Chinese internet giant Tencent's (0700.HK) microblogging platform has launched its "Wei Mai Chang" e-commerce feature, with sites like Beijing-based apparel e-commerce firm Okaybuy launching dedicated pages.
E-commerce sites can promote items on Tencent Microblog by posting a limited-time deal on specific items. The price is reduced by RMB 0.1 each time a user "tweets" about the deal, which means users can obtain the item for free if enough users "retweet" the post, or can purchase it at anytime at the current price.
While users currently must go to the merchant's official website or online store to complete their purchase, a spokesperson for Tencent said that soon users will be able to complete purchases on the microblogging platform itself.
Okaybuy has garnered over 50,000 followers since launching on November 14. Tencent plans to release an API within a month, enabling merchants to operate their own store as well as opening the platform to new solutions from third-party developers.