It is learned on December 23 from China Economic Weekly, on December 15, Tencent held an internal staff meeting online. The theme of this year’s conference is to reduce costs and increase efficiency. Ma Huateng, the founder and CEO, changed his gentle style of encouragement in previous years, and his words were sharp, bluntly saying that “the time left for some businesses is running out.”
According to media statistics, Tencent shut down or removed at least 16 apps during the year, including well-known products such as Magic Core, QQ Video, Kandian Express, Sogou Maps, and Tencent WiFi Manager. In addition, 29 games were removed from the shelves, some of which were due to the fact that the game operation has reached the end of its life, such as QQ Hall, QQ Lianliankan, Quanmin Zhanxian, etc., which have been online for more than 10 years. Other projects were quickly axed due to slightly less than expected data. As of now, Tencent has shut down at least 45 projects.
Ma Huateng said that in the past, due to partners taking the lead roles, Tencent blindly did simple following. As a result, it was led in the wrong direction, and the effect of the things it made was not satisfactory. So in 2022, PCG will carry out large-scale personnel optimization. As for the adjustment of PCG in 2023, Ma Huateng believes that there may be no need to reduce staff, but the team left by the layoffs should do more meaningful things, otherwise it will waste the time of these people to stay here, and it is also a kind of irresponsibility.
In addition, Ma Huateng also said at the meeting that the most eye-catching business of WXG (WeChat business group) is the video account, which is basically the hope of the whole audience (the whole company). In the past three years, short videos have had a considerable impact on the entire Internet on a global scale, and all platforms and companies have to pay attention to this aspect. It will erode the time of many long videos, games and other products, which is an objective law of development.
“This also forces us to make adjustments in other businesses,” Ma Huateng said, such as adjusting the long video strategy and cutting off non-quality content.