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Tencent history
Tencent company history timeline
Founded in 1998 with its headquarters in Shenzhen, China, Tencent's guiding principle is to use technology for good.
In February 1999, Tencent's messenger product OICQ released.
The company was founded by Yi Dan Chen, Hua Teng Ma, Chen Ye Xu, Li Qing Zeng, and Zhi Dong Zhang on November 23, 1999 and is headquartered in Shenzhen, China.“
Tencent has been listed on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong since 2004.
By 2005, charging for use of QQ mobile, its cellular value-added service, and licensing its penguin character, which could be found on snack food and clothing, had also become income generators.
In 2006, Tencent inaugurated the Tencent Charity Fund, the first charity foundation set up by a Chinese Internet enterprise, and the public charity website gongyi.qq.com.
In 2007, Tencent invested more than RMB100 million in setting up the Tencent Research Institute, China’s first Internet research institute, with campuses in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen.
By 2008, Tencent was seeing profit growth from the sale of virtual goods.
Tencent had already held 22.34% of the equity interest out of a previous investment in 2008.
On 21 January 2011, Tencent launched Weixin (微信), a social media app.
On 18 February 2011, Tencent acquired a majority of equity interest (92.78%) in Riot Games, developer of League of Legends, for about US$230 million.
Tencent acquired a minority stake in Epic Games, developer of franchises like Fortnite, Unreal, Gears of War and Infinity Blade, in June 2012.
As of Dec 31, 2012, the active QQ users accounts for QQ IM amounted to 798.2 million while its peak concurrent users reached 176.4 million.
Tencent in 2013 increased its stake in Kingsoft Network Technology, a subsidiary of Kingsoft Corporation, to 18%. Tencent previously had a 15.68% stake in the company and raised the stake through a US$46.98 million investment.
On 10 March 2014, Tencent bought a 15 percent stake in Chinese e-commerce website JD.com Inc. by paying cash and handing over its e-commerce businesses Paipai, QQ Wanggou and a stake in Yixun to JD.com to build a stronger competitor to Alibaba Group.
On 27 June 2014, Tencent announced that it had agreed to buy a 19.9 percent stake in Chinese e-commerce website 58.com (WUBA) Inc. for $736 million.
In November 2014, the company announced a deal with HBO which would give it exclusive rights for distribution in China.
In January 2015, Tencent launched WeBank (China), China's first online-only bank.
On 30 January 2015, Tencent announced that it had signed a US$700 million deal with the National Basketball Association to stream American basketball games in China.
On 16 December 2015, Riot Games sold its remaining equity to Tencent.
On 21 June 2016 Tencent announced a deal to acquire 84.3% of Supercell, developer of Clash of Clans, with US$8.6 billion.
In a "direct challenge to Chinese search engine Baidu," in May 2017, Tencent entered news feed and search functions for its WeChat app, which the Financial Times reported was used by 770 million people at the time.
In June 2017, Tencent became the 8th most valuable company in BrandZ's Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands, signalling its growing influence globally as well as the rise of Chinese brands.
In July 2017, Tencent bought a 9% share in Frontier Developments, the creator of the Elite: Dangerous and Planet Coaster franchises; as well as developer for Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 & 3.
In November 2017, Tencent revealed that it had purchased a 12% stake in Snap Inc. in the open market, with plans to help establish Snapchat as a gaming platform.
Alibaba overtook Tencent as Asia's most valuable company as its stocks surged after the company hosted its 2017 Investor's day.
In January 2018, Tencent and The Lego Group, the world's largest toy company, teamed up to jointly develop online games and potentially a social network aimed at children.
On 15 August 2018, Tencent reported a profit decline in the second quarter of 2018, ending a growth streak of more than a decade, as investment gains slid and the government's scrutiny of the gaming business weighed on the company.
In October 2019, Tencent began sending out refunds to customers after cancelling the broadcast of NBA games in response to the Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey's social media comments in support of protests in Hong Kong.
On 29 June 2020, Tencent acquired the video-on-demand service iflix in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
In September 2020, Tencent picked Singapore as its hub in Asia, joining rivals ByteDance and Alibaba in the race to reinforce their presence closer to home after complications in India and the United States.
In July 2021, China's antitrust regulator formally blocked Tencent's plan to merge China's top two video game streaming sites, Huya Live and DouYu, after it had failed to come up with sufficient remedies to meet the SAMR's requirements on giving up exclusive rights.
On 17 December 2021, Tencent announced it had acquired Slamfire Inc. and its subsidiary Turtle Rock Studios, the developer behind Left 4 Dead and Back 4 Blood.
On 11 January 2022, it was announced that Tencent is in talks to acquire Xiaomi-backed Black Shark, one of the largest gaming smartphone makers in China.
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