＂Tencent To Do＂ announces shutdown, Tencent has decided to shut down several apps this year

guideClosures include schedule management tools, games, online audio platforms, and more.

On October 16, Tencent To-Do announced that it would completely stop operations and remove them from the shelves on December 20 this year, due to the "adjustment of business development direction". The reporter learned that, including Tencent To-Do, several applications of Tencent have been shut down this year.

Tencent To-Do is a WeChat Mini Program, launched in August 2021, and then the APP was put on the shelves in the iOS store. Tencent To-Do is positioned as a to-do and schedule management tool, which supports collaboration between different apps. After creating a to-do with the corresponding official account, the schedule will pop up through the official account and other ports. The latest tweet before the Tencent To-Do official account released the service suspension announcement stayed in November 2021.

Since the beginning of this year, Tencent has also been clearing some of the more marginal businesses. In July this year, the online audio platform Penguin FM issued an offline announcement, announcing that it would officially stop operating on September 6 this year. Penguin FM released the official version in 2015, including serialized novels, parent-child education, etc. According to the online audio related report of the Sailixin Media Research Institute, Penguin FM is in the third tier of the online audio mainstream APP.

The games that Tencent has suspended in China this year include "Fairy’s Tail: Magic Guide Boy", "Street Basketball", "Blade of the Wind" and "Infinite Law". On May 30 this year, Tencent stopped the operation of "Blade of the Wind" in the Chinese mainland because the game developer could not continue to maintain normal operation and version development due to internal adjustments. The game "life" has been nearly 10 years. On July 25, Tencent stopped the operation of the "Street Basketball" mobile game in the Chinese mainland. The game has been in operation for six years.

Two games developed by Tencent have also announced the shutdown. Among them, the turn-based mobile game "Fairy’s Tail: Magic Guide Boy" developed by Rubik’s Cube Studio shut down the server in China on May 31 this year, and the game has been in operation for only 4 years. In September, the competitive shooting online game "Infinite Law" developed by Tencent Game Northern Lights announced in the Steam community that the game stopped operating on December 1 this year. It has only been 5 years since the "Infinite Law" opened for public beta. The first financial reporter saw on the third-party Steam database website SteamDB that the online number of the game peaked 5 years ago, reaching 63,000 people, and the current online number is less than 100 people.

After the implementation of the "double reduction" policy in 2021, the education industry has undergone profound adjustments. Tencent’s education line has also undergone adjustments during the year. In September this year, Shi Mei, vice president of Tencent Cloud and head of Tencent’s education industry, revealed to the media that Tencent Education will gradually shut down its C-end business and focus on its B-end business.

The C-end business includes K12 online school, Tencent classroom, etc. Recently, it has been reported that Tencent Education K12 business and Tencent classroom will be gradually shut down. The reporter learned from Tencent insiders that the second part of the smart industry where the education business is located has previously reduced a large number of staff. Tencent classroom or the last C-end business, with the gradual shutdown of K12 and Tencent classroom business, the staff reduction will continue. Tencent Education has always laid out B-end business, cooperating with schools and education enterprises.

At the same time as the business adjustment, personnel adjustment is also being carried out. In October this year, it was reported that Yin Yu, vice president of Tencent Group and president of Tencent Education, had resigned from his position and left Tencent. After the change of business leader, Tencent’s business readjusted its strategic direction. The reporter learned that on October 13, Tencent also announced the appointment of personnel. Zeng Yu, vice president of Tencent, concurrently served as the technical head of the Interactive Entertainment Business Group (IEG), and continued to be responsible for the content and platform business group (PCG) technology line. He Yijin was appointed to continue to serve as the news head of the PCG platform and content business group Tencent, and also served as the head of the information platform and service line, fully responsible for the line business and team management.

Last year, Tencent has shut down or removed a number of non-key businesses, including Penguin e-sports, Goose fight, the game "QQ Tang", etc. According to media statistics, including the shuttered businesses and offline games after Sogou merged into Tencent, Tencent closed more than 40 projects last year.

Pony Ma, chairperson and CEO of Tencent, said in an internal speech at the end of 2022 that Tencent has shrunk a lot of business, and many businesses should be cut down, so don’t be nostalgic. Compared with the management costs and energy paid by the company, it is not cost-effective to spread too much non-core business.