Africa-Press – South-Africa. Tencent pledged to embrace China’s new paradigm of stricter government oversight after reporting its slowest growth on record, declaring the end of an era that nurtured some of the world’s largest and most profitable corporations.
Co-founder Pony Ma and President Martin Lau led executives in endorsing Beijing’s year-long crackdown on Big Tech. They pointed out it mirrored a backlash against the enormous power of internet giants globally and argued more regulation will lead to healthier growth in the long run.
Tencent joins Alibaba and other rivals in recognising a new phase of cautious expansion, more than a year after the start of a bruising crackdown that eventually engulfed every internet sphere from ecommerce to online gaming and education.
Tencent followed Alibaba in reporting its slowest pace of quarterly growth on record as online advertising sales missed analysts’ projections after they declined for the first time. And domestic gaming revenue grew a mere 1% – reflecting a months-long licensing halt that along with curbs on playtime for minors have sapped Tencent’s biggest division.
“We are proactively embracing changes to better align ourselves with the new industry paradigm,” Lau said on a conference call after the results. “We have a long term oriented corporate culture that focuses on user value, social responsibility, technology innovations and compliance, the key elements for sustainable and healthy growth.”
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