Beijing Weiying Technology, the company behind the movie ticket booking platform that’s built into WeChat, has raised a whopping $105 million in series B funding from numerous sources, including Tencent, the company that owns WeChat. WePiao is the name of the app which allows users to purchase tickets from their smartphone and can be accessed from within WeChat, as well as QQ, which is Tencent’s instant messaging platform.
The startup that runs Chinese messaging app WeChat’s movie ticket sales service has announced the completion of a US$105 million series B round of funding, according to QQ Tech. Investors include WeChat maker Tencent, real estate giant Wanda Group, Chinese film investment fund Wenzi Huasha, Shandong Luxin Investment Holdings Group, Shanghai Gangtai Group, and ECapital. WePiao has already been integrated into both WeChat and QQ, the two most popular messaging apps in China. Its main purpose is to sell movie tickets for local theaters, though it has more recently branched into sports and other show tickets. Whenever a user clicks on “movie tickets” (“电影票”) in WeChat’s wallet section, he or she is using WePiao. In 2013, 8 percent of movie tickets in China were sold online. In 2014, that figure jumped to 30 percent, according to 36kr. Besides just purchasing tickets, WePiao users can also select their seats and order popcorn and drinks. The app currently covers 500 cities and 3,500 theaters. It conducted joint promotions for over 100 movies in 2014.