WeChat is testing a feature for users to post 30-second videos to their Moments feed via the Tencent video app Weishi, 36Kr reports.
Normally, WeChat Moments only supports videos of up to 15 seconds when uploaded from a user’s phone gallery.
At the same time, Weishi has introduced a feature for users to easily create videos from a selection of three to ten photos, making it easier for people to produce and post slideshow videos to their Moments feed.
This integration is noteworthy given the high bar of entry into WeChat. The messaging platform is highly selective about third-party integrations. Few products, including Tencent’s own, make it onto the social media platform, let alone in a manner as prominent as Weishi’s.
It also comes after Tencent blocked integration and link-sharing for Douyin videos in March 2018, and prevented users from using WeChat and QQ credentials to log in to Douyin in January this year.
The growing popularity of Douyin poses a threat to Tencent. The latter’s WeChat official accounts were formerly top-of-mind for advertisers, but are being undermined by eyeballs shifting to Douyin.
Figures cited by 36Kr show 280 million WeChat users, and 52.5 million QQ users, had used their accounts to login to Douyin from September 2016 to January 2019. This could account for a significant chunk of Douyin’s 500 million monthly and 250 million daily users, who Tencent would rather divert toward Weishi.
36Kr is KrASIA’s parent company.