Tencent
Assessment date: Oct 2017
Tencent has a highly entrepreneurial leadership operating in an environment alien to Western norms of business governance, as well as in terms of the more extreme threat of government intrusion. Leadership clearly recognises this challenge and counters the threat of sanction by embedding its systems into the fabric of Chinese society and commerce; engaging at a high level with the Chinese authorities (even at Chairman level); employing around 7,000 Communist party members in the business; collaborating with government over the control of content on its platforms to minimise threats to the state (even at the expense of privacy and freedom of expression for users); complies with laws and regulations; and has made security over the internet a key pillar of its strategy and even a growing line of business.
Control over its users’ freedom and rights remains a key residual vulnerability as the company attempts to manage the demands of the state with the expectations of its customers. Likewise, Tencent is aware of, and grappling with, unhealthy consequences of social media and gaming (particularly addiction and social pressures) even as it profits handsomely from these lines of business.
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