Tencent has pledged to donate two percent of its annual profit to charity.

The company's CEO, Pony Ma Huateng, said Tencent Foundation, the company's charity organization, will now get double the contribution each year. Tencent is an internet conglomerate, which is behind China's most popular mobile messaging app WeChat.

Like Us on Facebook

Ma said the foundation's aim is to match charitable organizations with users, adding that many of them want to donate but are not able to make informed choices.

It is worth noting that Tencent Foundation is one of the largest public donation platforms in the country. Started in 2007, it has already collected more than 1.1 billion yuan out of the 76 million donations it has made, as of August this year.

"The amount of charitable donations in China has grown from 10 billion yuan in 2006 to over 100 billion yuan last year - it has grown very quickly,"  Ma revealed, according to SCMP.com. 

Back in April, Ma donated 1.39 billion yuan of his Tencent shares. The benefciary works toward the promotion of education, environment, healthcare and other such causes in mainland China. Two months after, he was regarded as the "the most generous philanthropist in the ethnic Chinese world." In a year's time, he was able to donate US$2.15 billion to charity.

Meanwhile, Ma further narrated that the increasing popularity of the internet and socal media has helped in the growth of Tencent Foundation's donations to charity.

"Of that 90 per cent [of donations via mobile phone], 80 per cent were made through a social network. This means that donating money via technology has become mainstream in China," shared.

Reuters reported that China recently introduced law regulating internet companies in raising and managing funds for charity. Ma hailed the newly enacted law and said that it would provide more flexibility to the platform in administration.

Per the company's 2015 annual report, Tencent contributed 480 million yuan to Tencent Charity Funds duirng the year, amounting to 1.6 percent of its annual profit of 29.12 billion yuan. 

TagsTencent, Tencent Foundation, Pony Ma Huateng