Tencent to close online education service as tech giant cuts back on noncore operations

Professional education service Tencent Ketang will cease operations on October 1

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Tencent’s cost-cutting efforts have included divesting some of its investment portfolio, closing noncore businesses, and consolidating its sprawling operations in social media, video gaming and other market segments. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 5:00pm, 1 Jul 2024Updated: 5:02pm, 1 Jul 2024

Tencent Holdings is closing down its 10-year-old online education platform with more than 400 million users, as the Chinese video gaming and social media giant continues to cut noncore operations.

The professional education service Tencent Ketang, which translates to “classroom” in English, will cease operations on October 1, according to a notice posted on its website, without providing any reason.

While users will no longer be able to access new courses on the platform from August 1, they can still watch lessons that have already been added to their schedules until the site is closed, the notice said.

Shenzhen-based Tencent did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.

The landing page of the Tencent Ketang website. Photo: Handout

Shuttering the online education service shows Tencent’s focus on its restructuring strategy, about a year and half after founder, chairman and chief executive Pony Ma Huateng said the company must get into a habit of cutting costs and finding core areas, instead of seeking expansion and scale.

“In the past, when we saw others were adding weight, we also tried to increase in size, but what we added was just fat, and we were still unable to defeat others,” Ma said in a December 2022 internal town hall meeting, which was quoted in a report by Chinese media outlet Jiemian.