Why China’s Most-Hated Internet Company Decided to Play Nice
The New York Times
Tencent’s popularity may help it avoid trouble with Beijing. But its vast power could still squelch innovation in the world’s largest online market.
A few months after Wang Xing founded a Groupon-like e-commerce service called Meituan, he learned that China’s biggest internet company, Tencent, had started a similar venture. “Is there any business that Tencent wouldn’t do?” he asked. Mr. Wang’s quote led a 2010 magazine article about Tencent with a headline so famously profane — think the rough Chinese equivalent of an F-bomb — that two top editors were fired shortly after it was published. The cover depicted Tencent’s mascot, a chubby penguin wearing a red scarf, stabbed with knives, blood dripping to the floor.More Related News