Messaging App In Talks for Free Data Usage; Operators of Yixin negotiating with the Big Three in a move aimed at cutting into WeChat’s dominance

November 1, 2013 Leave a comment

10.30.2013 18:55

Messaging App In Talks for Free Data Usage

Operators of Yixin negotiating with the Big Three in a move aimed at cutting into WeChat’s dominance

By staff reporter Qin Min

(Beijing) – The operator of China Telecom’s messaging app plans to arrange free data usage for people who use it in an effort to compete with rivals like the popular WeChat. Zhang Xing, the product manager of the app, called Yixin, said that people using China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom networks will get free data usage when they use Yixin.The offer starts in mid-November. Zhang did not say when it would end.

Yixin, which debuted on August 19, was developed by China Telecom and Internet company NetEase Inc. as a rival to Tencent Inc.’s hit voice and text messaging app WeChat.

China Telecom, which owns 73 percent of Yixin, is counting on the app to strengthen its status in the face of challenges from over-the-top content services – mobile Internet services offered through telecom networks – which are eroding the traditional telecom business.

A manager at Yixin Technology, the app’s operator, said the company has almost completed talks with the Big Three telecom operators regarding the free data.

“WeChat has only set up a partnership with Guangdong Unicom, but Yixin’s cooperation with China Unicom and China Mobile is nationwide,” the manager said.

China Unicom’s Guangdong branch started offering a special subscription plan to users of WeChat in August. The move was seen as a step by WeChat to work with major telecoms companies, who have been annoyed that the app has cut into their traditional message business.

Yixin has 30 million users who sent out more than 32 million messages per day on average, Zhang said. Nearly three-quarters of Yixin’s users are between the ages of 16 and 25.

Company documents from Tencent shows that as of July 25 WeChat has had more than 400 million users in China.

WeChat requires people at either end to have the app to communicate. But Yixin, which is based on China Telecom’s basic telecom service capabilities, can send text messages and voicemails to any cell phone number.

Filed under TMT Trends

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Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

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