Pushing For Space

FROM TECHNOLOGY TO FUNDAMENTAL SCIENCE AND OUTER SPACE, TENCENTS PONY MA ALWAYS HAS HIS SIGHTS SET ON NEW FRONTIERS. RACHEL DUFFELL LOOKS AT HIS METEORIC RISE AND WHAT THE FUTURE MIGHT HOLD

- Rachel Duffell

When Ma Huateng was young, he was obsessed with space and its celestial phenomena, and wanted to be an astronomer. It was, however, much later in life that Ma would return to this early interest. First, he would make his name in technology.

Ma, who has become known as Pony Ma, an appellation purportedly derived from the English translation of the Chinese character ma, which means ‘horse,’ was born in 1971 in Shantou, Guangdong. Relatively little is known about his early years, save that in 1989 he enrolled to study computer science at Shenzhen University. From there, his star has risen steadily. He is now CEO and chairman of Chinese internet behemoth Tencent Holdings, the parent company of the We Chat messaging and online payment app. This year, just 25 years after graduating, Forbes declared Ma the richest man in China with an estimated net worth of around US$45 billion.

It all began by backing just one horse—Tencent. In 1998, several years after leaving university, Ma founded Tencent, whose name plays on the Chinese characters teng and