Tencent opens WeChat to rivals’ links as China app walls crumble

QR codes for digital payment services Alipay by Ant Group Co and WeChat Pay by Tencent Holdings Ltd displayed at a snack shop in Beijing, China. China’s top technology regulator has warned Internet firms to stop blocking links to rival services, prising open so-called walled gardens in a broader campaign to curb their growing monopoly on data and protect consumers. — Bloomberg

Tencent Holdings Ltd allowed users of its main WeChat social media service to link to rivals’ content for the first time in years, taking initial steps to comply with Beijing’s call to dismantle walls around platforms run by the country’s online giants.

From Friday, users who upgrade to the latest version of the messaging service can access external services such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s Taobao online mall or ByteDance Ltd’s video app Douyin, both of which were previously walled off from WeChat’s billion-plus members. That applies however only to one-on-one messaging, not group chats nor Facebook-like Moments pages.