Why Tencent is ageing prematurely
ByteDance is a mere shadow of Tencent, but it owns the fastest-growing social media apps in the world
At just 20 years of age Tencent is beginning to look a bit tired. That’s bad news when you’re operating in an industry that requires superhuman agility. It’s not that the China-based internet giant doesn’t still have a staggering array of hugely popular offerings that continue to generate the sort of returns most corporate executives can only dream of. It’s that, as China-based analyst Matt Brennan says, "it’s struggling to tell a growth story". Brennan, who has written extensively about a group that has generated huge value for SA investors, does point out that Tencent has never been much good at communicating any sort of story. Unlike Alibaba founder and chairman Jack Ma, Tencent CEO Pony Ma (no relation) is described as introverted "and a bit of a geek" who evidently sees little benefit in public relations. The lack of a growth story may have contributed to 2018 being one of the worst in Tencent’s history. Its share price, which seemed to only ever go in one direction, shed 30% o...
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