Ma was born in Chaoyang, Shantou, Guangdong. Along with four other classmates, Ma Huateng went on to co-found Tencent in 1998. In 2003, Tencent released its own portal (QQ.com) and made forays into the online games market. By 2004, Tencent became the largest Chinese instant messaging service (holding 74 percent of the market), prompting Ma to list the company on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Ma's leadership led to the creation of WeChat, which - as of 2015 - is the largest instant messaging platform in the world. As of September 2021, he has a net worth of US$46 billion and was once ranked the ninth richest man in the world.