WeChat looks to edge out rivals with new features

Guangzhou

WECHAT has a message for its competitors: watch out.

The messaging super app, developed by Tencent, is looking to edge out competitors and cash in on China's short-video boom as it rolls out new features like short-form videos and live streaming in China.

In direct competition to rival ByteDance's popular short-form video app TikTok - or DouYin in China - WeChat founder Allen Zhang announced plans that WeChat will too, allow users to create short-form video content on its platform, although he did not elaborate on the specifics.

"Allowing short videos is a direct assault on Douyin," said Vey-Sern Ling, a senior analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence covering Internet companies in Asia.

He added: "I believe the strategy is more about user retention and keeping content on WeChat rather than losing it to a competi…