Shoppers can search for products by keywords. According to the official guidelines, all gifts available are priced 10,000 yuan (US$1,375) or under, and they exclude jewellery and tutoring classes. After the sender completes payment, the recipient must accept the gift and submit a postal address within 24 hours or the order will be cancelled, and the money returned to the sender.
Users can only send a single gift to one WeChat friend per order.
The new feature, which was quietly rolled out this week to a select group of users, has sparked discussion about its potential as Tencent’s latest weapon in China’s hotly contested e-commerce market. With 1.2 billion users, WeChat – known as Weixin locally – has a ubiquitous presence among the country’s internet users.
