Technology
Tencent’s Cloud Boss Plays Long Game to Patch ‘Leaky’ AI Ship
Key Points
Tencent’s Cloud Boss Plays Long Game to Patch ‘Leaky’ AI Ship When Pony Ma called Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s AI endeavor “a leaky ship” this summer, the billionaire founder sent ripples through a company that for years dominated the industry with WeChat. The social media and gaming leader was at the time struggling to catch the likes of DeepSeek in the post-ChatGPT age. One of his key lieutenants, Dowson Tong, came up with a surprising answer: let’s retool to focus on businesses.
Tencent’s Cloud Boss Plays Long Game to Patch ‘Leaky’ AI Ship
When Pony Ma called Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s AI endeavor “a leaky ship” this summer, the billionaire founder sent ripples through a company that for years dominated the industry with WeChat. The social media and gaming leader was at the time struggling to catch the likes of DeepSeek in the post-ChatGPT age. One of his key lieutenants, Dowson Tong, came up with a surprising answer: let’s retool to focus on businesses.
The Silicon Valley veteran focused the turnaround effort on something called WorkBuddy, then considered a side project within Tencent’s sprawling internet portfolio. By the fall, the Claude Cowork-style AI assistant, which combined the company’s existing messaging and office tools with AI agents that can take data and crank out reports, served 32 million monthly users — more than its rivals combined. The platform launched Tencent into a lucrative segment of AI, an important first step toward regaining its tech credibility.