Thursday's Q&A with Tencent Holdings senior executive vice president SY Lau was republished by Yahoo! Finance on Sunday, and more readers were given an insight into a massive Internet giant that has maintained a comparatively low profile in Western nations.
SY spoke on behalf of the world's fifth-largest publicly traded online business entity, which also owns the most patronized Internet portal in China.
In response to a question about the company's relatively low profile in the West, SY spoke of an existing "awareness," and highlighted the relationships with Western businesses that have led to joint ventures. The VP mentioned Burberry, Nike and Intel as companies that have partnered with Tencent in the areas of social and mobile marketing.
In terms of the perception of Tencent by Western consumers, SY did not appear driven to gain their attention and reminded the interviewer that Tencent is an "international company." He cited examples of business interests in the West, such as Epic Games, as well as the popularity of its WeChat mobile app with 468 million users worldwide.
Sy also expanded upon the concept of "Internet thinking" that he had raised at a presentation that occurred in the period leading up to the interview. He explained:
"'Internet thinking' refers to a way of doing business that has developed in China in response to the wider availability of online services. Internet thinking refers to how companies adapt their business models to take advantage of the new mobile, social and online services that are at their disposal."
In terms of future projects, Tencent will partner with the HBO cable network to launch HBO's catalog in China. While the popular series "Game of Thrones" was confirmed by SY, he also said that Tencent is "keen to bring over more [HBO] series that can attract audiences."
Tencent will also continue to produce its own content since Tencent Video launched in April 2011. SY said that, since the launch, Tencent has "invested in original programming" and developed partnerships with "content production companies and brands."
Electric vehicles and video games were also identified as priority areas for the company. Regarding the former, SY spoke of a "great opportunity" for Tencent to "lead how the market is covered in terms of entertaining and illuminating content." Education on the progress of the technology and the activities of different companies were examples of areas that SY believes Tencent can produce content for.
SY confirmed that Tencent is the biggest gaming company in China. According to the VP, the future will consist of a confluence of mobile, Internet and commerce for the delivery of a strong, entertaining customer experience.