Tencent integrates live streaming into WeChat’s mini program platform, opening up e-commerce options
- WeChat, with 1.1 billion monthly active users, has opened its mini program platform to various small vendors
China’s internet giant Tencent has been speeding up the integration of live-streaming features into its WeChat mini program platform, aiming to boost e-commerce, according to a WeChat public account called Tencent Live Streaming Assistant.
Tencent started to recruit content managing companies to test the live streaming function last March, and recently, the company has also started to select e-commerce players to test the live streaming function, according to the sources.
A new post last week shows that Tencent has made another step to allow a smooth transition between watching a live-streamed show and the online shopping experience.
The solution is an H5 page embedded in a vendor’s mini program on WeChat. The H5 page, which can be added on request, allows viewers to click the products listed on the live-streamed video and direct them to the vendor’s mini program for a transaction.
Tencent declined to comment on the new feature when contacted by KrASIA on Monday.
WeChat, with 1.1 billion monthly active users, has opened its mini program platform to various small vendors, allowing them to generate revenues in a new channel besides other e-commerce sites such as Alibaba’s Taobao, or JD.com.