WeChat released a new Chinese version for iOS today. The major change is in My Wallet, under My Bank Account, that now you can (1) make payments with “pocket money” in the Wallet without typing a password and (2) transfer money to your WeChat contacts. Users can deposit money from their bank accounts into the My Wallet.
Now WeChat Payment is another step closer to Alipay which also allows users to deposit money into the online account for online shopping, transferring money between users or buy other online products or services. About one year ago Alipay launched Yuebao, a mutual fund that encourages users to buy with their money sitting in the Alipay accounts. The mutual fund quickly gained much traction that made THFund the second largest mutual fund company in the total assets under management in China in half a year.
It won’t be surprising if WeChat will allow users to buy the mutual fund it rolled out in early this year with the “pocket money”.
Other updates with the new version are
- Recalling messages sent, with a long press on the message, within two minutes
- Automatically downloading and opening images received when your phone is connected to WiFi
- You’ll be able to tag your contacts.