Sinica Podcast

Inside Tencent's "Influence Empire," with Bloomberg's Lulu Chen

Mar 9, 2023

01:05:05

Episode guests

Lulu Chen

Highlights

AI Chapters

Episode notes

The Great War of the 10,000 Groupon Clones

02:27

Cineca Podcast - The Inside Story of Tencent and China's Tech Ambition

01:37

Tencent Becomes a Powerhouse in Online Games

01:48

Introduction

2min

Tencent - A Novel About Tencent

2min

How Did Tencent Become a Big Player in the Chinese Internet Industry?

2min

Covid

2min

Tencent - What's the Difference?

2min

A Brief Biography of Ponyma and Mahatang

2min

Jack Ma - Is He Really Playful?

2min

What's the Difference Between a Hong Kong Banker and a Chinese Banker?

2min

The First Coups With Naspers

2min

10.

Tencent's QQ - What Wallersein Made Me Realize?

4min

11.

Tencent - What Was the Pivotal Moment?

3min

12.

Investing in the Right Companies

3min

13.

Is There a Difference Between Alibaba and Tencent?

2min

14.

Tencent's Culture

2min

15.

WeChat - What Is Alan John All About?

2min

16.

Tencent - I Can't Believe This Person Is Alan Zhang

2min

17.

The Great War of the 10,000 Groupon Clones

2min

18.

Groupon: Wang Xing Poached a Key Lt.

4min

19.

Wong-Sing: A Novel Review

2min

20.

Tencent Becomes a Powerhouse in Online Games

2min

21.

The Power of Freemium Games

2min

22.

What's Happening Out of the Plenum?

2min

23.

What's Your Understanding of the Big Picture Thinking of China?

5min

24.

What's the Story of Tencent Alibaba?

2min

25.

The Inside Story of 10 Cent and China's Tech Ambition

3min

26.

Conk on Earth by Diana Morgan

2min

27.

Cineca Podcast - The Inside Story of Tencent and China's Tech Ambition

2min

This week on Sinica, Kaiser chats with Lulu Chen, who has reported on tech in China for over a decade and is the author of the book Influence Empire: The Inside Story of Tencent and China's Tech Ambition. It's a fascinating look at not only Tencent but at the overall internet sector in China, focusing on the travails and the triumphs of some of the most consequential Chinese internet entrepreneurs.

5:31 – Motivation for and background of Influence Empire

10:15 – Ma Huateng and Martin Lau at Tencent

19:56 – How the Chinese internet sector went from copying to innovating

30:59 – Cutthroat company cultures

33:20 – What made Allen Zhang successful?

37:25 – The Tencent-Meituan food delivery coup

45:21 – Tencent’s position in the online game industry

51:58 – Understanding China’s 2020-2022 tech crackdown

A complete transcript of this podcast is available at TheChinaProject.com.

Recommendations:

Lulu: The Gay Talese Reader: Portraits and Encounters by Gay Talese

Kaiser: Cunk on Earth on Netflix