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WeChat is Tencent's flagship social and messaging product and the anchor of its entire business — as of early 2026 it counted 1.414 billion users , a base so stable that, as one analysis put it, Tencent "doesn't need to hustle" on AI the way ByteDance and Alibaba do . Functionally it has grown far beyond chat: it absorbed payments (WeChat Pay, which rode the 2015 Spring Festival red-envelope campaign from 11% to over 37% market share within two years ), hosts third-party services like WeRide's robotaxi booking and payment inside the app , and, per Piaoquan Video founder Cong Guangle, already satisfies "70% of community needs" in China, from school clubs to industry groups . In 2025–2026 Tencent has been layering AI onto this social graph — the Yuanbao "pai" group feature and the "Xiaowei" assistant in gray testing — betting that WeChat's relationship chain can do for AI agents what red envelopes once did for payments .
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Coverage
An Objective Look at the Agent Battle Between ByteDance, Alibaba, and Tencent
Sis Dou killed your little Dou-shark.
Gen Alpha Is Embracing 'Brainrot,' and Douyin Is Already the Previous Generation's Product | 100 'Social Product' Hot Takes from Wapoo Founder Yang Mingyu
"My ambition is to build a product with 330 million daily active users. Why not?"
The 500th Day of the Agent Era: What's Disappearing, What's Being Born, and Why We Should Stop Investing in GUI-Thinking Software
On January 1, 2025, we released a kickoff podcast episode. ZhenFund managing partner Yusen Dai and Koji proposed in their conversation: 2025
The 500 Days of the Agent Era: What's Disappearing, What's Being Born, and Why We Should Stop Investing in GUI-Thinking Software
6 Keywords to Debrief the Agent Moment
We got early access to the WeCom AI Agent beta and tested it for a week so you don't have to.
WeChat and WeCom are both playing their agent cards at the same time.
LightSail Headphones Reject Men with Long Hair
Suitable for bald heads.
A MiniMax Early Employee Built a "Swipe Left/Right" Proactive Agent丨début
A concrete way to realize a Personal Model.
After WeCom Raised Lobsters, We Rethought How We Work Every Day
WeCom's "Minimalist" Shrimp-Farming Flow.
Qiming Weekly | Top 10 News from Qiming Venture Partners Portfolio Companies Vol.10, 2026.3.24
Celebrating milestone moments with Qiming Venture Partners' portfolio companies
Qiming Weekly | Top 10 News from Qiming Venture Partners Portfolio Vol.09, 2026.3.17
Celebrating milestone moments with Qiming Venture Partners' portfolio companies
iPad: "Productivity before purchase, iQIYI after"? AI Won't Have It
WPS for Pad is here.
20 Questions to Understand OpenClaw: The Viral Mechanics, What Fundamentally Changed, and Startup Opportunities
Bubble or Starting Point?
Eight Emotions Between Humans and OpenClaw
This is my second growth journal — stay tuned for more!
Tencent Bets on an AI-Era Social Gateway With Another Billion-Yuan Red Envelope Blitz — We Tested Yuanbao's "Send" Feature
The Yuanbao Faction: Tencent's Place in the AI Era.
Yungang Huang, Source Code Rhythm: My Aksu
"West Lake is so beautiful, I want to jump right in."
2026: The "Big Year" for AI Video Is Coming | A Conversation with OiiOii Founder Naonao: After Stints at WeChat and ByteDance, How to Catch the Next Wave?
"LLMs are supermarkets; Agents are restaurants"
Where Did the Money Go? Who's Still Writing Checks? A 2025 VC Debrief With Jing Liu
VC takes a certain amount of instinct.
Challenging WeChat Is a Death Wish? The Ambitions of a 25-Year-Old AI Founder | In Conversation with Chunyu Chen: Founder/CEO of Intent
After dropping out of Tsinghua University, he experienced seven failures.
When AI Starts Using Phones Like Humans
From Doubao to StepFun's Step-GUI: Smartphones Are Becoming AI's New Entry Point
NuMiao's Li Nan: The World Is Getting More Real, Everyone Wants to See the Real Thing | BuMing Brain Trust
What makes a product stand out?
Why Is AI Creativity Trapped in Text?
The future of AI isn't in chat boxes — it's in UI generators.
Challenging WeChat Is a Death Wish? The Ambitions of a 25-Year-Old AI Founder | In Conversation with Chunyu Chen: Founder/CEO of Intent
5Y Yuan Ye: Five Perspectives on Understanding AI Entrepreneurship | 5Y View
True innovation isn't about walking the old path faster — it's about having the courage to blaze a trail no one has taken before.
Yan Han, Heart Capital | Future Core Assets: Global Market Opportunities from China's Tech Innovation | Heart Voice
The world is rethinking Chinese tech, and the narrative around it is being rewritten.
Unity Ventures' Xiao Wang: AI Won't Repeat the Dot-Com Bubble, the Key Is Telling Real Innovation from Empty Hype
Where Do Entrepreneurs' Opportunities Lie in the AI Era?
Agents Are Taobao and WeChat's Opportunity, Not Startups'
An agent is just a tool — it lacks connection.
E01. Opening: When the Noise Fades, Life Begins to Grow
Qiming Weekly | Qiming Venture Partners Portfolio Companies: Funding and Updates Vol. 18, 2025
Staying with you through milestone moments for Qiming Venture Partners' portfolio companies
Qiming Venture Partners Portfolio Company WeRide Deepens Strategic Partnership with Tencent Cloud to Expand Robotaxi Commercial Operations and Overseas Markets
WeRide and Tencent Cloud will deepen their integration of strengths to jointly build a new generation of data-driven autonomous driving cloud platforms, connecting the full R&D, testing, and operations workflow to create an innovation flywheel for autonomous driving and accelerate the scaled commercialization of Robotaxi and other autonomous driving products.
ZhenFund's Yusen Dai: A Long Conversation on AI Agents — Every Industry Will Face Its "Sedol Moment" (Part 1)
In the Agent era, "attention is not all you need."
ZhenFund's Yusen Dai: A Guide to Entrepreneurship, Investing, and AI for Young People
Abundant energy, an intense desire for success, and a fearless spirit of innovation.
DeepSeek Is Far More Than an Open-Source Victory | BlueRun Ventures
Open source doesn't just make technology more transparent — it drives progress across the entire industry.
Ban one TikTok, and a thousand TikToks will rise in its place | Undercurrent Worldview
The Perils of Globalization for Chinese Companies
Why I've Always Been Bullish on the AI Application Layer | Unity Ventures' Xiao Wang in Conversation with NetEase Tech
The generative AI wave is not merely an evolution in technology, but a profound reshaping of business models.
Even Siri Took 14 Years — What's So Hard About Voice AI, and Why Is AI Hardware Suddenly Hot? | A Conversation with Xiaoliang Chen of SoundAI
From Submarine Anti-Sonar, to Siri, to AI Earbuds
Source Code Capital at Ten | Venture Capital Is the Art of Balancing Reality and Optimism
Right now, we need confidence — but even more, we need resilience.
Apple: The Ultimate Harvester of AI Dividends
Apple's Strategic Layout in the AI Era
Zhilin Yang: Innovation, Long-Term Thinking, First Principles
I'll see you on the other side of the moon.
The Next Jay Chou: Human or AI? | A Conversation with the CEO of *Youci Mountain* and the GM of *Wajijiwa Music* on Suno
Music remains scarce — Suno is just a pretty little toy.
Shanghai AI Lab researcher Zhiyong Wu: Tomorrow's FRIDAY | Agent Insights
Counselor on Vitality
Li Xiang x Li Feng: Key Timelines and Events Worth Watching in 2024 | Li Feng Column
Why is the period after the Two Sessions such an important inflection point?
Li Xiang × Li Feng: In Waves of Technological Change, Why Is Gaming Usually the First to Make Money? | Li Feng Column
From a Brief History of Gaming to New Online Game Regulations: Finding Innovation Opportunities in the Industry
Rhythm and Structure in Investing
"For the Way, reduce daily; discard the false, keep the true."
Code Brain | User Acquisition Isn't Just Ad Spending—Startups Must Understand the Nature of Traffic to Drive Growth
The essence of traffic is users' attention accounts.
Code Brain | To Build a Strong Overseas "Vanguard," You Must First Understand Human Nature
Code Time | "Daily Black" Announces Two Rounds of Funding Exceeding 100 Million Yuan, Source Code Capital Leads A+ Round
Focused on R&D of innovative healthy dark chocolate
Linear Capital Perspectives | AI Enters Industry: Is the Current Moment a Window of Opportunity or a Bubble, and Which Investment Areas Does Linear Capital Favor?
In late June, Harry Wang, founder and CEO of Linear Capital, was invited to speak at the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Innovation Conference, where he joined Dr. Zhang Xia, chief enterprise strategy advisor at AWS, for a conversation on recent AI investment insights. Wang shared Linear Capital's analysis of AI's integration into industries, the firm's investment focus areas, the technical bottlenecks that need to be overcome in the next phase, and related recommendations. Below is a summary of the conversation, with both video and transcript.
Linear Capital Leads Angel Round in Metaverse Infrastructure Startup Qiyihuo Technology Elsewhere.News | Qiyihuo Technology, a metaverse infrastructure provider, has announced a multimillion-yuan angel funding round led by Linear Capital.
36Kr has learned that Qiyihuo Technology announced it has raised tens of millions of yuan in an angel round led by Linear Capital, with listed company L&A Design participating as a co-investor. Following this round, the company will focus on developing its underlying technology, expanding market operations, and building out its ecosystem — marking its second successful fundraising after an earlier seed round of several million yuan.
Good Questions Matter More Than Perfect Answers | 5Y View
What Will the World Look Like in the Next 5,000 Days?
Is the Internet Destined to Have a Next New Platform? | FreeS Research
Will the new decade that began in 2021 be a better one for entrepreneurship?
5Y View｜The Future of Community Is Collaboration — Reflections on Community, Social Networks, and the All-Real Internet
A submission from the CEO of a 5Y Capital portfolio company.
Building a Brand Is Starting to Look Like Building an App — What Can Consumer Brands Learn From Super Apps About Growth? | FreeS Research
Five Brand Strategies for the New Media Era
Chen Yaochang: World Factory + Social Media + Talent — More and More Global Brands Will Emerge from China | Ronghui
Over the next five years, we're bound to see more and more international consumer brands emerging from China.
FreeS Fund's Li Feng: Consumer Brands Go From 0 to 1 Easily, But 1 to 10 Is Hard | 10/31 Closed-Door Session Registration
When everyone's doing Douyin, Bilibili, livestreaming... what are the truly sustainable dividends?
How did Saturnbird surpass Nestlé and Starbucks to become No. 1 in the instant beverage category during 618? | Frees Fund — Learning from Investment
From 7-Eleven, Zhou Hei Ya, Three Squirrels, and Saturnbird: Understanding the Fundamentals of Consumer Goods Entrepreneurship
When Traffic Costs More Than Gold, How Do You Actually Drive Growth? | Ronghui
Hunting for traffic in the "stock era."
Great Crises Breed Great Opportunities? Lessons from SARS and the Financial Crisis | Gaorong Ventures Share
Spring always comes, and the view next spring will surely be different from years past.
Yi Cao, Source Code Capital: "Four-Have Youth" — What Good Companies Look Like in the Second Half
A good company needs principles, systems, tactics, and tools.
Topping Tmall's Double 11 Beauty Rankings, Perfect Diary Wants to Be the New L'Oréal for the Internet Era | A Gaorong Ventures Feature
Tmall Double 11's No. 1 Beauty Brand: The Journey and the Original Vision
FreeS Fund 2019 North America Trip ② | We Hope to Walk Through the Fog and Discern the Patterns with You
Six VC Meetups — Come Say Hi
Breaking Through for Early-Stage Brands: From Traffic Thinking to Content Thinking | Frees Fund
If all you do is generate exposure, consumers will forget about you just as easily.
Li Xiang × Li Feng: 200 Million New Urban Residents' Consumer Awakening — Who Will "Reap" the Rewards?
Taobao, JD.com, VIP.com, Pinduoduo, and China's Real Estate Sector
Source Code Capital "Code Brain" Rebrands to Serve Ma Hui Entrepreneurs' Cognitive Evolution
Data · Algorithms · Computing Power
How to Design Mini Program Virality: Acquiring Users at Low Cost | Code Brain Issue 7
Code Brain connects Source Code Capital's entrepreneurs with external experts for private, offline brainstorming sessions.
Zhidong Zhang: How Tencent Grew Into a Major Company From 1998 to 2017 | FreeS Fund Business School
Two hopes in the early days of starting up: don't let the company die, and don't let users get disconnected.
Yi Cao: The Nine Faces of Technological Innovation
At the "2017 Impact Investing Summit" hosted by China Renaissance Alpha, Yi Cao, founding partner of Source Code Capital, shared his exclusive insights.
How to Build a $40 Million Annual Profit Product — My Experience at Microsoft, Amazon, and Baihuihui | FreeS Business School
A startup's product development model can make or break the company.
Hongjiang Zhang: AI Is the Next Big Opportunity for Chinese Startups
The world is experiencing a third wave of artificial intelligence, and this AI wave differs significantly from the internet boom. The internet was primarily driven by business models, whereas AI is propelled by technology itself.
