Wechat's 'Licaitong' attracts 800m yuan, challenging Yu'E Bao

Tencent's Wechat users transferred more than 800 million yuan to the app's wealth management platform, "Licaitong" on Jan 22. Provided to China Daily

Tencent's Wechat users transferred more than 800 million yuan to the app's wealth management platform, "Licaitong" on Jan 22, the day it was launched, Morning Express reported Thursday.

The newcomer "Licaitong", which literally means a wealth management facility, serves as a spear for Internet giant Tencent, which wants to do full justice to its popular instant messaging smartphone app, Wechat, and gain a foothold in China's increasingly competitive Internet finance sector.

"Yu'E Bao", the first such wealth management tool, received 350 million yuan on June 13, 2013, the day it was rolled out by e-commerce giant Alibaba's payment platform Alipay. Search engine Baidu's wealth management product "Baifa" ushered in one billion yuan on its launch day in October last year, due to the claimed eight percent annualized return rate.

The 7-day annualized return rate of "Licaitong" was 7.5290 percent on Jan 23, while the return rate of "Yu'E Bao" was 6.4859 percent, according to Morning Express.