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Tencent
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Tencent opens super app WeChat to Chinese e-commerce rivals amid inexorable regulatory pressure, analysts say

  • Tencent’s move to open up WeChat marks a major victory for Chinese regulators, who want Big Tech firms to improve interoperability between internet platforms
  • WeChat users will now be able to directly open other third-party shopping links in the platform’s group chats

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Opening up WeChat shows that Big Tech firms are bowing to regulatory pressure to improve interoperability between all online platforms in the country. Photo: Shutterstock
Tracy QuandIris Deng
Tencent Holdings’ recent move to open up its ubiquitous super app WeChat to shopping links from external platforms marks a major victory for Chinese regulators, as Big Tech companies bow to pressure to remove online walled gardens in the world’s biggest e-commerce market, according to analysts.

“These high walls that tech companies built are finally coming down,” said David Wei Shilin, a senior partner at multinational law firm Dentons, who indicated that the impact of this development will be different for each company in the industry. “[Being open] is a core part of the internet.”

On Monday, Tencent announced on its official WeChat account that users of the multipurpose app will be able to directly open third-party shopping links in the platform’s group chats “on the basis of ensuring security and user experience”.

This development means major enterprises are now fully aware of this inexorable trend towards openness, according to Dentons’ Wei, who also serves as secretary general of the Competition and Anti-Monopoly Law Commission of the Beijing Lawyers Association.

“It is impossible for a mantis to stop a chariot,” said Wei, citing an old Chinese idiom about futility. He indicated, however, that in the past “the overall environment was not suitable for regulators to enforce the law in a very strong manner” against Big Tech companies.

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Tightened regulations among key trends shaping China’s internet in 2021

Tightened regulations among key trends shaping China’s internet in 2021
That all changed in the past 12 months, when Beijing started tightening the regulation of China’s technology sector – especially the once-freewheeling internet companies – through a series of crackdowns designed to further develop the nation’s digital economy by stamping out monopolistic practices, securing private data and encouraging greater competition.
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