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Tencent’s e-commerce drive takes off in 2023 on the back of super app WeChat’s short video and live streaming function
- Online orders made through WeChat’s short video and live streaming function, Channels, grew more than 244 per cent in 2023 over the previous year
- WeChat Channels has also become a major driver of Tencent’s advertising business, which grew 20 per cent year on year in the third quarter
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Iris Dengin Shenzhen
Tencent Holdings, China’s video gaming and social media giant, saw its ubiquitous super app WeChat achieve significant growth in its live-streaming e-commerce business last year, thanks to the popularity of its TikTok-style short video function.
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WeChat’s short video and live streaming function enabled the platform to record nearly triple gross merchandise volume (GMV) in 2023, according to information released on Thursday during the app’s annual Open Class Pro developer conference held in Guangzhou, capital of southern Guangdong province.
While the platform’s exact GMV figures were not released, conference attendees were told that the number of orders made through WeChat’s video function – marketed as Channels – grew more than 244 per cent in 2023 over the previous year, according to a report by Chinese online media outlet Thepaper.cn.
A number of attendees at the conference, which was held as a closed-door event exclusive to industry partners, on Friday confirmed the reported growth rate. Tencent did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
WeChat’s high GMV performance last year showed how prescient Tencent founder, chairman and chief executive Pony Ma Huateng was in December 2022, when he told an internal town hall meeting that short video was key to the company’s future.
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