Tencent announces 50 bln yuan of investment in public welfare

Chinese tech giant Tencent announced yesterday that the company will sponsor a public welfare investment initiative worth 50 billion yuan (US$7.66 billion) to promote “sustainable social value innovation.”

Tencent chairman and CEO Pony Ma made the promise in a letter to employees, in which he put forward the strategy of “taking root in consumer Internet, embracing industrial Internet and promoting sustainable social value innovation.”

He said the firm proposed the strategy of establishing footholds in consumer Internet and industrial Internet in 2018. “We are willing to go further to incorporate ‘sustainable social value innovation’ into the company’s core strategy,” said Ma.

In the letter, he specifies the strategy’s related fields as basic sciences, educational innovation, rural vitalization promotion, carbon neutrality, FEW (food, energy and water), public emergencies, elderly health care technology and digitalization in the public welfare sector.

Tencent has upgraded its former public welfare department into the division of sustainable social value.