Retail investments benefit Tencent in three ways: mobile payment and related financial services, cloud development and advertisement, according to the tech giant’s Founder and CEO Pony Ma.
Ma’s comments come as Tencent accelerates its investments in the retail sector, a move seen to rival and take market share from China’s largest retailer Alibaba Group.
“People used to think new economies and traditional industries are mutually exclusive, but they are in fact complementary, such as smart retail,” said Ma, speaking at an IT leaders summit in Shenzhen over the weekend.
He said mobile payment services as well as relevant financial services will benefit from offline retail businesses. He also said that by connecting retailers and consumers, Tencent can also further develop its cloud computing services.
