The World's 50 Greatest Leaders

Rank
4
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Pony Ma

WGL05.19-Pony-Ma
SHENZHEN, CHINA - MARCH 25: Pony Ma Huateng, chairman and chief executive officer of Tencent Holdings Ltd., attends China (Shenzhen) IT Summit at Wuzhou Guest House on March 25, 2018 in Shenzhen, China. The two-day China (Shenzhen) IT Summit opened on Saturday. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)VCG/Getty Images
  • Title
    Founder and CEO
  • Affiliation
    Tencent

Compared with others in China’s boisterous tech scene, Ma keeps a low profile. But his influence has gone global thanks to WeChat, Tencent’s billion-member instant messaging service. WeChat is the epitome of the super-app model, a single interface through which users can pay bills, order food, book tickets, play games, and more. And rivals, including Facebook, are now adapting to emulate its success.