Tencent Singapore: Making a mark on the Little Red Dot

Small but mighty

At just over 700km2, Singapore is about one-third of the size of Shenzhen. Size isn’t everything, of course, and the island city-state has a long track record of punching above its weight.

In 2020, there were just a handful of staff in the office. Today, just four years later, the Tencent Singapore office is home to several hundred employees.

Here, we share the story of four employees helping make a mark on the Little Red Dot on the map.

Ben, Managing Director, Weixin Pay, Southeast Asia and North America

Establishing the brand

When Ben joined Tencent in 2018, he was officially employee #1 in Singapore. There was plenty of work, though. Ben was tasked with expanding Weixin Pay in Southeast Asia. At first, it seemed like the cards were literally stacked against him. Bank cards were the dominant payment method, with a low uptake of digital payments. As an added challenge, Tencent was still relatively unknown outside of the Mainland of China, and competitors were spending big on advertising. There was a significant gap in brand awareness and recognition.

To promote Weixin Pay’s cutting-edge tech, Ben relied on traditional sales techniques to gain ground. Armed with posters and other marketing materials, he went door-to-door to merchants and partners educating them on the product offering.

On top of more frequent appearances in local news and TV, it was the team’s quick reaction to an emerging crisis that made the biggest impact on market share.

Seizing opportunities

When COVID-19 hit, Weixin Pay launched a food delivery mini-program to help Chinese tourists stranded in Singapore. This made it easy for people in quarantine to order food and supplies. This move introduced Weixin Pay into Singapore’s ubiquitous hawker centres, enabling Chinese tourists to pay with their phones instead of cash.

This marked the tipping point for the app. In just two years, Weixin Pay captured a substantial market share in Singapore. Today, it’s available in 74 countries and supports more than 30 currencies.

New horizons

Ben isn’t resting on his laurels, though. Leaning into the momentum his team has built in Southeast Asia, he’s set his sights on the competitive North American market. For Ben, it’s another exciting opportunity to introduce Weixin Pay to an entirely new audience – and redefine success for him and his team.

Ken, General Manager, Singapore & Malaysia, Tencent Cloud International

Humble beginnings

Previously at Google, Ken joined the Tencent Singapore team in 2021 to lead the Cloud and Smart Industry Group’s (CSIG) expansion into Southeast Asia. When he joined Tencent, the office was small, simple, and practical — it felt more like a start-up than a regional corporate hub. It reminded Ken of how David Packard started HP in a garage.

It was a smaller team then, too. CSIG had only 30 local employees, and there were fewer than a hundred people at Tencent Singapore. Still, the office was buzzing with potential, and it was this promise of growth that appealed to Ken.

A servant leader

As CSIG grew rapidly, Ken cast a wide net in his search for talent. Later, as they rounded out the team’s capabilities, he took a more targeted approach to talent selection.

Ken takes a pragmatic approach to leadership. “I see the leader as the team’s servant,” he says of his management style.

“I don’t micro-manage, I provide guidance as needed. I check in with my team and make sure that the broad direction and coaching are on track, and then give them room to realise their full potential.”

While he gives his staff room for personal growth, Ken is always ready to help navigate the next big challenge. It’s not always easy, as his diverse team comes from different countries and regions, with different cultures and working styles. When an urgent task pops up, it’s up to Ken to manage priorities and ensure the team maintains a healthy work-life balance.

A bright future

The team’s hard work has clearly paid off. Tencent Cloud has established a notable presence in Southeast Asia. The team launched the first distributed cloud platform outside of the Chinese Mainland, and is well-established as an enterprise-level solution. This includes the most recent data centre launch in Malaysia, in partnership with Global Resources Management.

Ken expects to see continued strong growth, especially in the intersection between Cloud and AI. The team is leading the charge on this, as was clear at the regional Tencent Cloud Days earlier this year, which focused on how to “accelerate your business with AI innovation.”

With several exciting wins already under their belt, Ken is ready to take CSIG and Tencent Cloud’s silver lining and create golden opportunities for digital transformation in Southeast Asia.

Chujun, WeChat Data Scientist

Standing on the shoulders of giants

Working for Tencent is a dream come true for Chujun. A long-term fan of Tencent games, she even served as a content moderator for a while. When she joined the team in 2020, the Singapore office was still in its infancy. For the first two weeks, she was the only person on her team.

At the time, WeChat was seen as standing on the shoulders of Weixin, the giant. The WeChat team’s mission was to catch up with Weixin’s decade of development in less than two years.

It was a huge undertaking. Chujun and her colleagues were responsible for organising WeChat’s data characteristics. This meant generating more than 600 data tables in just four months! When the project launched at the end of 2021 they celebrated at karaoke. The song “Leaving the Surface of the Earth” by Mayday has become the team’s anthem — a lasting symbol of their passion for their work.

Ongoing improvements

By the end of the project, functions like compliance and risk management became fully mature, too. This allowed the team to shift their focus to improving the WeChat user experience.

One of their first steps was to overhaul the user verification step. Overseas users often struggled to find a WeChat friend to help complete the ID check. Chujun’s team developed two additional ways for users to complete registration — with a bank card or WeChat Pay verification. They also updated the UI and optimized the UX. This led to a much smoother onboarding experience for international users.

A giant of their own

The team continues to improve and refine the WeChat experience for international users. Each challenge provides new learnings and new opportunities, and Chujun is excited to build a giant of her own.

Emma, APAC Operations Principal

New Beginnings

In the summer of 2019, Emma took a flight across the Strait of Malacca before touching down in the Little Red Dot — ready to start a new life. She had worked at Tencent’s headquarters in Shenzhen for the past ten years, and was offered the opportunity to relocate to Singapore in support of Tencent's expansion in Southeast Asia. This new role would see her supporting the operations side of the company’s expansion into Southeast Asia.?

One of her first tasks was to find a permanent home for the Singapore team. The teams had been outgrowing their office spaces and needed a stable and fixed location quickly.

Finding a new home

In the beginning, the Tencent Singapore team worked in a small co-working space. As business grew, the office began to fill up. It was crucial for the team to find a new and spacious workspace to sustain long-term business operations for employees.

To relocate the office was no easy task. Emma and her team encountered various challenges, including seeking out interior design suppliers, and finalizing design and implementation plans.

"Thankfully, the Administrative and HR teams back in headquarters worked hand-in-hand with our local team here in Singapore to provide us with the necessary support to complete the relocation project. We are like a big, close-knit family," she says.

Making her mark

In Singapore, people believe that rolling a pineapple in a new home or workplace brings good fortune, as the word for pineapple is pronounced "Ong Lai", a homonym for "fortune comes".

On the big move-in day, as Emma welcomed the Tencent Singapore team to their new office, she recalled gazing up at the sky, rosy clouds floating across the horizon. Sunrise is a common symbol of new beginnings and hope. For Emma, these two themes really resonated with her experiences seeing the team’s growth — a fitting symbol of renewed commitment to Tencent Singapore’s journey.

Make your mark with Tencent Singapore, and discover career opportunities with our team or within the Tencent Cloud International Pioneer Program.

For more updates, follow us on Tencent Singapore.