Chinese tech company Tencent is a gaming giant and the parent company of WeChat, the ever present social messaging app in China.
Cheng Xin | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Tencent has spent years evolving right into a gaming and social media giant in China and in the method, has built up its cloud computing capabilities.
The technology firm is now trying to bring that expertise to Europe because it ramps up expansion of its cloud business overseas, Dowson Tong, CEO of Tencent’s cloud group told CNBC.
“We’ve strengths and competence in very specific technology areas, in addition to industry verticals,” Tong said in an interview last week. “These are are very unique technology capabilities which have been developed over a few years [and] began from our products in China.”
“So we intend to bring a whole lot of this technology expertise to Europe. We’re talking to a whole lot of interested potential customers.”
Tencent’s European push will pitch it against U.S. hyperscalers Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet-owned Google, which collectively make up 70% share of Europe’s cloud market.
However the Chinese firm is hoping to deal with specific areas where it has built up capabilities to distinguish from rivals.
Tong said these include cloud technologies for areas like optimizing video streaming, ensuring a smooth gaming experience, and developing and hosting so-called “super apps” like WeChat — China’s biggest messaging service. WeChat is commonly seen because the pioneer of super apps, a term that refers to an application with multiple functions, resembling messaging and payments.
Tong gave an example of Tencent’s cloud computing work with French telecommunications firm Orange in supporting the corporate’s Max it app in Africa. In the world of gaming, Tencent’s cloud technology can improve “latency,” which is a technical term for the lag between a player’s actions and what happens on screen, Tong said.
The Chinese company can be betting on European corporations choosing multiple cloud providers for services, as an alternative of counting on one or two of the massive players.
“I’d say that is actually a … deliberate strategy of ours to make the shoppers feel more comfortable using our technology, especially in a multi-cloud environment,” he said, adding that customers wish to give you the chance to interoperate.
AI push
Cloud computing corporations have put an increased deal with selling artificial intelligence tools as a option to boost revenue and differentiate their offerings from rivals.
Tencent has built up its own artificial intelligence foundational model in China called Hunyuan. However it also uses some models created by Chinese firm DeepSeek in its products.
Tong said Tencent would take the same approach in Europe on the subject of AI, potentially offering products built on European models.
“Our focus can be providing tools that may work with different foundation models and ultimately, it’s the client’s decision which model works best for them,” Tong told CNBC.
“So I feel at the tip of the day, we might all the time go to our customers, find the issues they wanted addressed, provide them tools in order that they’ll accomplish what they need, and realise the associated fee efficiency that we will offer.”
