Tencent takes big step to free WeChat from smartphones as battle shifts to business customers and self-driving cars

Tencent Holdings took a big step in extending the use of its ubiquitous WeChat app beyond smartphones, with the introduction of a Siri-like voice assistant that could potentially be deployed by businesses and in smart cars as the battle for growth shifts to industrial uses of the internet.

With more than 1 billion active users, WeChat and its ecosystem of mini-apps has become a feature in daily life for many Chinese consumers, who use it to do everything from messaging to paying bills to ordering takeaway.

But with an increasingly saturated and competitive market, Tencent along with other internet companies have been casting their eye on the so-called industrial internet, shorthand for enterprise users and the emerging universe of smart, connected devices from the voice-operated home speaker to increasingly intelligent self-driving cars.

The Shenzhen-based giant on Wednesday unveiled a virtual assistance system called WeChat italking, or Xiaowei in Chinese, which can work on devices from smart speakers to cars, according to Tom Zhou, a WeChat executive, said at an annual event in Guangzhou for developers and partners.

The assistant will link WeChat users with Tencent’s stable of services including QQ Music. Meituan Dianping, Didi Chuxing and Mobike, three on-demand services providers that all count Tencent as a strategic investor, will also connect with Xiaowei.

Xiaowei represents a further step in co-founder and chairman Pony Ma Huateng’s plan to diversify Tencent into serving more businesses and industries. Tencent’s consumer-facing businesses, such as gaming and social media, are facing constraints ranging from government regulation to intense competition from challengers such as TikTok and Toutiao owner Bytedance.