Latest News:  

English>>Business

Tencent puts payment app on WeChat (2)

By GAO YUAN  (China Daily)

08:47, July 04, 2013

The rapid growth of the mobile Internet sector plus Tencent's large user population may help the company explore new businesses, including financial services, according to Yu Xiaohui, chief engineer of the China Academy of Telecommunication Research under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

"Mobile Internet is set to become the most desired segment for Chinese Internet companies as the nation is growing to become the second-largest Internet market only after the United States," he added.

User numbers for WeChat saw a steady increase since its release in January 2011. The user population exceeded 300 million at the beginning of this year with users outside the Chinese mainland hitting 70 million, according to Lau.

In addition to Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, WeChat's major markets include India, Thailand, Malaysia and Mexico.

WeChat will have at least 400 million users by the end of this year, Bloomberg News reported, citing Alicia Yap, an analyst at Barclays Plc in Hong Kong. WeChat could produce annual revenue of as much as 2.16 billion yuan if the app provides gaming and other related services, said Yap.

Building an active developers' community will be one of the top priorities for Tencent's new businesses such as WeChat, said Lau, president of the company.

App developers of Tencent have received 3 billion yuan in revenues since the company launched an open-platform project in 2011 encouraging technology startups to develop new apps for the Internet giant.

Developers are likely to earn another 3 billion yuan before the end of this year, Lau estimated.


【1】 【2】



We Recommend:

Chinese investors' happiness and sadness

Top 10 luxury villas of China in 2013

Soft gold -- gambiered Guangdong silk

China's 1st intelligent
high-speed train tested

Glamorous models pose at Shenyang auto show

Top 10 cities where home prices are set to soar

High-end singles party attracts swarm of girls

Beijing's taxicabs in 30 years

12th Int'l Automobile Industry Expo kicks off

Email|Print|Comments(Editor:WangXin、Chen Lidan)

Related Reading

Leave your comment0 comments

  1. Name

  

Selections for you


  1. Special operation members in training

  2. PLAAF's female fighter pilots

  3. Thousands celebrate gay rights in San Francisco

  4. Working in aircraft maintenance division

  5. Dance camp helps kids get training

  6. Heilongjiang issues blue rainstorm alert

  7. Fascinating display of Shanxi crafts

  8. Li Na ousted by Radwanska

  9. Diagnose crisis of China's solar sector

  10. Chinese grads' offbeat jobs

Most Popular

Opinions

  1. Wealthy individuals 'see education as asset'
  2. Unite to prevent violence against women
  3. Dogs are the responsibility of their owners
  4. Pakistani PM's China trip to boost economic co-op
  5. Chinese company looks to take a bite out of Apple
  6. PwC: HK IPOs expected to boom this year
  7. Abe's 'values diplomacy' goes against the grain
  8. New features of the 5th Cross-Strait Forum
  9. Six questions about China’s space lecture
  10. Time to rethink taste for freshly killed poultry

What’s happening in China

Audition for dating with rich

  1. 32 endangered birds released into the wild
  2. Summer heat wave sweeps across China
  3. Dad still doubted son's death after 56 phone calls
  4. China builds emergency radio broadcast network
  5. Heavy rains kill 11, affect millions in SW China