On March 18, Tencent Holdings held its 2025 annual earnings briefing, during which Chairman and CEO Ma Huateng publicly outlined his strategic thinking on the "Lobster" app for the first time. He pointed out that the core value of the "Lobster" app lies in advancing AI technology from a single chatbot form to diversified practical applications. By integrating Tencent's full range of business resources, this concept has provided key insights for the development of the WeChat Agent currently under construction.
In terms of ecological construction logic, Ma Huateng emphasized continuing the core concept of "decentralization" from WeChat Mini Programs and deeply integrating it into the future development of the "Lobster" app. In response to service providers' concerns about being "channelized" or "short-circuited," Tencent clearly stated that it will adopt a governance model combining centralization and decentralization in the future. Ma Huateng said that partners, while pursuing traffic entry points, also hope to maintain the independence of their services rather than being simply called upon. Tencent will fully take into account the long-term interests of partners in ecological design, and noted that the perfection of this system requires time accumulation and cannot be rushed.
This statement signals a new direction for Tencent in the AI 2.0 era: moving away from merely competing on parameters and models, and instead focusing on ecological efforts centered around Agents. By anchoring AI capabilities in mature social and business scenarios, Tencent aims to reshape the competitiveness of the WeChat ecosystem while exploring a differentiated path for large model applications that balances efficiency and developers' interests.
