Tencent’s giveaway campaign for AI chatbot Yuanbao blocked – by WeChat
Units clash as super app blocks links from AI chatbot’s US$144 million promotion for ‘impacting user experience and causing harassment’
WeChat, known as Weixin on the mainland, announced on Wednesday that it would restrict Yuanbao links from opening directly within WeChat, effective immediately, in response to “user feedback and complaints”, according to a statement.
Yuanbao, which aimed to give out 1 billion yuan (US$144 million) in cash in the campaign via digital red packets, encouraged users to share the packets via WeChat to boost their rewards.
However, WeChat said in a statement that the approach “induces users to share links to WeChat groups in high frequency, disrupting the platform’s ecosystem, impacting user experience and causing harassment to the community”. Users attempting to open the links saw a message about “induced sharing” starting from Wednesday morning.
Beijing resident Jiang Ruipeng said he was “a bit surprised” to find out about the dispute as “Yuanbao and WeChat both belong to Tencent”.
As an active participant in the campaign who has earned roughly 40 yuan (US$6), Jiang said the change had restricted his WeChat contacts from opening the red packets he shared, which could limit the amount he could earn.
The move, coming just four days after the launch of the red-packet campaign, could hinder Tencent’s ambitions to catch up in the crowded AI market. The campaign relied heavily on WeChat, which has more than 1.4 billion monthly active users globally, to share referral links and cash out.