Tencent keeps trying to make hardware but nobody’s buying them

WeChat maker unveils its answer to the Amazon Echo Show, Google Home Hub and Facebook Portal

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Many people say they’d prefer a tablet for over US$200. (Picture: Tencent)

Published: 8:27pm, 19 Dec 2018Updated: 8:48am, 20 Sep 2019

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

People know Tencent for its enormous gaming and social empire, but what you may not know is that Tencent also has a line of hardware.

You probably don’t know about it because nobody’s buying Tencent’s hardware.

Tencent, China’s social and entertainment giant

Take their digital photo frame, Tencent's first homemade hardware, long-awaited when it launched in 2015. Made for displaying pictures shared from WeChat and making video calls, it could receive photos sent from multiple WeChat accounts -- and allowed users to send back comments and react to pictures displayed on the screen.

Of the few who used it, some said it’s great for keeping in touch with elderly people in their homes. But others point it out that it has a very limited user experience. It doesn’t do much more than that, but costs 699 yuan (US$101) to 1699 yuan (US$246). Unlike a tablet, it needs to be plugged to a power outlet all the time, and it doesn’t have much storage (nor does it let users export photos).

The funny thing is that Tencent’s latest stab at hardware bears a pretty decent resemblance to that frame. Smart displays are the new hotness, with Google, Amazon and Facebook all launching the evolution to the smart speaker this year.

Tencent’s answer is the DingDang smart display, which has an 8-inch screen and access to the company’s content, including Tencent Video and QQ music. It costs 699 yuan (US$101), same as Baidu’s smart display Xiaodu Zaijia.