Remember how China’s biggest web company, Tencent, has had a runaway success with its WeChat messaging app? Well, rumors suggest that the WeChat app – known as Weixin in China – is about to get even more useful and become equipped with local deals and discount coupons. This will happen via the acquisition of a company called TongCard by Tencent (HKG:0700), which Sina Tech suggests is a done deal to the point that TongPay operations are already being subsumed into Tencent’s Beijing offices.
TongCard, founded in 2006 by CEO Deng Yu, is a platform for retailers to reach out to consumers via promotions and coupons, and is one of China’s top O2O companies, with mobile apps as well as a massive network of 6,000+ retailers onboard. The TongCard homepage claims that its service has 5 million active daily users.
The rumor suggests that all the TongCard features will find their way into Tencent’s WeChat/Weixin app after the acquisition, bringing all those coupons to the messaging app’s 200+ million users. It’d also see Tencent make a huge leap in its O2O service strength, growing to beat major web companies and startups operating in this space. And so it’d help Tencent and WeChat surpass rivals such as local coupons startup DDMap, or Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) with its deals-equipped Maps app.
If the acquisition comes to pass, the TongCard capabilities might be tied with Tencent’s own e-payment system Tenpay, which we know will soon appear within WeChat.
[Source: Sina Tech - article in Chinese]
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