Connecting Globally.docVIP

Connecting GloballyThe rising adoption of smartphones worldwide has made mobile Internet a booming industry in recent years. South Korea， China and Australia have the highest smartphone penetration rates worldwide at 67 percent， 66 percent and 65 percent， respectively， according to Nielsen. In China， smartphone adoption has grown 401 percent over the last year. Revenue in the mobile Internet hit 54.97 billion yuan （$8.7 billion）， with an annual growth rate of 96.4 percent. How will Internet companies get a bigger share of this growing business？ Beijing Review reporter Chen Ran brought back fresh thoughts of tech leaders from the Fifth Global Mobile Internet Conference in Beijing on May 7-8. Excerpts follow：Ma Huateng， Core Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Tencent The booming mobile Internet industry creates a gold opportunity for Asian countries to shine. For the first time， we are at the same starting point and even take a minor leading position over some of the American giants such as Facebook. It remains a challenge for Internet companies to cope with PC clients while shifting to the mobile arena.I found that the biggest opportunity came from industries crossing over. For instance， I was in communications some 20 years ago， and quite familiar with the Internet at the same time. So we did something that combined both areas. That was why instant messaging and online communities were Tencent’s trump cards in the early years.To be honest， we had setbacks as well， such as in e-commerce and the search engine market. I think crossover still works today. Some of the popular products in the United States feature communications. Internet companies in Asia， however， are moving beyond communications―they make communications， social networks and platforms into one. Tencent’s WeChat， which has more than 300 million users， is the first of its kind in the world.Internet companies， big or small， have to be aware of the industry’s transformation and cautious about every step