Influence Empire: The Story of Tencent and China’s Tech Ambition

"Yes, the book dives into a company that we probably should all know about because it’s so huge within China . Tencent developed the so-called everything app, WeChat. The book is about how Tencent fits into the world of Chinese technology and technology in general. It talks about the rise of Tencent’s founder, Pony Ma. He’s a very elusive figure and Lulu Chen tries to track him down in the course of the book, with limited success. Another reason for reading this book is that it sheds light on the way in which once you become successful in Chinese technology or business, you’re immediately intertwined with the Chinese Communist Party. Once you become as successful as Tencent has, you need to step a fine line between being successful and working within the system. As the book mentions early on, it’s at the point you become prominent and visible that you start to discover problems—which is what happened with Jack Ma (no relation to Pony Ma) and Alibaba. Jack Ma was squashed when he became too prominent, Pony Ma seems to have managed to fly a little bit below the radar."