Tencent’s market capitalization surpassed that of six major state-owned banks for the first Time on Jan. 25. Beijing authorities have taken restrictive measures against Internet giants such as Alibaba Group in recent months, and Tencent, which also has a presence in finance and other areas, has been in the public eye.
On January 25, RTHK time, Tencent Holdings, listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, opened at HK$707, 2 percent higher than its closing price on the previous trading day, and stood steady at HK$700.
At around 10:00 a.m., Tencent’s share price touched HK$741, a new record high. With this calculation, Tencent’s market capitalization broke through HK$7 trillion for the first time that day, reporting HK$7.09 trillion, or about RMB 5.93 trillion.
So far this year, Tencent’s gain has been more than 30%.
As a comparison, the combined market capitalization of China’s six largest state-owned banks – Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Construction Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of Communications and Postal Reserve Bank – was about 5.69 trillion yuan on the 25th.
On the 25th, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Technology Index stood at 10,000 points for the first time, with Internet companies including Tencent Holdings, Meituan, Alibaba and Xiaomi Group all surging.
The Chinese public was abuzz about Tencent’s market capitalization surpassing the six state-owned banks, with some leaving messages on the Internet: “Ma Huateng is trembling.” Others said, “The sheep are all quite fat, which one to kill first for the New Year?”
With Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma and Tencent founder Ma Huateng ranked first and second on the list of China’s richest people, the Ant Group’s suspension of its IPO has shocked all walks of Life and public opinion has fallen on Ma Huateng.
The financial layout of the Ant Group controlled by Jack Ma is obvious to all, and Tencent’s Ma Huateng is not far behind. Tencent’s WeChat Pay and CaiPay have formed a comprehensive coverage of Chinese people’s daily lives. According to Tencent’s earnings data, the combined monthly active accounts of WeChat and Wechat reached 1,212.8 million people. Under the social scene, WeChat has more control than even Ant Group.
Regarding the Beijing authorities’ containment of the Internet giant, Ren Chongdao, a researcher at the independent think tank Tianjun Political and Economic Research, analyzes that the Beijing authorities have struck multiple birds with one stone.
In December last year, an article by Tencent Chairman Ma Huateng hit the Internet.
He wrote the foreword for Tencent’s annual special issue “Three Views”. The term “Three Views” refers to the world view, values and outlook on life. The special issue is published every year near the end of the year to record Tencent’s growth and major changes.
Ma Huateng wrote that in the Internet, a rapidly iterating industry, the development of a company is only a work in progress, not a finished one.
In this era of black swans, Ma wrote, “I believe another major reshuffle is about to begin. Just like the mobile Internet transition, those who can’t get on board will gradually fall behind”.
Ltd. previously changed, Ma Huateng stepped down as legal representative position, by Tencent vice president Lin Haifeng took over.
In 2011, Zaifu Tong took the first batch of third-party payment licenses from China’s central bank, and earlier it also assumed some of the functions of Tencent’s Wealth Management. CaiPay Payment Technology Co., Ltd. was established on August 25, 2006 with a registered capital of RMB 1 billion, and Ma Huateng has previously served as its legal representative. The business scope contains: e-commerce, electronic payment, payment settlement and clearing system technology development; computer technology services, etc. Shareholding penetration shows that the major shareholder is Shenzhen Tencent Computer Systems Limited, holding 95% of the shares, and the actual controller is Ma Huateng, benefiting from 54.29% of the shares.
Currently Alipay, controlled by Jack Ma, and CaiPay, controlled by Ma Huateng, are in a monopoly position in the Chinese payment market.
On January 20, Jack Ma, the de facto controller of Ant Group, made his first public appearance after nearly three months. On the same day, China’s central bank issued payment regulations for Alipay and other institutions, and for the first time mentioned the word anti-monopoly, meaning that the payment market will start to be reshuffled.
The official website of the Central Bank of China announced the “Regulations on Non-Bank Payment Institutions (Draft for Public Comments)” (hereinafter referred to as the “Regulations”). The Regulations consist of six chapters and 75 articles, strengthening corporate governance requirements and implementing all-round and whole-process supervision; mentioning for the first time anti-monopoly regulatory measures in the payment field, clearly defining the scope of the relevant market as well as the criteria for determining market dominance; penalizing licensed institutions for providing payment business channels to institutions operating payment business without a license, etc.
This indicates that Alipay will be hit the hardest, followed by institutions such as WeChat Pay.
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