Pony Ma tackles hot issues at news conference

Founder, chairman and CEO of Tencent Holdings Ltd, Ma Huateng, speaks at a press conference in Beijing on March 3, 2016. [Photo/Provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

3. Tencent has invested in car-hailing service app Didi, which is a popular online platform for sharing economy. But the car-hailing service is regarded as illegal operation in some cities.

Ma: I did talk a lot with the government about this last year because as an investor, we know this issue well.

I understand the government's concerns because it is a complicated issue involving the old system in the taxi industry. If not handled well, it will cause many social problems including unemployment. We believe that sharing economy is a right direction; we can't ignore the tendency of sharing economy because it will harm the interest of the old system. Yet we need to promote sharing economy step by step thoughtfully.

Ride-sharing service is a product that best represents the feature of sharing economy in the age of mobile Internet. You can post access to other shared resources on PC, but you can't carry a PC while hailing a car on the street. Nor can the driver install a PC in his or her car. Ride-sharing service has a big market and is an irresistible trend.

4. The world's attention is on the upcoming match between Google's AlphaGo and South Korean Go player Lee Sedol. Which side will you vote for, man or machine? And what in the future of technologies, such as virtual reality and artificial intelligence, interests you most?

Ma: Artificial intelligence can't win a human brain in a game of Go with exhaustion. It must apply reasoning. I have been following the development of AI with interest since I graduated from college and am excited about the match, expecting it to bring changes to AI that has been out of the spotlight for many years.

Year 2016 is said to be the first year of VR era. Hardware products have been released, so now it is important to consider what services and contents to offer. Tencent has a wide range of scenarios to apply VR, such as games, movies, live sports shows and concerts. We are open to cooperation with VR hardware manufacturers. As a service provider and integrator, we hope to raise standards from the perspective of users and develop samples of genuine VR experiences in the future. I believe that VR will mature in the coming two or three years.