(Yicai) Oct. 22 -- Tencent Holdings’ Vice President Zeng Yu has applied to retire early to spend more time with his family and to convalesce from an illness, the Chinese internet behemoth told Yicai.

Tencent is grateful to Zeng for his contribution in developing technologies at Tencent, the Shenzhen-based firm said. Tencent has made proper arrangements for the work handover and the tech work in related divisions will progress normally and will not be impacted by this personnel change, it added.

Zeng joined Tencent in 2002, just four years after the company was formed, and helped build it into the internet behemoth it is today. Trained as an architect, he laid the foundation of the tech system at the Interactive Entertainment Group and was the initial designer of the QQGame gaming platform's distributed services architecture.

In 2012, Zeng was promoted to vice president where he took charge of the technical side of business lines such as games, videos and information feeds, driving the construction of the so-called technical and content 'middle ground.' Last year, Zeng was appointed tech lead of the Interactive Entertainment Group on top of his role as tech lead for the Platform and Content Group.

Since November 2021, Tencent has allowed employees who have worked at the company for more than 15 years to opt for early retirement.

Editors: Zhang Yushuo, Kim Taylor