A round penguin has become the totem of this communication revolution, but the hero behind this revolution is very strange to us. But it is easy to remember his name. As long as we think of Tencent in QQ, we can think of his name: Ma.

First, who is the horse?

197 1 year 10 was born in Chaoyang, Shantou. 1984 moved from Hainan to Shenzhen with his parents. 1993 graduated from Shenzhen university, majoring in computer science, and joined runxun communication development co., ltd. as a software engineer and head of development department. Shenzhen Tencent Computer System Co., Ltd. was established from 65438 to 0998, and was named "Top Ten IT People in China" for many times. In June 2004, Tencent was listed in Hong Kong, and Ma became the chairman and CEO of the company's board of directors. In the same year, he was named one of the 25 most influential business leaders in the world in 2004 by Time magazine and CNN, and won the fourth Bauhinia Cup Outstanding Entrepreneur Award of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the "2004CCTV China Economic Person of the Year Award" trophy. In April 2006, he won the "Guangdong Youth May 4th Medal".

Second, set off a communication revolution.

You may not have heard of Ma Hua Teng, but you must have heard of QQ. You may not have heard of QQ, but you must have seen that chubby, silly little penguin. Obviously, Ma's popularity is far less than QQ or the little penguin icon, although these are his and Tencent's masterpieces.

No wonder, at present, Tencent QQ has more than 200 million registered users, including more than 75 million active users, and this record is constantly being refreshed in increments of 390,000 per day. Tencent, founded by Ma, has not only changed the communication habits of China113 people in four years, but also created a culture. Now, one out of every 13 people in China will say, "Don't call me, ask me." Fashion young men and women carry penguin backpacks, wear QQ clothes, put QQ photo frames on the bed and throw QQ pillows on the bed ... to be QQ people; Many netizens regard QQ as a "manned spaceship" leading to another world-the virtual world of the network. In that imaginary space, they show their talents, wisdom and humor that they have no chance to show in real life, and entrust them with many unsatisfied emotions and long-cherished wishes in real life. QQ has brought another communication revolution after telephone and fax.

The rapid development of QQ, not only many senior netizens did not foresee it, but even Ma himself could not think of it. First, it is not innovation. ICQ is the abbreviation of "Iseekyou" in English, which means: I'm looking for you in Chinese. Its function is like a pager that is often used in daily life, so ICQ is also called a "web pager". 1in the summer of 996, after three young people in Israel designed ICQ for the need of surfing the Internet, this software, which is vividly called "web pager", swept the hearts of netizens all over the world. When OICQ was launched in February, 1999, what's more, ICQ is already a world-class brand, occupying a considerable market in China. Even in China, there were already chat tools such as PICQ and CICQ. The second is that the technology is not leading, and there is no special advantage compared with the previous ones. But it did grow to more than 20 million users in just two years, and it beat all its rivals indisputably, becoming the de facto overlord of China. This has to make people look at the founder of all this, Ma. Ma turned out to be a "super net bug", and his name is familiar to net fans.

Third, the first generation of "net worms"

The horse is a little unexpectedly young. He is very much like a college student, with a handsome face and inexperienced experience. He kept a low profile. Even if he is successful now, he doesn't see much conceit of "young success" Only when he is calm and indifferent beyond his age, and only when he talks about computers and networks, will he show a happy smile and pride from time to time. He is a person who is completely immersed in it.

The young horse once loved astronomy very much, but it was a little far away after all. When the computer appeared in front of him, a new owner appeared in his life. After he was admitted to Shenzhen University, he naturally chose computer major. At that time, Ma's computer level had reached the point where both teachers and students were impressed. He can not only become the nemesis of all kinds of viruses, but also provide a good solution for PC maintenance in schools. At the same time, he often makes some practical jokes about locking hard disks, which makes school computer room administrators laugh and cry.

Although young, horses are not comparable to ordinary people in online age. Few people know that before the Internet really became popular, many Internet addicts had already experienced the fun of the Internet on Huiduo. Horses are one of them. He enjoyed it when he first went to Huiduo. com. Six months later, he volunteered to invest 50,000 yuan, set up four telephone lines and eight computers at home, and assumed the role of stationmaster of Huiduo.com Shenzhen Station. Every day, he is as busy as a bee. Over time, Shenzhen's "Horse Station" has become famous in Huiduo.com, but few people know that Master Ma is actually just a young man in his early twenties. Recalling that life, Ma was a little proud. "I will be completely excited online."

Fourth, the establishment of Tencent

1993 After graduating from Shenzhen University, I joined Runxun Company and started to work as a software engineer, focusing on the development of pager software, and always served as the director of development department. This experience made Ma clear that the significance of developing software lies in practicality, not the writer's self-entertainment. "Many software technicians are usually very confident in their intelligence. Making software is just a way to compare with each other. I hope that what I have done can be applied by more people, and I am willing to play a small role in bringing technology to market. "

The concept of practical software not only cultivated Ma's keen sense of the software market, but also made him profit from it. "Believe that what you write can be sold." Ma is one of the authors of the all-time popular stock card. The stock cards developed by him and his friends have been selling well in the SEG electronic market. Ma also often solves software problems for friends' companies. This makes him not only famous in the circle, but also has a considerable primitive accumulation. But his real first bucket of gold came from the stock market. Ma Hua Teng, who entered the stock market from 65438 to 0994, was calm and patient, which made him feel at home in the stock market and soon had millions of funds in hand. His best single is 6.5438+10,000 yuan to 700,000 yuan. This laid the foundation for Ma's independent entrepreneurship.

The new changes of many friends in the online world made Ma begin to reevaluate himself. There are too many opportunities here, why can't I seize them?

Thus, Tencent was born 1998. This name has a strong company positioning meaning, that is, doing Internet and communication-related business. Teng means "a way of information jumping". In the whole development process, Ma thought it was very simple and ordinary. However, "as a software company established without venture capital intervention", every initial expenditure makes Ma and his companions "scared".

When I decided to do OICQ, two domestic companies had already done it first, and the popularity of their products in the market was higher than that of Tencent. Ma didn't think much, not only because this product can promote each other with the company's main development business, mobile office, paging station, wireless paging scheme and project, but also because at that time, "there were many companies interested in doing instant messaging projects, and the market looked promising."

If you can't do it, you can't withdraw? This was the wishful thinking of the horse at that time.

5. A bright future.

However, things are not so easy to do. Recalling the original horse, I said that there are many things worth remembering. Many people think that the birth and development of Tencent is the legend of China Internet. But Ma knows that behind the "legend" aura, there are many unknown difficult and confused days. At the beginning of the business, in order to make Tencent survive, Ma led his team to do web pages, system integration and program design ... "Dare to take any business". However, because they don't understand the market and market operation, Tencent's products are sold to operators, but they are often rejected. "Even we can't see it."

In 2000, it was the winter of OICQ and Tencent. The first Internet bubble swept the whole Internet in China, and Tencent was not spared. It's time to step aside.

Someone at the top of Tencent is looking for China. Com and Sina. When Tencent thinks that the number1000000 is astronomical, it is time to give up the China version of ICQ, and it is still unclear tomorrow. However, senior executives of China.com and Sina politely told Tencent to find their representatives: Would you please close the door from the outside?

At that time, both Sina and China thought it was too expensive. It's just a dialogue, and there are also some small things that seriously infringe on the rights and interests of Israelis. They asked for100000 yuan, but they didn't buy it! If it's a big deal, we'll get one ourselves. Later, Sina's UC was an empirical study.

When the beautiful bride's dream was shattered, QQ understood that everything had to depend on itself, and the horse had almost everything. At this time, QQ does not know where its profit point is. There are many registered resources, so what's the use? Can QQ only charge users who apply for QQ number a pitiful registration fee? (There was a time when applying for a number on QQ was charged, which was the most difficult witness of QQ)

Importantly, at this time, Bai Le, a venture capital company, took a fancy to Tencent. Venture capital companies spend money to help Tencent go public in Hong Kong. QQ had no cash capital at that time. If we must talk about capital, it will be many, many QQ users as high as 340 million like you and me. From that moment on, Tencent entered a brand-new era-an era that horses dream of. In the era of capital, QQ in the future will no longer be short of money, shabby and shabby.

Now talking about this matter, Ma is also glad that he didn't act rashly. Now he often warns his peers like this: "If you want to dig gold on the Internet, you can't just see the immediate interests. Many talented network talents often don't notice this and lose long-term opportunities. " Because in less than two years, OICQ registered more than 30 million users.

Ma is a person who advocates the spirit of enjoyment and freedom. Unlike other entrepreneurs, he will never simply emphasize the value of "I". He knows the meaning of team from the bottom of his heart. Several founders of Tencent have many years of experience in Shenzhen telecom and network industry. They are almost the earliest people engaged in the Internet in Shenzhen, and they can undoubtedly provide Tencent with a lot of help in technology and business.

Sixth, shaping "Q culture"

In just four years, Ma's QQ world has an astonishing 654.38 billion users, which is incredible for any network service provider in the world, but Tencent has done it. Undoubtedly, QQ has become a kingdom. However, in the eye of the horse, more than 1 100 million users and an average daily growth of 390,000 are no longer attractive. He pays more attention to shaping culture with brands.

Ma Hua Teng should be proud, because when people look at QQ, they regard it more as a culture. There used to be a saying with a high reprint rate, which is apt even today: "In the past two years, with the internet boom, China's websites have spent hundreds of millions of dollars, and indeed created many well-known strings, such as Sina, Sohu and Netease. But it can only be said that it is a well-known string rather than a brand, for the simple reason. There is no corresponding brand culture behind these things. Can you tell me what the cultures of Sina, Sohu and Netease are? Is there any difference? After careful calculation, I am afraid that only Tencent's QQ and his chubby penguin logo can really reach the word brand-because at least I know that the corresponding culture behind QQ is online dating, netizens and online communication. "

Although Ma is a veritable boss of Tencent, when he runs his business, the title of engineer is simply printed on his business card. He hopes that customers will see from him that Tencent has a strong backing, not the title of boss. "There are hundreds of small companies like us in Shenzhen alone, and we hope that Tencent's experience can inspire young people-Tencent's story is actually their story."

Seven. The road to the future

In Ma's view, Tencent's core development strategy is to closely focus on user value: taking user value as the center and developing a safe, healthy and active platform is "the golden rule for Tencent to achieve sustainable and healthy development." He believes that the vast number of netizens are the basis of Tencent's value. "Without user value, everything in Tencent will cease to exist." Only by increasing the community value of users, paying attention to the healthy development of the platform and increasing active and loyal users can Tencent have a long-term development. "Therefore, at work, Tencent has always asked every employee to create user value as their own responsibility, and constantly enrich and enhance user experience and satisfaction in operation, service and innovation."

Talking about the future of Tencent, Ma said humorously, "In the future, we will focus on learning from multinational Internet giants their ability of sustainable development and expansion." "Tencent's past growth experience tells us that competition is the driving force for development. We use high-quality competitors to promote our faster growth, learn from the advantages of competitors with an open mind, and persist in independent innovation ... to create greater value for users together with competitors in the competition. "

At the 4th International Youth Friendship Conference, Ma said: Now we are more sober and will make innovations in future strategic integration. Bottom-up is the development from low-end to high-end, that is, from downstream to upstream. At the same time, we should do it in an orderly way to see if users have any needs. In different environments, whether at work or at home, there may be different needs for entertainment and business. Don't say I am a business person. So if we want to consider the new economic business model, we should consider what kind of environment users need. After several years of development, Tencent's communication volume ranks second in the world. This is the first in Asia. At the same time, after two and a half years, our portal has entered the three major networks in China, ranking first in China and fifth in the world. Tencent provides the world's largest game platform, namely QQ games, with more than 3 million online users nationwide. In addition, Tencent also provides the largest blog platform. At the same time, Tencent has invested heavily, and the amount in 3G is the largest. Network life means that people have services from getting up to going to bed. Internet is very expensive now. I think there will be many opportunities as long as we innovate.