Tencent; Hail to the King of China’s Copycats.

Picked this one up via Danwei and Thomas Morffew; it’s a cover story from China Computer World bashing Tencent, the very powerful internet company behind QQ and numerous others. As you can guess, it’s not very flattering.

Hail to the king, baby. This title is loosely translated to mean "Fucking Tencent".

Danwei goes on to discuss how Tencent is widely recognized as the worst copycat in China; using its considerable power and financial resources to squash innovation by copying and repurposing it for their own profit once it’s clear there is profit to be made. A string of stolen ideas have made Tencent into a powerhouse; but the cost could be hamstringing China’s innovative and creative potential.

Funny isn’t it? And here common thinking leads us to believe China benefits from copies while westerners lose; but it turns out its hurting more then helping; a short term opium fix that makes today seem light and airy, but tomorrow a puke-fest freakout.

Perhaps taking down this giant will be the first needed step to seriously curbing aggressive copy tactics and allowing IP to grow and fertilize China’s maturing creative scene? Perhaps; but likely not anytime soon. This is bad news for China, but arguably good news for China’s many creative entrepreneurs; as similar to the need for skilled managers sucking talent in from all over Asia (primarily Malaysia), the need for better creative and more innovation will be sought from overseas providers who haven’t lived under the oppression of gangster penguins.

QQ's harem; where smaller copycats are birthed. Long live the king.

Above pic via Chinasmack.

Related articles from around the web.

• China’s Tencent on prowl for global Internet buys (reuters.com)
• Tencent’s Quiet Ascent (online.wsj.com)
• China’s Internet Gets Around to Security (blogs.wsj.com)
• China’s Tencent Q1 net profit up 78 pct to new high (reuters.com)
• China Cracks Down on Microblogs [Voices] (voices.allthingsd.com)
• Emerging Internet Giants (economist.com)
• What Valley Companies Should Know about Tencent (techcrunch.com)
• BRICs Meet SARCs: Tencent, Digital Sky Technologies and Naspers (blogs.forbes.com)
• Beijing Is Playing Rough with Online Gamers (businessweek.com)

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Tagged as: Asia, Business and Economy, China, Google, Hong Kong, Malaysia, QQ, Tencent