Published : 11/11/2025

On 11 November, 1998, Ma Huateng (馬化騰), along with Zhang Zhidong (張志東), Xu Chenye (許晨曄), Chen Yidan (陳一丹), and Zeng Liqing (曾李青), co-founded Tencent in south China's Shenzhen.

It is said that there is a reason behind the name "Tencent" (騰訊).

On one hand, it is derived from the Chinese character "Teng" (騰) in the name of Ma Huateng (馬化騰), and "Teng" itself also means to soar and develop in Chinese language.

Regarding the initial funding source for Tencent, Ma Huateng once said that his first pot of gold came from developing the piece of hardware installed in the computer mainframe to display real-time stock trends via the internet.

Although Ma came from a wealthy family, it is evident that the entrepreneurial capital mainly came from subsequent accumulations.

Interestingly, Tencent's initial capital of 500,000 RMB was the minimum threshold required to start a new company at that time.

Over two decades later, Tencent has become the largest internet company in China, with business operations spanning the globe and involved in various fields such as communications, social network, fintech services, utility software, and games etc.

The initial capital of 500,000 RMB has now ballooned to over 1 trillion RMB.