WeChat’s movie ticketing app raises $105M series B funding

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.

The latest funding for WePiao would appear to be at least in part a reaction to rival Alibaba’s acquisition of Yueke Software Engineering last week. Yueke makes software for ticket booking and theater management. The company counts several domestic movie theater chains among its clients, and also has a channel partnership with WeChat, among other platforms. Alibaba already sells movie tickets through its Taobao and Tmall marketplaces as well as through the Alipay Wallet app.

WeChat has 500 million monthly active users, while Tencent reports 820 million on QQ.