Yixin to take on WeChat in messaging apps
Print Edition
NetEase, China’s leading online gaming and news portal operator, and China Telecom yesterday launched a mobile instant messenger application as they bid to catch up with rival Tencent’s popular WeChat app.
China Telecom will hold 73 percent of Zhejiang Yixin Corp which will operate the new app, and its representatives will be the joint venture’s chairman and financial chief. NetEase will hold the remaining stake and be responsible for product design and operation.
The venture will have a registered capital of 200 million yuan (US$32.6 million).
NetEase Chief Executive Officer William Ding said the product is key for the company in the mobile Internet sector.
“There are still opportunities for mobile instant messaging apps, and the young generation needs more fashionable apps, giving Yixin a large growth potential in the future,” he said at a product launch briefing in Beijing.
Zhang Zheng, general manager of Yixin Corp, expects the app to have 100 million users within six months.
Tencent’s WeChat had more than 235 million monthly active users in June.
Mobile instant messaging users climbed 13 percent to 397 million at the end of June from December, said a report by state-backed China Internet Network Information Center.
Yixin offers free text or voice messages to mobile phone and fixed-line users, including those of China Mobile and China Unicom. It also offers 300 megabytes of free data package monthly for China Telecom mobile users.
Tencent previously partnered with China Unicom to unveil WeChat Wo, a custom-made SIM card that is bundled with data package for WeChat users.
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