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Many investors recognize Tencent (OTC:TCEHY) as the largest video game publisher in the world; the owner of WeChat, China's top messaging app; and a market leader in the digital-payment, advertising, and media-streaming markets.

When reviewing Tencent's financials, they'll likely focus on its core growth engines -- its gaming, digital advertising, fintech, and cloud businesses. However, those headline numbers only give us a surface-level understanding of the 21-year-old company. Today, we'll examine nine lesser-known facts about the Chinese tech giant.

Image source: Getty Images.

WeChat isn't just a messaging app that serves 1.15 billion usersmonthly. It's an all-in-one "super app" that lets users pay bills, order food, book tickets, hail rides, and more.

However, any messages and images sent on WeChat areautomatically scanned for taboo topics by AI algorithms. Offending messages are deleted, often instantly, to prevent China's cyberspace regulators from cracking down on the platform. This isn't surprising, but it's a controversial tactic that often frustrates the app's foreign users.

Tencent's first product was a clone of the messaging app ICQ called OICQ (Open ICQ).ICQ's owner, AOL, threatened tosue Tencent over trademark violations, and OICQ was rebranded as QQ, which expanded into a broader messaging ecosystem. Roughly 731 million people still use QQ on a monthly basis.

Last year, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) honored 100 individuals fortheir contributions to the country. That list included Tencent CEO Pony Ma, Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) CEO Robin Li, and Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) founder Jack Ma. Jack Ma is notably a member of the CPC, but Pony Ma and Robin Li are not affiliated with any political parties.

Chinese regulators crack down on tech companies for myriad reasons, so companies often go to great lengths to stay in the government's good graces. Tencent even launched a game two years ago to coincide with President Xi's speech during the 19th Congress of the CPC. That game, Clapping Hands for Xi Jinping, played a short video of Xi's speech, and players tried to clapas many times as possible within 19 seconds.

However, that fawning gesture didn't prevent China's regulators from suspending all new gaming approvals for nine months the following year and crippling one of Tencent's core businesses.

Tencent, Alibaba, and Baidu are clearly subservient to China's government, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Three years ago, the Wall Street Journal claimed that the Chinese government wanted to buy1% stakes in Tencent and other domestic tech giants, gainspecial "management shares," and claim seats on the companies' boards. It's unclear if those plans are still in motion, but they indicate that the Chinese government wants to tighten its grip on its top tech companies.

Image source: Getty Images.

Two years ago, China's Ministry of Science and Technology recruited the BAT triumvirate and iFlytek to lead the development of new AI technologies.

The Ministry assigned Baidu to self-driving cars, Alibaba to smart cities, iFlytek to voice technologies, and Tencent to computer vision applications in healthcare. This complements WeChat's integration into China's hospitals, many of which accept WeChat Pay payments, and the expansion of its cloud business into the healthcare sector.

Tencent is the second-largest cloud platform provider in China after Alibaba, but it still trails far behind market leaders like Amazon and Microsoft in overseas markets. But that could change soon.

Tencent already operates data centers in the U.S., Canada, Singapore, India, and Germany, and it believes that it canmore than quadruple its overseas cloud revenue this year. It faces an uphill battle, but it could be an appealing choice for overseas companies that want to tether themselves to Tencent's ecosystem of social, advertising, and gaming services in China.

Tencent has invested in a long list of companies overseas, including Activision Blizzard, Epic Games, Tesla Motors, Snap, and nearly 50 unicorn start-ups. That massive investment portfolio now generates over a quarter of Tencent's profits -- and results in big gaps between its GAAP and non-GAAP earnings.

Lastly, Tencent's largest stakeholder is South African internet group Naspers (OTC:NPSNY), which invested $32 million in the company in 2001. It sold someofits shares since then, but it stillowns a 31% stake -- which is worth about $150 billion today. Pony Ma ranks second in ownership with a 9% stake.

Link:
AI Censors and 8 Other Things You Didn't Know About Tencent - Motley Fool

Dear 2020,

The Censorship Vs Creative freedom debate is possibly one of the longest running ones and it will not end any time. But I absolutely dont agree to the view that creative freedom should be absolute. Censorship is important because without that anyone will be putting out anything in the public domain under the garb of creative content. Without censorship, it will become a jungle raj, a free-for-all! In fact, I am already seeing something similar happening in the web series space. Things are increasingly taking a bizarre turn. There are web series that are misusing the lack of censorship and putting out random nudity, sex scenes, and extreme violence in the name of hard-hitting content. But often these are only used to grab eyeballs and serve no other purpose in the story. In fact, there is one such web series that I have sang the title song for, I had no idea that it will turn out to be a compilation of rural sex stories.

There are countries like Sweden that have no censorship. But our ground realities are very different from them. Censorship and its mandate should be based on the norms and values of the country and updated as the society progresses. Advocating the total abolishment of censorship is no less dangerous than the smothering censorship during Emergency period. The world does not work in extremes, there needs to be a middle path. The censor board needs to be formed with the right kind of people and should represent a cross section of the society.

Also, I dont think there is some serious attack on creative freedom in India today. A film like Udta Punjab (2016) was eventually passed with just one cut. This would be unthinkable 10 years back. I think we are far more liberal today. Also, there are ways to say the same thing in a different manner. Look at the cinema of Raj Kumar Hirani, apart from PK (2014), which got into trouble with the censor board for nudity, none of his five films got the snip and yet all were bold commentaries on the society. The problem is that today most people want to create controversial content just to get some easy publicity. Also, you dont need to be derogatory to prove a point. If you simply want to be blatant and offensive then you are on a very wrong track to begin with.

Having said that, political content can land you in some trouble but that is nothing new, it has been the same under every regime.

So, in 2020 I want artists to become more responsible and not use their creative freedom to peddle soft-porn, especially on the OTT platforms, and I also hope for a well-represented, accountable and standardised censor board.

(As told to Ananya Ghosh)

Naseeruddin Shahs open letter to 2020. Read here

Makarand Deshpandes open letter to 2020. Read here

Faezeh Jalalis poem for 2020. Read here

HT Brunch cover story: By the people, for the people, of the people Four thespians write down their wishlist for 2020. Read the entire article here

From HT Brunch, December 29, 2019

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Dear 2020: Piyush Mishras open letter to the coming year - Hindustan Times

As over one lakh Mumbaikars converged to peacefully protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act as well as the National Register of Citizens at the August Kranti Maidan on 19 December, a group of young theatre practitioners unfolded the history of Kashmir toa packed house, 24 kilometres away.Aksariyat Akliyat, a grippingplatform theatrical from the Delhi-based Alternative Space Project, traces the mythological and contemporary narratives around the formation of Jammu and Kashmir which continue to shape perspectives on the Valley and its people.

We are introduced to the legend of Jalodbhava, the demon who would terrorise the neighbouring mountain folk of ancient Kashmir until Lord Vishnu intervened and put an end to his life. Civilisation flourishes and soon, Kashmir is shownnavigating the 1940s, marked by fear and violence. Certain exchanges between Jawaharlal Nehru and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and the events leading up to the execution of the Instrument of Accession, signed 1947, are revisited. Before culminating in present-day Kashmir, Aksariyat Akliyat charts the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in 1989. After a rousing 40-minutes, the writer, director and team of actors take a curtain call.

The team of actors from Alternative Space Project present Aksariyat Akliyat at Mumbai's Prithvi Theatre.

After making his way of out of the black-box theatre minutes after the performance has ended, director Vivek Tyagi mulls over the abrogation of Article 370 and 35 A of the Indian constitution, which fortuitously was announced a fortnight after the first draft of the play had been finalised.It was then that Tyagi and his writer, Karan Chaudhary, decided to make a few changes to their script to factor inthe geopolitical implications of the repeal. "We were in talks with certain artists from Kashmir whom we were consulting to understand Article 370 better. However, on 5 August, we were suddenly cut off from them due to the communication blockade. Therefore, we had to do our own research and tweak the play given the political environment of the nation," recounts Tyagi.

Being performed by an independent theatre collective with young actors lends Aksariyat Akliyat an unusualfervour, almost identical to the unbothered air of a student-led nukkad natak, which remains wildly popular in Indian varsity campuses. However, Tyagi and Chaudhary bring a certain gravity to their treatment of Kashmir's past. Perhaps it is their brush with censorship two in the post-Article 370 India that has brought on this sobriety to their craft. But what threat could a year-old performing arts collectivepose? The question may have baffled those associated with the play, including the six actors. However, certain organisers of two theatre festivals in Gujarat and Lucknow were convinced theplay's rhetoric was incendiary."They asked us for the poster and script of our play.When we sent them the documents, they told us our play was too 'heated', and could be stopped if the script contained anything too contentious. The talks fizzled out soon even though they had imitated contact with us," says Tyagi.

Despite the hiccups, the Alternative Space Projecthas been able to bring the play to three Indian cities Mumbai, Jaipur and Udaipur. However, they acknowledgethe clampdown oncreative expression, which became prominent earlier this weekas organisers of Pune's prestigiousFirodiya Karandak competition, set in motion a new rule barring plays on 'sensitive' political issues for this year's edition. "This 'wave' is restraining the writers and directors of our country. Many are now afraid of speaking against the government; we were too. When we created Aksariyat Akliyat, we were almost apprehensive about showing it publicly, which is why we have not held any outdoor performances," points out Chaudhary.

What bringsmembers of the collective some solace is taking a second look at their purpose as young theatre artists: to speak up. "Dissent is the backbone of theatre. We cannot muzzle artistic voices," warns Tyagi. For Chaudhary, nothing whets an artist's appetite like the present times. "It's a breeding ground for ideas and that serves the purpose of my theatre well," he says.

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Amid censorship fears, Delhi-based theatre group puts Kashmir's history into perspective, post Article 370 - Firstpost

Sean ONeill, Chief Reporter

A multimillionaire at the centre of a police investigation over sexual assault allegations is trying to censor newspaper reports, though he is referred to only as Mr X.

The businessman, protected by court orders and reporting restrictions, claims that reports by The Times in which he is anonymised are a threat to his privacy and a breach of his human rights because they allegedly contain identifying information.

He has enlisted defamation lawyers and a reputation management firm to further restrict coverage by The Times of the police inquiry into allegations made by a former employee.

The articles Mr X wants censored do not identify him, do not say where he lives and do not refer to his type of business.

The campaign group Index on

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Mr X tries to censor reports of sexual assault allegations - The Times

7. Fox News attacks Democratic politicians invoking reproductive justice when talking about climate change

Fox News has a long record of spreading misinformation about climate change and reproductive rights, but in 2019, the network used both issues to attack Democratic politicians as extreme.

During a CNN climate town hall in September, Democratic candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) responded to a question about the role of reproductive rights in climate policy by saying that the United States should eliminate the Mexico City Policy, which prohibits international organizations from receiving U.S. funding if they perform or refer patients for abortions, even though federal money is already prohibited from directly supporting abortion care.

Fox News host Jedediah Bila said on The Five that she found Sanders comments troubling because they were an indication that the Democratic Party has an audience for expanding abortion rights, which she repeatedly called extreme. On Special Report, Fox News contributor Mollie Hemingway quipped that there is something to be appreciated about the candor with which he displayed his eugenics and his support for eugenics. Hannity similarly asked during a segment on his show if Sanders sick, ugly, repulsive support for worldwide abortions to control populations in poor countries reflects the new Democratic Party.

Similarly, in November on The Ingraham Angle, The Federalists John Daniel Davidson attacked climate activists and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) for acknowledging peoples fears about having more children in response to the dangers of climate change. Davidson alleged such ideas were the same as supporting eugenics and claimed that progressives have always been having this conversation about how to control the population.

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Seven of the worst Fox News freakouts about abortion this year - Media Matters for America