First Chinese to be honoured with title joins past awardees Richard Plepler, Salar Kamangar, Jack Dorsey, Eric Schmidt and Mark Zuckerberg.
SY Lau, senior executive vice president of Tencent, and president of its online media group, will be honoured with the Media Person of the Year title at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2015.
“What SY has achieved is truly inspiring – contributing to the journey that builds Tencent into the largest integrated Internet service company in Asia is no mean feat,” said Terry Savage, chairman, Lions Festivals. “The Media Person of the Year Award exists to recognise those who have shaped the future of the creative communications industry and who stand as an influential figure in today’s media landscape. SY is the epitome of this and it’s humbling to be able to award him with this accolade.”
Following a press conference hosted on 29 January in China to announce the award, Lions Festivals stated that OMG’s prominence and influence in the industry, obtained under SY’s guidance, derives from ‘a mix of powerful platforms, unwavering focus on quality content and innovative products’.
As a result of which, it credited the company with creating ‘a totally new industry model that has profoundly influenced the way hundreds of millions of internet users communicate with one another as well as their lifestyles’.
“It is truly an honour to accept this prestigious award on behalf of Tencent Online Media Group,” said SY Lau.
“Tencent prides itself in its commitment to deliver innovation and content that continually drives the user experience to new levels of excellence. This accolade is recognition for the immense effort of our teams who set themselves the goal of meeting the dynamic lifestyle demands of people all over the world,” he added.
Tencent OMG manages and owns China’s leading online platforms including a video streaming service (v.qq.com), internet access and news portal (qq.com), besides Tencent micro blogging platform.
The Tencent senior EVP will be presented with the award on 24 June at the Festival.
Past winners of the Media Person of the Year title include HBO’s Richard Plepler (2014), YouTube’s Salar Kamangar (2013), Twitter’s Jack Dorsey (2012), Google’s Eric Schmidt (2011) and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg (2010).