Tencent Opens Chinese Tea House as London Olympics Information Hub

  Tencent Opens Chinese Tea House as London Olympics Information Hub

  * Tencent provides platform for news and content around London 2012
  * Over 100 journalists in London and 800 in Beijing will cover the Games,
    supported by Tencent tools and technologies

Business Wire

LONDON -- July 27, 2012

Tencent, the leading online media company in China, announced the opening of
its Tencent Chinese Tea House as part of its preparation for the London
Olympic Games. The Chinese Tea House is a media platform providing diverse
Games-related information and interactive content that will support more than
1.2 billion audience interactions during the Olympics.

According to Ma Yankun, Head of Tencent’s Frontline Reporting Team of London
Olympics, Tencent’s Olympic Channel during the Games would exceed 1.2 billion
interactions. It acts as a key live broadcast platform supporting more than
100 press attending from Chinese and international media organisations, as
well as delivering content to multiple Chinese media properties. It will play
a crucial role in reporting London Olympics at QQ.com.

Mr. Ma said, “The Tea House will provide a new approach for the Chinese
audience of hundreds of millions to view the Games, as well as offering them
the opportunity to experience the Olympics as if they are on site. Tencent is
deploying latest online media equipment and technical expertise to produce
audio and video content at the highest possible quality, enabling audience
members to view and experience the event as if they are in the venues
themselves. More importantly, we are covering a range of diverse angles in
order to bring complete insight into what is going on at the Games.”

A New Sharing-based Media Platform

Deputy Editor-in-chief of QQ.com Zhao Guochen commented, “The competition
among Chinese media outlets during the London Olympics will be very fierce,
but the main battlefield will be the speed at which news is delivered. As a
whole, Chinese media firms are still in the exploration phase, looking to
diversify reporting angles and apply new media technologies. This has led to a
huge gap with the demand of engagement from hundreds of millions of people
within the Chinese online audience. This requires in-depth analysis on the
level of engagement with audience members, the width of coverage and the
dimensions of involvement that are taking place. All of this is fully
dependent on the supply of diverse content, both through integration of
technology and product.”

The Tencent Chinese Tea House has been designed to support a combination of
social and online content vehicles that covers Weibo, video, social network
and advanced online media technologies. Under the strategy of “We Understand
Netizens the Best”, Tencent has primarily built up its framework for Olympics.
Alongside these virtual platforms, Tencent’s studios and live broadcast rooms
in the Tea House will be opened for use by traditional media platforms as
well, including 13 metropolis newspapers, 14 provincial television stations
and 24 provincial broadcast stations in China. This will allow them to use new
reporting methods that are made possible by innovative media technologies and
will let them embrace the latest social and visual models of Olympics
reporting.

An Online Interaction Platform with Chinese Athletes

Tencent is also creating programmes that will run during the Olympics. After
the opening ceremony at the Chinese Tea House, Leung Man-tao hosted the first
episode of Enjoy the Tea, Observe the Games in which he and famous authors Mai
Jia and Su Tong compared the differences between Beijing Olympics and London
Olympics, forecasted gold medals ranking and gave their thoughts on how the
coming opening ceremony of the Games will be. International pianist Lang Lang
and famous CCTV host Liu Jianhong were also involved in the launch episode,
where the piano master Lang Lang predicted bravely that China will beat the US
again to the position of No. 1 in the gold medals table.

Another new series called Gold Medal Express will welcome 90 per cent of
China’s gold medalists this summer, providing Chinese athletes with an easy
interactive platform to reach out to the Chinese audience following their
performances. The program team will invite gold medalists on to the show at
the first possible time after events have taken place, allowing them into the
studio to share their stories with the audience. Meanwhile, Tencent will also
broadcast the program on Weibo live for real-time interaction with audience
members online.

A third program called Olympic Parents will focus on the moving stories that
exist for the gold medalists, their parents and what happens to them during
the Games.

The opening of the Chinese Tea House demonstrates Tencent’s determination to
provide the strongest reporting from the Games for the Chinese audience,
however they want to consume content around London 2012. More importantly,
this launch shows the potential that exists for development of new portal
websites for reporting around major events. As part of the Games Tencent will
show how it is possible to promote the fit between new media, marketing and
event management in order to provide a greater experience for the audience.

About Tencent

Tencent aims to enrich the interactive online experience of Internet users by
providing a comprehensive range of Internet and wireless value-added services.
Through its various online platforms, including Instant Messaging QQ, web
portal QQ.com, the QQ Game platform under Tencent Games, multi-media social
networking service Qzone and wireless portal, Tencent services the largest
online community in China and fulfills the user’s needs for communication,
information, entertainment and e-Commerce on the Internet. Tencent has four
main streams of revenues:

Internet value-added services, mobile and telecommunications value-added
services, online advertising and e-Commerce.

Shares of Tencent Holdings Limited are traded on the Main Board of the Stock
Exchange of Hong Kong Limited, under stock code 00700. The Company became one
of the 43 constituents of the Hang Seng Index (HSI) on June 10, 2008. For more
information, please visit www.tencent.com/ir.

Forward-looking Statements Disclaimer: This press release contains
forward-looking statements relating to the business outlook, forecast business
plans and growth strategies of Tencent. They are based on information
currently available to Tencent and its outlook at the time of this press
release. These statements are made under certain expectations, assumptions and
premises, some of which are subjective or beyond Tencent’s control. These
forward-looking statements may prove to be incorrect and may not be realised
in future. Underlying these statements are a large number of risks and
uncertainties. As such, the inclusion of any forward-looking statements in
this press release should not be regarded as representations by Tencent or any
of its directors and employees that the business outlook, forecast, plans and
strategies will be achieved, and no undue reliance should be placed on any of
such statements.

Contact:

Tencent contact:
Wynne Wang
Tencent
Phone: +86-10-82154906
Email: wynnewang@tencent.com
or
PR contact:
Mark Kember
Goode Communications
Tel: +44 (0)1491 873323
Email: mark.kember@goode.co.uk