Ma Huateng, also known as Pony Ma (derived from the English translation of his family name Ma, which means "horse"),
is a Chinese billionaire business magnate. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Chinese Internet giant Tencent Holdings, which ranks among the nation's largest businesses by market cap.

Being one of "Fortune world's greatest leaders", Ma is known for his low profile personality as compared to his fellow Chinese businessman and Alibaba founder Jack Ma's outgoing personality. Ma has been compared to American investor Warren Buffett for their similar investment approaches, and often described as an "aggressive acquisitor"

Ma Huateng was born on 29th October 1971, in Dongfang, Hainan, China. His family moved to Shenzhen, near Hong Kong, as his father was a port manager, in Shenzhen. He enrolled at Shenzhen University, in 1989, to study software engineering, and graduated in 1993, with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. After completing his studies, Ma worked at various companies such as China Motion Telecom Development Ltd. and Shenzhen Runxun Communications Co. Ltd. in the research and development department for Internet paging systems and Internet calling systems, respectively.

In 1998, Ma co-founded Tencent, Inc. along with 4 friends. The money they put into starting the company mainly came from earnings at the stock market. As it happens with most startups, Ma and his friends found the going quite difficult in the first few years after establishing the firm. He took up various roles ranging from janitor to website designer in order to keep the company afloat. Tencent offered e-mail and internet paging services initially.

In 1999, Tencent launched its internet messaging service called QQ (originally named OICQ). In order to capture a greater market share, Tencent began to offer the service as a free download. The result was that over 5 million users joined the service in 1 year.

Ma could now offer QQ users more benefits, such as ring tones and memberships. He provided more services for cellular phones and customized some products. In 2004, Tencent became the largest instant messaging service in China. It was given the title “China’s answer to AOL.”

In June 2004, Tencent floated its initial public offering on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Stock prices rapidly rose to almost 60%. Ma did not rest assured that Tencent was going to continue being successful. He continued to expand while retaining the core instant messaging business.

Thus, in 2004, Tencent announced that it would be adding games to its services. This announcement served to pull in over 1 million online gaming people in China. He looked towards e-commerce and how it could be added to Tencent’s services. He signed a partnership deal with Google but did not sell out.

In 2016, Ma transferred US$2.3 billion worth of his personal Tencent shares to his charitable foundation, the Ma Huateng Global Foundation. However, Forbes has not decreased his net worth as the shares are still listed under his name.

In 2018, CEOWORLD Magazine Honored him with an area on their list of the ‘Most Powerful People within the world’.

Ma was at 20th position in Forbes Billionaire 2020 index. With a net worth of around $67.2 billion as of March 2021, Ma is the second richest man in China.

The story of billionaire Ma Huateng and the company he co-founded, Tencent, reads like a modern fairy tale. Such an inspiring and mesmerising story of a young middle-class computer programmer. Through his grit and determination, astute strategy and long term vision, Ma Huateng was able to build a business empire that within years has grown into a billion-dollar enterprise recognised worldwide.

Today Tencent's popular social messaging app WeChat has more than 1 billion users. The vast user base is what has enabled him to experiment and be bold in his strategies while also attracting investors who know there is no other player than Tencent in China who has such deep penetration and impressive impact in the country!