Smartisan’s new messaging app looks to include payment features as it competes with WeChat

Chinese smartphone maker Smartisan may be a start-up, but founder Luo Yonghao has no qualms about taking on internet behemoth Tencent’s WeChat, the ubiquitous all-in-one app that has become a permanent fixture in the devices of over a billion users.

A week after Smartisan launched a messaging app called Zidan Duanxin, which means Bullet Messaging, the outspoken Chinese entrepreneur posted on Weibo that it may soon include payment features from Alipay.

Including Alipay features into Zidan Duanxin would give the app a leg up in competition with WeChat, which not only allows users to communicate with their friends but also make mobile payments and peer-to-peer transfers through WeChat Pay. WeChat Pay and Alibaba-affiliated Alipay are China’s two dominant third-party payment players.

Since its launch, Zidan Duanxin has shot up app store charts and currently ranks as the most downloaded free app on the Apple iOS app store in China, according to app analytics platform App Annie.

Zidan Duanxin differs from WeChat in that it has an automatic voice-to-text function that uses Chinese voice recognition company iFlyTek’s voice input technology, whereas WeChat users have to listen to each voice message individually to figure out its content or manually select a transcription feature to see the text. However, Ziduan Duanxin does not yet have a social newsfeed, like WeChat’s Moments, where users post links, photos and status updates, as well as being able to see what their friends have shared.

“It’s not realistic to uninstall WeChat, but Alipay may soon be integrated into Zidan Duanxin,” Luo, who also serves as chief executive of Smartisan, wrote in response to a user who asked if Alipay’s payment features could be included in the app.