While the volumes are relatively small, the take-up of similar virtual products on the WeChat platform suggests room for growth. Neither ICBC nor Tencent were immediately available for comment. It expects over 300,000 new gold accounts to be opened as a result of the Tencent tie-up. Over the recent Lunar New Year period, WeChat users sent 70,000 microgold packets worth just under 100 million yuan (11.85 million pounds) across the chat platform, the ICBC document said.
ICBC, in an internal memo seen by Reuters and sent to staff on Friday, said the WeChat microgold platform had helped drive "explosive growth" in new gold accounts. It's a financial innovation on the concept of virtual gifts, such as digital roses and chocolates, more commonly used in online communities and which have more sentimental value than any tangible economic worth.įor financial institutions, China's booming virtual goods and smartphone-driven exchanges offer new markets to boost trading volumes in everything from banking services to gems. They allow users to send funds that track the real-time value of gold to friends over the firm's popular messaging platform WeChat. Tencent's digital gold packets, known as "microgold", are backed by the country's biggest bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) ( > Industrial and Commrcl Bank of China Ltd).
0 kommentar(er)
