If you don't know that Ma Huateng, founder of the massive 'Penguin Empire,' is a rarity, then if you don't know Tencent QQ, you are undoubtedly from an alien planet like Professor Do.
Based on QQ's massive customer base, Ma Huateng's Tencent has developed a series of products including QQ and WeChat, and it is precisely this highly sticky product line that has enabled Tencent to overcome all major internet rivals along the way.
After securing its position as the leader in the internet field, this 'chubby IT penguin' has also begun relying on its internet platform and, leveraging the development demands of its online e-commerce and offline logistics enterprises, gradually exploring a full industry chain suitable for its own development.
Judging from current actions, the full industry chain Tencent plans to layout may invade the real estate e-commerce platform that requires the integration of 'internet thinking.' And its unique internet platforms, including WeChat and Tencent.com, may again leverage the customer-gathering advantages like QQ to 'thread the needle' in the real estate industry chain.
Early Layout through Stakes in E-House and China South City
Among the many descriptions of Tencent founder Ma Huateng, there is this sentence: 'Ma Huateng is very low-key and quiet by nature; it is said that sometimes he even blushes when talking to girls. But he is very fierce when engaging in business battles.'
Currently, the business battle led by Ma Huateng continues, but this time it may be a bit 'barbaric,' because this 'penguin' has started to cross boundaries into the unfamiliar real estate industry.
According to the latest news, Tencent Holdings Limited will acquire a 15% stake in Leju Holdings Limited, a subsidiary of E-House China that plans to list in the US, for US$180 million (approximately HK$1.397 billion). The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of this month. Tencent will also subscribe to additional shares during Leju's public offering to maintain a 15% stake after dilution.
A review of relevant information readily reveals that E-House had also cooperated with Sina in the early years to establish China Real Estate Information Corporation (CRIC), which was listed on NASDAQ on August 8, 2008, and October 16, 2009, respectively, but ultimately chose to delist because CRIC failed to achieve its originally envisioned business goals.
Even with such a failed case, Tencent still chose to team up with E-House again. Relevant analysis believes this is not unrelated to Tencent's own development demands. The analysis points out that this stake in E-House and the earlier stake in logistics real estate enterprise China South City share the same demands.
First, Tencent's cooperation with E-House may be due to E-House's strength in offline business, namely real estate agency sales, while Tencent's real estate channel is not outstanding and lacks offline business. After teaming up with E-House, Tencent can use its internet resources to bring customer traffic to E-House while also learning E-House's offline model;
'Sina Leju is now slowly gaining momentum online. Tencent can direct customer traffic to Sina Leju, so it is possible that in the future Tencent will shut down its loss-making real estate channel or merge it into Sina Leju.'
Second, the key reason for inviting Tencent to invest in China South City is mainly that Tencent values China South City's land layout, development experience, and the ability to learn from China South City's logistics park operations.
Among them, during a conference call held in January this year regarding Tencent's investment, China South City also mentioned that Tencent invested because it is optimistic about China South City's cooperation with small and medium-sized enterprises in the wholesale market, and these SMEs are potential service targets for Tencent in the future.
For example, helping China South City Outlet store staff with online sales. In addition, China South City also stated that it does not rule out the possibility that Tencent may purchase land parcels under its name to build office buildings in the future.
The Counterattack of the 'Penguin Empire'
You should have heard of Ma Huateng, then you will certainly know Tencent, know QQ, and know that cute little penguin. As the largest internet company in the Chinese market, Tencent has now left veteran portals like Sohu and Sina far behind.
And Tencent founder Ma Huateng, a quiet young man, leads the internet field and has crossed swords with almost every internet giant.
Among them, Ma Huateng competed with Sina and Sohu in portals; Ma Huateng contended with Jack Ma in e-commerce; Ma Huateng fought with Chen Tianqiao and Ding Lei in online games; Ma Huateng sparred with Robin Li in search engines, and so on.
Now, with the gradual deepening of 'internet thinking' in real estate, this IT barbarian may again break into a new field, namely real estate.
It is understood that real estate companies including Vanke and Fantasia are exploring how to use internet thinking to boost their business development.
Among them, Vanke once organized senior executives to study at Tencent. However, relevant analysis believes that today's industry leader Vanke may not choose to cooperate with Tencent, but may develop its own internet finance platform to provide free services for its properties.
With the deepening of internet thinking in real estate, relevant analysis believes that based on the demands in the real estate development process and Tencent's internet resources that can aggregate this trend, Tencent may have ushered in an opportunity to leverage its advantageous resources to expand multiple real estate industry chains.
From the aforementioned stake in China South City to learn its logistics park operation model, to the stake in real estate network service provider E-House to develop offline real estate business, Tencent may already have intentions to try its hand in the real estate industry chain.
However, when it intervenes in various links of the real estate industry with an exploratory attitude in the absence of precedents, whether it can again rely on its internet platform to create a real estate empire with multiple chains, just as it built the 'Penguin Empire' based on QQ, remains unknown.
评论 （0）