to make WeChat more like ByteDance’s video platform, Douyin, which has achieved immense success in live-commerce transactions. “WeChat, with its vast number of daily users and ecosystem, is our most powerful platform. But it’s already been 12 years… Now the question is, how can we find new shoots on the old tree that is WeChat?” said Ma.
Despite the challenges in the gaming industry, the development of AI and live-commerce present new opportunities for Tencent. Regardless of competition, Tencent has the potential to maintain its leading position and keep up with emerging trends in the Chinese technology market.
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The source of the article is from the blog macholevante.com