WeChat, We Invest

Building on last week’s post about the overinflux of venture capital money into the Chinese tech market, China Money Network is reporting that China’s Baidu, Inc. has teamed up with China Life Insurance Co., Ltd. to jointly launch a RMB 14 billion (U.S. $2.12 billiion) investment fund to back companies in the mobile Internet, AI, fintech, and other tech sectors.

Chinese insurers were permitted by regulators in 2014 to invest in venture capital.

The Baidu-China Life fund is to be managed by Baidu Capital, Baidu’s private investment arm. It will focus on making middle and late-stage investments in areas surrounding Internet and its applications in traditional sectors, in addition to AI, fintech and consumer upgrade.
– via China Money Network

In unrelated Chinese Internet play news, Tencent Holdings Ltd said on Monday it would lead an $863 million investment in apparel platform Vipshop Holdings.

The deal extends a recent push by Tencent into Alibaba’s home turf of retail, where the firm hopes to leverage its messaging service WeChat and its online payment systems to drive shopping demand.
– via U.S.

Tencent’s WeChat has nearly a billion users, and the app has become a lifeline for both mainland Chinese and the Chinese diaspora around the globe.

The app provides everything from text messaging to video games and conferencing to sharing photographs to apps that allow users to pay for municipal utility services.