Above: Tencent's Messaging and Social Platforms include QQ, QZone, WeChat, Weixin
Can Alibaba Keep Growing Without Sacrificing High Profit Margins? - WSJ:".... Marco Ma, an e-commerce manager for Factory Five, a bicycle shop in Shanghai that runs an online store on Taobao [an Alibaba property], received a phone call last month from an official at Tencent's WeChat messaging app unit who offered to let Factory Five conduct e-commerce through WeChat free of charge. Factory Five co-founder Drew Bates said "their sales pitch was that WeChat is already an intrinsic part of people's lives, so bolting on an e-commerce platform is just a logical step." He said his company started selling some of its products through WeChat last month, in addition to Taobao. Tencent approached Factory Five with the offer around the same time the bike shop was redesigning its store on Taobao's mobile app using software tools provided by Alibaba, Mr. Bates said. But so far, Factory Five's Taobao store generates far more sales than its WeChat store, he said. Data so far show few signs of threat to Alibaba's e-commerce dominance. Taobao's mobile app [owned by Alibaba] accounted for 86% of China's online shopping done through smartphones and tablets in the second quarter, according to iResearch. But Tencent could be a threat in the future if more consumers warm up to the idea of linking social networks with commerce, Jefferies analyst Cynthia Meng said. "If people are spending so much time on WeChat and Mobile QQ, there will be little time left for other apps," she said."
Tencent Holdings Limited is a Chinese investment holding company whose subsidiaries provide mass media, entertainment, Internet and mobile phone value-added services, and operate online advertising services in China [Wikipedia --full profile]. Tencent services include:
- IM (Instant Messaging) Service
- Online Media
- Wireless Internet Value-Added Services
- Interactive Entertainment Service
- Internet Value-added Service
- E-commerce
- Online Advertising Service
Tencent is one of China's largest internet companies [second quarter earnings report (PDF)--posted 37% revenue growth and 58% profit growth YoY]
Stock Price and links
Domain Names include:
Tencent.com (Chinese) [English: http://www.tencent.com/en-us/index.shtml ]
tenpay.com