Users of Chinese short video app Kuaishou can share their videos directly to WeChat Moments again, 36Kr reports.
WeChat has a history of blocking and enabling other video apps from sharing to the Moments feed. In April 2018, WeChat restricted a slew of video apps — including Tencent-backed ones like Kauishou and Weishi — from posting to Moments. Last October, Kuaishou video sharing came back to WeChat Moments, only to disappear again, until now.
Reenabling Kuaishou videos to be shared to Moments could make WeChat a more engaging destination.
Kuaishou videos shared to WeChat Moments play inside the messaging app rather than taking users to Kuaishou — a move that could keep users on Moments and help WeChat to more ad revenue.
WeChat’s parent, Tencent, is keen to diversify revenue away from gaming and sees advertising as a key driver to do this. Last year, it said it planned to lift ad revenue to account for 30%-40% of total revenue, and WeChat recently ramped up monetization by launching a third ad slot in the Moments feed in May.
Promoting Kuaishou, which is a Tencent investment, is also part of the technology giant’s broader plans to slow Douyin down, Kuaishou’s most aggressive competitor. Douyin (known as TikTok outside China) is domestically the most popular short-video app with around 500 million monthly users, and 250 million daily users, and poses an increasing threat to Tencent’s hold on digital audiences and advertising in China.