Tencent's headquarters in Shenzhen, China.

CHEN XIAOTIE/VCG VIA GETTY IMAGES

The word “donation” has become a charged topic for some disapproving investors in China's tech companies after the country's two biggest names, Alibaba and Tencent, each pledged no less than 50 billion yuan ($15 billion) over the past year to help with Beijing’s campaign for “common prosperity.”

An exception, however, should be granted for Tencent's annual donation campaign in September. The company has just donated 400 million yuan on its 99 Giving Day, a nine-day charitable event that ended on September 9, in what has become China's largest charitable fund-raising exercise.

Each year, Tencent sets aside a quota of donations to charitable causes favored by its WeChat users. The festival, as Tencent calls it, started small in 2015, when it donated 99 million yuan, with 2.1 million WeChat users contributing an additional 127 million yuan that year. By 2018, Tencent's donation had grown to 399 million yuan, and 28.8 million WeChat users gave 833 million yuan. Tencent's commitment has been capped at 400 million yuan since then.

Shareholders have reason to be more forgiving about this campaign. The company says that its goal is not to raise its own donations, but to expand public participation.

How? To encourage public participation, WeChat has employed an in-house toolbox, including self-developed blockchain technology, rewarding users with “little safflowers” that can be used to purchase goods, view music concerts through live streaming, and receive rewards of non-fungible token lookalike assets, such as copies of children's artwork, among others.

When a WeChat user donates to a charity of their choosing during the nine days, Tencent matches it with the same amount to the same cause, but caps its total at 300 million yuan. Separately, it pledges a fixed 100 million yuan in direct funding to eligible charitable organizations, bringing its total annual charitable donation to 400 million yuan.

Remarkably, amid a slumping economy, record unemployment among the young, and sluggish public consumption, 60 million WeChat users this year responded to Tencent's call by donating 3.3 billion yuan, or 55 yuan per user, to 100,000 projects launched by 30,000 charitable organizations across China for the campaign. In response, Tencent honored its commitment to contribute 400 million yuan.

Tencent's headquarters in Shenzhen, China.

CHEN XIAOTIE/VCG VIA GETTY IMAGES

The word “donation” has become a charged topic for some disapproving investors in China's tech companies after the country's two biggest names, Alibaba and Tencent, each pledged no less than 50 billion yuan ($15 billion) over the past year to help with Beijing’s campaign for “common prosperity.”

An exception, however, should be granted for Tencent's annual donation campaign in September. The company has just donated 400 million yuan on its 99 Giving Day, a nine-day charitable event that ended on September 9, in what has become China's largest charitable fund-raising exercise.

Each year, Tencent sets aside a quota of donations to charitable causes favored by its WeChat users. The festival, as Tencent calls it, started small in 2015, when it donated 99 million yuan, with 2.1 million WeChat users contributing an additional 127 million yuan that year. By 2018, Tencent's donation had grown to 399 million yuan, and 28.8 million WeChat users gave 833 million yuan. Tencent's commitment has been capped at 400 million yuan since then.

Shareholders have reason to be more forgiving about this campaign. The company says that its goal is not to raise its own donations, but to expand public participation.

How? To encourage public participation, WeChat has employed an in-house toolbox, including self-developed blockchain technology, rewarding users with “little safflowers” that can be used to purchase goods, view music concerts through live streaming, and receive rewards of non-fungible token lookalike assets, such as copies of children's artwork, among others.

When a WeChat user donates to a charity of their choosing during the nine days, Tencent matches it with the same amount to the same cause, but caps its total at 300 million yuan. Separately, it pledges a fixed 100 million yuan in direct funding to eligible charitable organizations, bringing its total annual charitable donation to 400 million yuan.

Remarkably, amid a slumping economy, record unemployment among the young, and sluggish public consumption, 60 million WeChat users this year responded to Tencent's call by donating 3.3 billion yuan, or 55 yuan per user, to 100,000 projects launched by 30,000 charitable organizations across China for the campaign. In response, Tencent honored its commitment to contribute 400 million yuan.