{"id":10618,"date":"2014-04-17T08:21:22","date_gmt":"2014-04-17T15:21:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/?p=10618"},"modified":"2017-06-04T12:08:15","modified_gmt":"2017-06-04T19:08:15","slug":"the-secretive-chinese-tech-giant-that-can-rival-facebook-and-amazon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2014\/04\/the-secretive-chinese-tech-giant-that-can-rival-facebook-and-amazon","title":{"rendered":"The Secretive, Chinese Tech Giant That Can Rival Facebook and Amazon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span itemprop=\"byline\">Dorinda Elliott \u2014 Fast Company<br \/>\n<\/span><br \/>\n<br \/> China\u2019s most powerful Internet company is headquartered in a bland, glassy tower in southern Shenzhen. Unlike Silicon Valley\u2019s funky campuses, there is nothing to reveal that this might be a hub of creativity. An insurance company, perhaps? In the middle of its nondescript, corporate lobby, an information desk stands next to the only sign of personality: a pair of giant plush penguins, the Tencent mascot times two. Nearby, an iPad displays stats on the company\u2019s messaging services. But when I pull out a notebook and start jotting down the numbers, the receptionist waves her hand. \u201cOh no, that\u2019s not updated!\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s just for show.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m here for a \u201ctour\u201d of the company, but am only allowed entrance to a museum-like exhibit of Tencent products. The experience feels like a throwback to the tightly controlled Communist Party\u2013sponsored trips reporters went on back in the 1980s, before the country really started opening up to the outside world. An attractive, young, fluent English speaker shuffles me from one screen to another. The three other public relations officers with me offer no analysis of the firm, saying they will get back to me on any questions I have. I ask about the management style of the somewhat mysterious CEO, Pony Ma, and there is an awkward pause. Then the guide brightly tells me: \u201cIt\u2019s very equal here. We all call him Pony!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s the tour.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.fastcompany.com\/3029119\/most-innovative-companies\/tencent-the-secretive-chinese-tech-giant-that-can-rival-facebook-a?partner=newsletter#!\" target=\"_blank\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dorinda Elliott \u2014 Fast Company China\u2019s most powerful Internet company is headquartered in a bland, glassy tower in southern Shenzhen. Unlike Silicon Valley\u2019s funky campuses, there is nothing to reveal that this might be a hub of creativity. An insurance company, perhaps? In the middle of its nondescript, corporate lobby, an information desk stands next [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,418],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-internet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10618"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64997,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10618\/revisions\/64997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}