Jack Ma, 5 feet (1.52m) tall, lean and charismatic, could be China’s richest man, by some counts. He was famously rejected for 30 jobs before becoming an intent entrepreneur. But he’s also a self-confident face and voice of China. Pony Ma founded Tencent in 1998. More private, even secretive, than the others, he at various times worked in the lowliest roles – including a janitor – to keep the company afloat. That’s no longer necessary. The three kings: Robin Li of Baidu, Jack Ma of Alibaba and Pony Ma of Tencent, who preside over China’s largest search, ecommerce and messaging platforms respectively. But it’s WeChat that is most remarkable – and most revolutionary. A messaging, social and commerce app, it has fuelled China’s use of QR codes – a technology that had fallen out of use almost completely in the West. Thanks to the platform, the scanning of QR codes is now ubiquitous in China: used by friends to exchange