Chinese online 3C retailer JD.com required all of its employees to use Yixin, a mobile instant messaging (IM) tool similar to WeChat, when they conduct business communications.
It said in an internal email on August 26 that in order to ensure information security, all of its employees are allowed to use only Yixin, a mobile instant messaging tool jointly launched by Chinese Internet firm NetEase, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTES) and China Telecom Corp. Ltd. (NYSE: CHA and SEHK: 0728), the biggest fixed-line operator in the Chinese mainland, when they conduct business communications.
In line with industry observers, this is actually a move it took to fight against Chinese Internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. (SEHK: 0700). Yixun.com, an online shopping platform of the Hong Kong-listed firm, said last week that it would support WeChat payment business in terms of PC webpage side, Android and iOS mobile phone client side. Actually, Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba Group required all of its employees to use only self-owned instant messaging tools when conduct business communications and information transmission as early as June this year and the aim is to ensure information security.
NetEase and China Telecom co-announced establishment of a joint venture on August 19 this year. And in the CNY 200 million-registered newborn, they each controlled a 27 percent and 73 percent stake. In addition, they co-announced the launch of Yixin. Zhang Zheng, CEO of the venture, disclosed that it aimed to see registered user size exceed 100 million within six months and among the total, over 50 percent would be active ones.
WeChat, the mobile messaging application of Tencent, has been challenged by Yixin. In line with Yixin, its user size exceeded one million within 24 hours after the launch and the figure has hit five million till now. Ding Lei, CEO of NetEase, believed that Yixin would catch up with WeChat sooner or later. He stressed that China Telecom saw its active user size hit over 200 million currently and that of NetEase email business reached about 130 million. While, WeChat had about 400 million registered users and among the total, about a half were active ones.
Li Yi, executive vice chairman and secretary-general with the China Mobile Internet Industry Alliance (CMIIA), said in an interview recently that it might be only a start for JD.com to turn to Yixin. He even suggested NetEase, a newcomer in the instant messaging tool market, launching tailored corporate-edition Yixin product and believed that this might be a breakthrough for Yixin to overtake WeChat.
