Tencent to Shut Down E-Commerce Platform “Xiao’e Pinpin”
One of Tencent‘s key e-commerce businesses, “Xiao’e Pinpin,” will be shut down soon, while its employees will be transferred to other departments, Xinyan Finance reported on Tuesday.
In addition, the independent app of “Xiao’e Pinpin” has been removed from several mainstream app stores. At present, its mini program on WeChat is reserved to provide commodity purchase services. It took less than two years for “Xiao’e Pinpin” to develop from its launch to its imminent shutdown.
“Xiao’e Pinpin” is a social e-commerce platform created by Tencent‘s Platform and Content Group. On April 29, 2020, its WeChat mini program and official account were launched.
The shopping mode of “Xiao’e Pinpin” is similar to Pinduoduo. Relying on the diversified social scenes and huge user groups on WeChat, it is available to consumers in various circles.
In order to strengthen its social attributes, “Xiao’e Pinpin” has added the function of “group shop” within two months after its launch. Users can share goods with relatives, friends, colleagues and classmates through WeChat groups.
An employee of “Xiao’e Pinpin” revealed to Xinyan Finance that at the beginning of 2021, the product was praised by Tencent‘s COO. In May last year, an independent app with the same name was launched, which retains the framework of the original WeChat mini program to keep the original user experience.
Multi-terminal functions and product innovations did not make “Xiao’e Pinpin” become more popular. After the 618 Shopping Festival in 2021, it began to explore designer toy, mystery toy boxes and Han Chinese costumes, but it did not achieve the expected results.
Looking back at Tencent‘s e-commerce exploration, in order to compete with Alibaba‘s Tmall and Taobao, Tencent launched Paipai.com and Yixun.com, but failed to achieve a breakthrough. Later, Tencent chose to invest in JD.com to lay out its e-commerce business indirectly.
On May 28, 2018, Tencent launched its own e-commerce platform “E’man U Pin” through its social app QQ to sell 2D comic derivatives. Even though an independent app and a mini program were launched, the sales volume was unsatisfactory. The product finally went offline on September 25, 2019.
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After several frustrating rounds in the development of its e-commerce business, Tencent changed its strategy and hoped to seek a breakthrough. On the one hand, it continues to cooperate with other e-commerce platforms, such as Pinduoduo. On the other hand, its e-commerce platforms keep existing in the form of mini programs or through being embedded in other apps.
