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☆ Founder of TikTok owner ByteDance jumps to top of China’s rich list as number of billionaires shrinks
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-30 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

SHANGHAI — ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming is China’s richest person, with personal wealth of $49.3 billion, an annual rich list showed Tuesday, although counterparts in real estate and renewables have fared less well. Zhang, 41, who stepped down in 2021 as chief executive of ByteDance, the Beijing-based parent company of TikTok, becomes the 18th individual to be crowned China’s richest person in the 26 years since the Hurun China Rich List was first published. He overtook bottled water magnate Zhong Shanshan, who slipped to second place as his fortune dropped 24%, to $47.9 billion. Despite a legal battle over its U.S. assets, ByteDance’s global revenue grew 30% last year to $110 billion, Hurun said, helping to propel Zhang’s personal fortune. The number of billionaires on the list dropped by 142 to 753, shrinking more than a third from its 2021 peak.

Persons: Zhang Yiming, Zhang, China Rich, Zhong Shanshan, Hurun, Pony Ma, Colin Huang, ”, Rupert Hoogewerf, Lei, Hoogewerf Organizations: SHANGHAI, ByteDance, PDD Holdings Locations: Beijing, China

☆ Alibaba and Tencent: China’s internet giants snap up their own shares to boost flagging stock market value
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-03 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

That would mark the biggest share repurchase by a Chinese tech company in the past year. The tech giant’s move comes at a time when Chinese regulators have been asking listed companies to repurchase shares to stabilize market confidence. Overall, companies listed in Hong Kong spent 126 billion Hong Kong dollars ($16.1 billion) buying back shares in 2023, the highest on record, according to Chinese financial data provider Choice. Tencent alone accounted for about 40% of total share buybacks in the Hong Kong market. Additionally, the global selling of Chinese assets, driven by geopolitical tensions or concerns about regulatory uncertainties, has further pressured Chinese share prices.

Persons: Alibaba, “, ”, Stephen Innes, Tencent, Xiaomi, ” Innes Organizations: Hong Kong CNN, Alibaba, BABA, Hong Kong, CNN, “ Locations: China, Hong Kong, buybacks, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Beijing

☆ Electronic Arts, maker of Madden NFL, to lay off 5% of staff as gaming industry layoffs widen
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-28 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

New York CNN —Electronic Arts plans to lay off 5% of its employees, making it the latest company in the gaming and tech space to reduce its workforce. Epic Games cut 830 jobs in September. In January, Tencent’s Riot Games said it would lay off 11% of its workforce and Microsoft said it would cut 1,900 jobs from its Activision Blizzard and Xbox gaming divisions. And electronics giant Sony said on Tuesday it would cut 8% of its global workforce, amounting to around 900 jobs. That means that after its cuts to staff last year, Wednesday’s layoffs could affect more than 600 workers.

Persons: ”, Andrew Wilson Organizations: New, New York CNN, Electronic Arts, EA, Madden NFL, Apex, ” EA, Microsoft, Activision Blizzard, Sony Locations: New York

☆ Sony to lay off 900 at PlayStation as tough times for the games industry persist
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-27 | by ( Michael Nam | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —Electronics giant Sony announced on Tuesday that it will be cutting 900 jobs, or 8%, in PlayStation’s global workforce. The layoffs will impact all regions for Sony Interactive Entertainment, according to the PlayStation press release, with its in-house London studio, responsible for the competitive singing video game “Singstar,” closing entirely. “These are incredibly talented people who have been part of our success, and we are very grateful for their contributions,” wrote Jim Ryan, president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment. Ryan had already announced in September plans to retire in March as Sony Group Corporation president. Specifically, the video game industry has been seeing jobs hemorrhage from 2023 into this year as well, with Epic Games cutting 830 jobs last September and Tencent’s Riot Games laying off 11% of its workforce in January.

Persons: ”, Jim Ryan, Naomi Matsuouka, Ryan, Hiroki Totoki Organizations: New, New York CNN — Electronics, Sony, Sony Interactive Entertainment, PlayStation, London, Bloomberg, Sony Group Corporation, Epic Games, Riot Games, SONY Locations: New York

☆ Tencent’s Riot Games lays off 11% of staff globally, adding to job cuts in US tech sector
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-23 | by ( Michelle Toh | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Hong Kong CNN —Riot Games, the developer of hit video games like “League of Legends” and “Valorant,” is cutting 11% of staff around the world, becoming the latest tech company to downsize. In the first two weeks of 2024 alone, more than 5,500 layoffs were announced at Google, Amazon and other prominent tech employers. Riot relied on the game’s massive success for about a decade, leading to calls for the company to diversify its business. On Tuesday, China’s gaming regulator made headlines by removing draft rules from its website that had aimed to rein in spending in online video games. Shares of Tencent and Chinese rival NetEase each rose 4.6% and 6.5% in Hong Kong, respectively, on Tuesday following the news.

Persons: “, hadn’t, Dylan Jadeja, Twitch, ”, Marc Merrill, Jadeja, ” Tencent Organizations: Hong Kong CNN — Riot, “, Google, Amazon, Tencent, CNN, “ League, National Press, Reuters Locations: Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Shenzhen, China, we’re

In China, Tencent is already doing it. Now it’s betting on Weixin Palm Payment, a biometric system launched in May for users of Weixin Pay, WeChat’s sister app. Last year, JPMorgan cited the opportunity as it announced its own payment authentication software pilot program using palm scanning. “With face scanning technology, people can look a lot like each other — like twins,” he said. The Seattle-based e-commerce giant launched its own palm scanning payment service in 2020, letting users connect their palm prints to credit cards to buy items at the company’s cashier-free stores.

Persons: China that’s, — Tencent, Guo Rizen, “, ” Guo, Tencent’s, Guo, ”, Tencent, “ We’re, Edward Santow, …, ” Santow, Kate Xue, wasn’t Organizations: China CNN, CNN, Goode Intelligence, JPMorgan, Fujitsu, University of Technology Locations: China, Shenzhen, Beijing, Seattle, Chinese, Guangdong, Supermonkey, University of Technology Sydney

☆ Tencent’s Top Shareholder Needs More Companies Like Tencent
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-18 | by ( Stephen Wilmot | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

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Persons: Dow Jones

☆ Prosus CEO exit leaves Tencent elephant in room
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-18 | by ( Karen Kwok | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko Acquire Licensing RightsLONDON, Sept 18 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Bob van Dijk is passing an unsolved problem to his successor. The Tencent stake that it owns made up about 75% of the group’s $130 billion portfolio value as of Sept. 15. His workaround was to instead sell little chunks of Tencent shares, and use the proceeds to buy back Prosus stock. Still, the gap reflects shareholders’ ongoing struggles to value Prosus. Neither Prosus nor the 50-year-old van Dijk gave a reason for his exit, but the persistence of the discount won’t have helped.

Persons: Bob van Dijk, Siphiwe, Ervin Tu, Africa’s, Van, van Dijk, It’s, Goldman Sachs, Prosus, Naspers, van Dijk’s, George Hay, Streisand Neto, Oliver Taslic Organizations: REUTERS, Reuters, Prosus, HK, Interim, Vision, Thomson Locations: Johannesburg, South Africa, Amsterdam, India, Brazil, Tencent

Taipei/London CNN —China’s top financial regulators have fined Ant Group — the fintech firm founded by billionaire Jack Ma — about 7.1 billion yuan ($994 million) for breaking rules related to consumer protection and corporate governance. “We will comply with the terms of the penalty in all earnestness and sincerity and continue to further enhance our compliance governance,” Ant Group said in a statement. Ant Group is an affiliate of e-commerce giant Alibaba, which was also founded by Ma. In April 2021, Alibaba was fined 18.2 billion yuan ($2.5 billion) — a record for China — for behaving like a monopoly. Separately, China’s financial regulators also announced a fine of nearly 3 billion yuan ($415 million) for Tenpay, Tencent’s (TCEHY) online payment platform, according to information posted on the PBOC website on Friday.

Persons: London CNN —, Jack Ma —, Alibaba, Guo Shuqing, Ma Organizations: London CNN, Ant, China Securities Regulatory Commission, People’s Bank of China, National Financial Regulatory Administration, Ma, Communist Party, China, People’s Bank of, Xinhua, Ant Group Locations: Taipei, London, China, People’s Bank of China

☆ Chinese payment giants revive effort to accept foreign credit cards
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-28 | by ( Josh Ye | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

HONG KONG, June 28 (Reuters) - Chinese tech giants Tencent Holdings (0700.HK) and Ant Group said that they would allow users to link international credit cards to their platforms, an issue that has long plagued foreign visitors as the country’s payment system has kept credit cards out for years. Foreign visitors often find themselves unable to pay for things in China where many shops and restaurants now only accept mobile payment rather than credit cards or cash. Tencent and Ant had formed partnerships with Visa and Mastercard in 2019 to make foreign cards usable on their platforms. Under the new setup, international travelers can set up their foreign cards on these apps with a few simple steps. While China’s mobile payment networks have been closed off to foreign-issued credit cards, domestically issued credit cards under Visa and Mastercard have long been supported.

Persons: Alipay, Ant, ” Tencent, Josh Ye, Kim Coghill Organizations: Tencent Holdings, HK, Ant Group, Visa Inc, Mastercard, Ant, Visa, Overseas, Thomson Locations: HONG KONG, China, ecommerce, Hong Kong, Macau

The return of tourists to Southeast Asia, he says, bodes well for the group’s core mobility business in the second half. The next challenge is resetting investor expectations so that beats can shine through. Lower incentives helped it to cut its adjusted operating loss to $66 million from $287 million a year ago. It also narrowed its forecast for annual adjusted operating loss to $195 million-$235 million, from a previous forecast of $275 million-$325 million. China’s Alibaba on May 18 reported revenue of 208 billion yuan ($30.1 billion) in the three months to end-March, up 2% year-on-year.

☆ SoftBank-Alibaba sale looks awkward for Prosus
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Liam Proud | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

LONDON, April 13 (Reuters Breakingviews) - SoftBank Group (9984.T) and Prosus (PRX.AS) are two very different beasts. Prosus owned about 27% of the internet titan on Wednesday, based on Refinitiv data and the company’s portfolio tracker. Prosus and van Dijk, however, have a rock-solid balance sheet with more cash than debt, and no particular need to exit Tencent in a hurry. That’s down from its peak last year, when the share price was considerably less than half the company’s net asset value per share. Prosus, the Amsterdam-listed technology investor, on April 11 said it would deposit 96 million Tencent shares into the Hong Kong Central Clearing and Settlement System, a precursor to selling them.

HONG KONG, March 23 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Tencent (0700.HK) is sounding more like its normal self again. The combination of regulatory respite, a post-lockdown consumption bounce plus cost cuts have put the company in a sweet spot for 2023. Revenue in the three months to December inched up 0.5% from a year earlier, to $21 billion, reversing year-on-year declines from the previous two quarters. With 2022 firmly behind it, Tencent can put a spring back in its step. Shares of Tencent rose 4.7% to HK$364.00 during early morning trading on March 23.

☆ Tencent’s Sales Growth Lifted by Digital-Ad Recovery
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Raffaele Huang | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

In the past few months, Tencent has secured government licenses for several blockbuster videogames in its pipeline. SINGAPORE—Chinese internet conglomerate Tencent Holdings Ltd .’s quarterly revenue rose 0.5% from a year earlier, backed by rising demand for digital advertisements, as executives said businesses were shaking off the impact from Beijing’s tough pandemic controls. October-December revenue rose to the equivalent of $20.8 billion, the company said Wednesday, after two quarters of contractions.

☆ China’s video game makers come in from the cold as crackdown eases
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Josh Ye | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/2] The Tencent Games logo is seen on its game on a mobile phone in this illustration picture taken August 3, 2021. "We believe the approvals indicate a more benign regulatory environment for the China gaming industry," JP Morgan analysts wrote in a note on Wednesday. "With rich game supply, we are more positive on overall online game market growth during Chinese New Year, a traditional strong season for the China online game market." Whether the gaming market can return to form also depends on the recovery of the Chinese economy, which has been thumped by a surge in COVID infections. However, data shows China’s total gamer population remains stable, slipping just 0.33% in 2022 from 2021 to 664 million.

☆ CNBC's fireside chat with Tencent's chief exploration officer
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailCNBC's fireside chat with Tencent's chief exploration officerIn his unique role as chief exploration officer, David Wallerstein, searches the globe for innovations that could change the world. He joins CNBC to discuss the latest innovations surrounding smart cars and Tencent’s investments in the smart auto sector.

Elon Musk’s will-they-or-won’t-they Twitter debacle kept readers on tenterhooks via Refinitiv’s platforms and our two websites, Breakingviews.com and Reuters.com. Another piece posing the hard-hitting question, “What is Morgan Stanley (MS.N) smoking in Twitter LBO?”, garnered plenty of clicks on Breakingviews.com and via Refinitiv. Almost a third of the best-read lists tackled the outbreak of war in Europe, and its terrible ramifications. Views on the rouble and the prospect of the country’s economic collapse demanded attention. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ Tencent chief blasts managers in fiery townhall - sources
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( Josh Ye | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

In a rare show of frustration, Pony Ma said at a year-end meeting with staff on Dec. 15 that internal reviews this year had exposed unspecified corruption within Asia's biggest social media and gaming company, the sources said. Tencent reported a second straight quarterly revenue drop last month as China's economic slowdown and regulatory scrutiny hit its ad and gaming businesses. Up to the previous quarter, Tencent had reported double-digit growth for almost every three-month reporting period since going public in 2004. Ma, who mostly stays out of public view, also said the company needed to focus on short video for future growth, and described the WeChat Video Account, Tencent’s short video platform, as the "hope" of the Shenzhen-based company, the sources said. He warned that the video gaming business group would have to get used to Beijing’s strict licensing regime, and the number of new games China would approve would remain limited in the long run.

☆ Tencent’s Top Shareholder Prosus Embraces Tech’s New Normal
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Stephen Wilmot | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The chill in technology markets has spread to Prosus, the problematic Amsterdam-listed investment company that sometimes appears insulated from wider trends by its $94 billion stake in Chinese internet giant Tencent. Prosus said Wednesday that its half-year consolidated trading losses more than doubled to $449 million, as it continued to invest in its roughly $30 billion portfolio of e-commerce ventures, which are engaged in cash-hungry businesses such as food delivery and fintech. It also signaled that this would be the peak period for cash burn as it adapts to the rising cost of capital by cutting costs and shifting its operating focus toward profitability. The company thinks its e-commerce investments need another two years to break even.

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