“Is there any business which Tencent will not run?" Wang Xin, CEO of Meituan- a Chinese Groupon company, said that. This question is also asked by the rest IT managers in Mainland China.
After a decade's developing, Tencent has become one of the biggest IT companies in China. However, Tencent is controversy by the way it defeats its competitors called plagiarism. Computer World, a Chinese IT tech magazine, published a article on front page recently, which has led a argument about whether Tencet is copying others' idea and what is innovation exactly.
The Tencent Empire
When Tencent launched QICQ in 1999, it was one of those small companies no one will pay attention. However, QICQ, later changed its name into QQ, has become the most popular IM in China. Based on the customer group of QQ, Tencent expanded into many sections such as online game, search engine, online payment and PC security. Recently, Tencent launched QQ Groupon in low key.
On April, Tencent began its cooperation with Russian DST by purchasing 10 per cent stake of DST, which can be seen as the first step of its internationalization.
Tencent, "you son of bitch"
"Tencent is always plagiarizing, but it never get a lawsuit," This is the most famous comment about Tencent.
The reason why people call Tencent king of plagiarism is that Tencent always launches a product which contains almost same function and feature of its competitor's, but never design a completely new product itself. As Tencent has its advantages in brand and finance, it can easily defeat other small companies and take their market share.Therefore, Tencent‘s existence is seen to be a threat for all the other IT companies in Mainland China.
"There is no innovation, only plagiarism in China."
After Computer World had published article, Tencent, "you son of bitch", many IT commentators posted blogs to defend Tencent. They claimed that Tencent is not the killer of innovation, because there is no original thing about IT in China,"If small companies plagiarize ideas from US companies, then what is wrong with Tencent plagiarizing them?" Many of them insisted that there is no moral in IT competition, only the man who is stronger than any one else can survive.
Across the country, the argument about the definition of plagiarism in IT is still on. However, this event will not effect Tencent's development. Only if one day people are more interested in smart cellphone and iPad than PC, or to sue Tencent for monopolization, can end Tencent's rule in PC.
