WeChat (or Weixin as it is known in China) is the leading star in the messaging app platform with over 600 million monthly active users just in 2014 (one third of the world amount). So it is not misleading to assume that those numbers have improved till today.
Yesterday The Wall Street Journal reported that Tencent, the company behind WeChat, has decided to add personal loan services to its app.
Sources say that this new service will be called Weilidai, a Chinese sentence that translated literally means “a tiny bit of loan”. This would allow qualified users to borrow as much as 200,000 yuan (about US$3,135).
The bank offering the loans might be the WeBank, an internet bank launched by Tencent itself, as well as other Chinese financial firms. The idea of getting personal loans through your messaging app is innovative for sure. One unusual fact is that users won’t need to provide a guarantee or collateral, which may leave bank vulnerable to scams.
WeChat has many features aside from messaging. Offering personal loans could bring customers to look at other potential financial products and services as well. Right now it seems like the service will be limited to China but it could be a trend followed by messaging App competitors.
