Tencent Brings Commerce to WeChat

In a new method of bringing its tech to the masses, Huawei Technologies has incorporated the Chinese messaging app WeChat as a main sales channel.

Marketing products directly through WeChat is still an emerging business for WeChat’s parent corporation Tencent.  In late May, the JD.com (another recent investment of Tencent’s) and its virtual store were integrated into the WeChat store.  JD is China’s second largest eCommerce retailer-following national Goliath Alibaba -Tencent bought a 15 percent interest in the company earlier this year.

The new Honor 6 smartphone has seen 550K either pre-order or participate in the online sales campaign in advance of the product that will be available later today, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Promotional events hosted on the app jointly by JD and Huawei included the opportunity to win a free phone by correctly guessing its price or release date.  The phone will retail for around $322.

WeChat has about 400 million monthly active users, mostly in mainland China. Tencent added an electronic payment function to the app last summer, and has since been trying to blend commerce functions into the communication tool.

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