Tencent News Shuts Down Digital Collection Business

Jul 14, 2022, 21:47pm2022/07/15 08:28:45 Pandaily

Tencent<img decoding="async" class="trade-card__loading" layout="fixed" height="50" width="50" src="https://assets.pandaily.com/uploads/2021/12/loading.png" placeholder /> News recently replaced its “Digital Collection” tag within its app with a new title, “Digital Order”. Its Digital Collection Business Adjustment Announcement says, Tencent<img decoding="async" class="trade-card__loading" layout="fixed" height="50" width="50" src="https://assets.pandaily.com/uploads/2021/12/loading.png" placeholder /> News will suspend the sales service of digital collections from July 1, 2022, due to the adjustment and transformation of the company’s business model. Users can now view their purchased collections in the Tencent<img decoding="async" class="trade-card__loading" layout="fixed" height="50" width="50" src="https://assets.pandaily.com/uploads/2021/12/loading.png" placeholder /> News APP.

Tencent<img decoding="async" class="trade-card__loading" layout="fixed" height="50" width="50" src="https://assets.pandaily.com/uploads/2021/12/loading.png" placeholder /> News did not allow secondary trad of its digital collections, and its webpage only shows digital collections that include introductions to paintings by famous artists such as Qi Baishi, Pan Tianshou and Fu Baoshi. Meanwhile, the release page’s comment section was filled with users asking for “refunds” and other related remarks.

According to domestic media outlet Lanjinger, on July 13, some consumers said that, compared with other platforms, the digital collections released by Tencent<img decoding="async" class="trade-card__loading" layout="fixed" height="50" width="50" src="https://assets.pandaily.com/uploads/2021/12/loading.png" placeholder /> News did not sell well, and some works were unsalable.

On the other hand, the collections found on Tencent<img decoding="async" class="trade-card__loading" layout="fixed" height="50" width="50" src="https://assets.pandaily.com/uploads/2021/12/loading.png" placeholder /> News wasn’t connected with the Huanhe APP (an NFT trading platform launched by Tencent<img decoding="async" class="trade-card__loading" layout="fixed" height="50" width="50" src="https://assets.pandaily.com/uploads/2021/12/loading.png" placeholder />). Tencent<img decoding="async" class="trade-card__loading" layout="fixed" height="50" width="50" src="https://assets.pandaily.com/uploads/2021/12/loading.png" placeholder /> News placed a link for Huanhe within their announcement, inviting users to download the Huanhe APP.

However, Huanhe was also caught in lackluster sales recently. In June this year, Huanhe released two digital collections, but neither sold out. Huanhe subsequently locked its position and closed transactions. Differing from the “sold out/collected” mark found in the footnotes of other digital collections, the unsalable collections were marked as “Closed”. There are 8 digital collections currently marked as “closed”, all of which had been released recently.

Tencent<img decoding="async" class="trade-card__loading" layout="fixed" height="50" width="50" src="https://assets.pandaily.com/uploads/2021/12/loading.png" placeholder /> News changed its head in May. According to Yicai, on May 23, Wang Shimu, the former head of Tencent<img decoding="async" class="trade-card__loading" layout="fixed" height="50" width="50" src="https://assets.pandaily.com/uploads/2021/12/loading.png" placeholder /> News, was transferred to the PCG social platform and application line and now heads innovative businesses such as Huanhe.