China's technology giant Tencent debuted this year on the fortune global 500 list. It's also the first Chinese company to be valued at over 500 billion U.S. dollars, with China's largest social media platform, second largest mobile payment platform and leading position in games.
In the last quarter, Tencent just made 2.7 billion U.S. dollars in profit and the company's share price has soared more than 100 times since debuting in Hong Kong 13 years ago.
But behind the 19-year-old company's success are more than just tech power and business strategy.
Social responsibility is always on agenda
Tencent's financial technology has enabled Chinese commuters to pay for public transport by scanning the QR code with their cellphones. The service in now available in over a dozen cities and soon will be nationwide.
Tencent is planning on applying the QR code in wider areas, such as light rail and cable cars in certain cities, and finally build a complete set of services for commuters.
The quick payment technology can help better manage traffic, according to Howe Zheng, vice president at Tencent. Users' behaviors are actually a huge amount of data that could show how urban people move during peak hour.
"On the one side, we have lots of people needing to use public transport, on the other, we have a massive public transport network. So we could in the future direct commuters during busy hours and ease the congestion," said Zheng.
Zheng noted that Tencent has been taking traffic safety as company's social responsibility to fulfill.
Flat hierarchy pumps up employees' passion for work
In the team that just developed the program of paying for public transportation via WeChat pay, working overtime is often seen – but also voluntary, surprisingly.
The team's R&D Director Tenfy Guo said she used to love to work on weekends before getting married, because a good company makes one eager to learn and improve.
"You can learn and grow so much from the business and systems at Tencent. I don't think overtime is hard, because I feel a strong sense of achievement knowing how to build a massive Internet system," Guo said.
The stereotype about tech companies is often gender imbalance. And there are indeed only two are female in Tenfy's 40 person developer team.
But Lulu Ma, who is six months pregnant, said she never felt she was being treated any differently, and even thought of herself as one of the boys.
"What was surprising about Tencent was how the teams are managed, I'm a fairly fun person, and here there is no strict leader culture," said Ma, Mobile Development Engineer of Tencent Financial Tech.
Guo believes that the flatter hierarchy in Tencent results in faster problem-solving process.
Having succeeded in the domestic market, Tencent is also fueling up its global strategy. The company has made more than 60 billion U.S. dollars in acquisitions in the last five years. WeChat payments are expected to roll out next year to Malaysia, where there are about 20 million WeChat users. The US edition of Tencent's hit game "Honor of Kings" will also hit markets next year.
