What comes to your mind when you think of huge video game companies? EA, Valve and Sony must be first that occupy that place in your mind. But there is another company as big as the above-mentioned, or perhaps even bigger and I bet you can’t guess. It’s Tencent.
Founded on 11th November 1998 in Shenzhen Guangdong, China, the company wasn’t able to generate profit for the first three years of its existence.
They had an instant messaging program just like Snapchat called OICQ, that was considered to be their main product for their initial years. Later, the name was changed to QQ due to possible legal confusionS with ICQ. They initially made by advertisements and premium membership on QQ. They also generated a mascot which proved to be immensely POPULAR among the Chinese. They started licensing that mascot and you could see it from hats to shirts and even on snack foods.
This was the point when Tencent started investing in the gaming industry and shift their attention towards games.
They acquired the licence to operate Dungeon Fighter Online, which at the time was immensely popular among in China (although it has ceased to exist now). They provided local services and an experience particularly tailored for the Chinese. The game generated a revenue of over $2 billion for them.
They did this for a few other companies and outsourced developers which generated, even more, revenue for them.
But at this point, must you ask how does acquiring a couple of games and outsourcing developers make Tencent one of the biggest video game company? Well, it doesn’t, to be frank, but these were the building blocks of one of the most successful video game companies ever.
In 2011, they acquired a major equity in Riot Games, which you must know if you’re a PC gamer. And for the console peasants, it’s the developer in the most popular e-sport League of Legends.
At that point, their yearly revenue was over $1.5 billion.
In 2012, they about a stake of 48.4% in Epic Games, the company behind Unreal Engine and Unreal Tournament. This was the single largest minority stake in the company. They also have about 12% stake in Activision Blizzard, which arrests their huge share in games like World of Warcraft, Diablo, Overwatch and Starcraft.
The above-mentioned when compiled with other revenue sources of Tencent, their yearly revenue crosses $15.4 Billion.
To put it all lightly, they’re fu*king huge.
Now here is the part when things start to get scary. When we talk about unsavoury things on the part of game developers, DLCs and microtransactions occupy our head instantly. But that is not even the worst of it.
Do you remember registering for some service or program and they serve you with a long list of terms and conditions but you don’t give a shit about it because you’re too ‘kewl’? This tendency of users was realised by Tencent and they exploited it to the fullest.
According to a report by ‘Reporters without Borders’, Tencent provides the Chinese government with full surveillance over their users. That implies that all the information that you enter to play the above-mentioned games, especially if you indulge in microtransactions, your information is as exposed to the Chinese government as is your team’s goal post when you’re playing against a pro in FIFA.
So do you remember saying it aloud that “China is shit because of communist rule!”? Then I might have a bad news for you- the Chinese assassins may be making their way for you right now.
The EFF rates them 2 out of 7 or ‘essentially insecure.’
They hoard this information of players from across the globe and sell it to the richest clients; Governments. That’s how they’re the biggest video game company that you’ve never even heard of. Now let that sink in.
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