Tencent’s WeChat is “officially” entering the fitness tracking market, allowing users of its messaging service to keep up with their steps and share these figures with their friends.
In order to get started, WeChat users should add an account inside the app called WeChat Sports. Presuming they [users] have a compatible phone (’cause not all models are supported at the moment), WeChat will start pulling information from a number of wearables such as those made by Fitbit, Nike and Xiaomi, as well as the phone if it supports the step tracking capability (like newer iPhones do).
WeChat’s user base counts almost 500 million active users.WeChat Sports will take it from here, turning the steps tracked into a social competition, and even prepare a daily leaderboard that covers all of your friends who have also opted in to participate. The daily leader gets to choose the artwork that appears behind the leaderboard.
Although WeChat Sports is at the moment limited to step counting, it’s easy to envision Tencent growing from here, adding new features that will cement the app’s central position in the fitness tracking market.
WeChat’s user base counts almost 500 million active users, giving it the power to quickly emerge as one of the key players in the industry. We’ll see where this goes…
[Via: TechInAsia]