E-commerce giant Alibaba is planning to launch a mini program on Tencent’s WeChat platform as the company has been outpaced by Pinduoduo for the first time. The latter said on Wednesday that it recorded 788.4 million active buyers last year, surpassing Alibaba’s 779 million.
Pinduoduo and JD.com, both backed by Tencent, already have WeChat mini programs providing access to consumers who don’t want to download their apps to buy. Competitor Alibaba hasn’t had any yet.
Media outlet Jiemian reported on Wednesday that the company founded by Jack Ma is testing a mini program called Taobao Tejiaban, a discount app, and will launch it after trials, citing a customer service employee of the app.
Earlier, the site Yibangdongli said that Taobao Tejiaban told merchants to sign up with Tencent’s MyBank, which is needed to clear transactions from the mini program via WeChat Pay. The blog Zoumacaijing shared a screenshot of the mini program, with the Taobao Tejieban logo and Chinese name Jianzhile.
Alibaba didn’t immediately respond to KrASIA‘s request for comment.
