WECHAT’S NEW PLATFORM LINGQIANTONG
Nov 22, 2018 By NetFin
In September 2017 WeChat Pay, one of the biggest leaders in China’s social media marketing, launched another piece to its mutual fund platform. Alipay has a similar product called Yu’e Bao and operates the world biggest money-fund market, becoming China’s third-party payments provider. WeChat needed to catch up with its competitor. Lingqiantong, which means balances made smart, will enable users to transfer payments, issue red packets (hongbao), pay back credit card debt, and earn interest on their balances in the digital wallet.
In 2014 WeChat pay introduced its own online wealth management called Licaitong in order to compete with Yu’e Bao. This platform was offering a range of financial products for investors including pension funds. However, Licaitong didn’t reward interest from balances which Yu’e Bao did. This gap is now filled by Lingqiantong.
In 2017 this platform was only offered to a small group of users. However, on Friday 16th November, Lingqiantong was released in beta version and it invited users to test the platform’s functions.
Tencent posted last week a third quarter profit of US$3.4 billion on social advertising and investment gains. WeChat marketing and WeChat ads have become one of the most successful and preferred app among social media users in China.
Thanks to the billion-plus active users on WeChat, Tencent has been able to expand its fintech business which offers payment services, wealth management, micro loans and insurance, as well as cross-border transactions.
With Lingqiantong’s addition to WeChat Pay, there is no doubt that WeChat’s success will continue to grow in an incredible way.