Biography | 马化腾 Ma Huateng — The Huaqiangbei Floor Where Tencent Was Registered

The company that later filled Houhai started on a fourth-floor block in Huaqiangbei.

On 11 November 1998 Ma Huateng and four colleagues registered Tencent in Shenzhen.

The named first office sat in East Block 2 of SEG Science and Technology Park, on Zhenxing Road in Futian.

Later company notes and Chinese encyclopedia entries give the room as 403 or B402. Both citations point at the same east block.

Registered capital at the start is widely given as 500,000 yuan.

The five founders were Ma Huateng, Zhang Zhidong, Xu Chenye, Chen Yidan and Zeng Liqing.

Ma had come from pager and internet-calling work at China Motion Telecom and at Shenzhen Runxun Communications.

The Chinese name of the new firm takes the Teng from his given name and the Xun from Runxun.

The first product, launched in February 1999, was OICQ, a Chinese-language instant-messaging client modeled on ICQ. It was later renamed QQ after a trademark dispute.

The park is still on Zhenxing Road. The original room is not a walk-in museum.

Chinese reports describe the reconstructed site as an internal Tencent Origin space, open to the company rather than to the street.

Photo: Weu MGliam MAA 06 Twoua, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons