Marketing Mix of Tencent holdings ltd.
Tencent is a leading internet technology company based in China. Its headquarters are in Shenzhen. Tencent has brought a large range of internet-based services in several categories including social networking, payment, information, utilities, entertainment, and artificial intelligence. The company was founded in 1998 and celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2018. The internet technology industry has grown highly competitive and requires heavy investment in research and innovation. In 2018, Tencent further enriched its portfolio by investing in key areas. Its core businesses include Weixin and QQ, which experienced significant growth in the number of their monthly active users in 2018. Apart from that, Tencent also extended its leadership position in mobile payments in China. Tencent’s presence in online gaming in China has also continued to grow stronger.
Read a marketing mix of Tencent analyzing the four P’s – Product, Place, Price, and Promotion.
Product:
Tencent has brought a large range of internet-based products and services which include social networking, messaging, online payments as well as online entertainment products like gaming and music.
QQ and Weixin are among its core businesses. QQ is an instant messaging (IM) platform for PC and mobile. In a short period, QQ has become one of the favorite social platforms for young Chinese users. Its popularity is mainly because of its diversified functions and services. QQ allows users to communicate with each other through text, video, pictures, and stickers.
Weixin integrates instant messaging and social entertainment and was launched in 2011. It also allows users to make video calls and share images. By the end of 2018, the combined number of WEixin and Wechat monthly active users was 1098 million. The number of monthly active users was 807 million by the end of 2018.
Tencent’s Qzone which was created in 2005 is the leading social networking platform in China. Qzone users can upload photos, post videos and live streaming, write blogs, keep diaries, play games, and decorate their own space.
Online payment products and services by Tencent include Tenpay, Weixing pay and QQ wallet. Tenpay is a leading payment platform in China whereas the other two allow users to make payments from their mobile devices.
In smartphone games as well, Tencent has built a strong position. Its revenue from smartphone games in 2018 reached RMB 77.8 billion. The online advertising business of Tencent has also grown rapidly. It generated RMB58.1 billion in revenues in 2018.
Place:
Tencent is mainly a Chinese company with its products and services targeted mainly at Chinese users. Its headquarters are in Shenzhen, China. The company delivers almost all its services online which users can access from their internet-enabled devices easily.
Price:
Like the other social media and messaging platforms, most of the products and services by Tencent are free of cost for users. For other products that are chargeable, the company has mainly used a competitive pricing strategy.
Promotion:
While Tencent has built a strong position in the Chinese market, it has achieved its leadership position through only modest investments in marketing. Apart from the media promotions, however, it has started some initiatives to grow its user base and market recognition. Some of these marketing initiatives include Baidu Developer Conference and Baidu World. Apart from that, Tencent has increased spending on channel and brand marketing over the last year, to increase awareness and drive traffic growth for the family of Baidu apps, including Baidu App, Haokan, and Quanmin.
<Sources>
<https://notesmatic.com/category/tencent/>
<https://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/IROL/18/188488/2019/Baidu%202018%20Form%2020-F.pdf>
| Cite This: |
| APA: Pratap, A. (2020, January 23). Tencent Marketing Mix. Retrieved from https://notesmatic.com/tencent-marketing-mix/ |
| MLA: Pratap, Abhijeet. “Tencent Marketing Mix.” Cheshnotes, 23 Jan. 2020, notesmatic.com/2019/04/tencent-marketing-mix/. |