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In 1998, Pony Ma (马化腾), a 27-year-old computer programmer, and his best friend (similar to Bill Gates and Paul Allen) founded a startup company - Tencent - in Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province.

In the past two decades, Tencent has developed countless IT products. The most successful is the instant messaging app WeChat (微信, roughly equivalent to WhatsApp) with more than one billion users.

WeChat is a ceaselessly swelling giant with more and more functions. For example, you can use it to order a takeaway snack, call a Uber taxi, buy an airline ticket, book a hotel room, even find a nearby prostitute.

Today in China, every store has its own WeChat payment QR code. When you hold up your smartphone to scan the code, your money will be instantaneously transferred from your bank account to the store.