Tencent was founded in November 1998 by five men including co-founder Ma Huateng, known globally as Pony Ma. The company launched from a small office in Shenzhen with the name meaning galloping fast information.
OICQ faced legal threats from AOL over intellectual property rights because it mirrored the Israeli service ICQ. Tencent changed the name to QQ in December 2000 to avoid further lawsuits and shifted to monetizing virtual items instead of software licenses.
Critics labeled Pony Ma the king of copying because Tencent released products like OICQ that were near-identical versions of existing services such as ICQ. Allegations persisted into the 2020s when game titles like Tarisland resembled Blizzard's World of Warcraft and Light of Motiram heavily resembled Horizon Zero Dawn.
Tencent shifted its strategy under President Martin Lau to invest in minority stakes across hundreds of global firms instead of seeking full control. By 2020, Tencent had invested in over 800 companies worldwide including Supercell for US$8.6 billion and Riot Games for about US$230 million.
Private enterprises in China must maintain a branch of the Chinese Communist Party if three or more members work there so Tencent established such a branch in 2016. By October 2017, reports indicated that over 7,000 CCP members worked at Tencent accounting for approximately 23% of the total workforce with more than 60% being core technical personnel.
China's antitrust regulator formally blocked Tencent's plan to merge Huya Live and DouYu in July 2021 after the company failed to provide sufficient remedies regarding exclusive rights. The State Administration for Market Regulation imposed fines totaling RMB 4.5 million on Tencent for its involvement in nine deals between January 2021 and December 2021.