WeChat owner receives investment fund license

The Shenzhen representative office of the China Securities Regulatory Commission has issued Tencent a mutual investment fund license, opening the door for the WeChat messenger owner to sell shares directly to customers on its own platform or via the online financial management platform qian.qq.com. The license will also give the company more freedom when selling other financial products. Tencent now plans to transform its payment system into an extended platform that offers a range of financial services.

Prior to this, the company already offered WeChat customers the ability to complete mobile payments and access online insurance and microcredits but could only act as an intermediary between users and third-party investment funds.