One year after launch, WeChat’s investment fund has 10 million users who’ve banked over $16 billion

This time last year, popular messaging app WeChat launched an online personal investment fund for its users in China. It allows people to get better interest rates for their savings than from banks. Now WeChat’s maker, Tencent, has revealed that the wealth fund has 10 million users who’ve banked a total of RMB 100 billion, which is US$16.2 billion.

That amounts to an average of US$1,610 for each user.

All those people within WeChat’s investment fund have earned a total of RMB 3 billion (US$485 million) in interest payments in the past year, Tencent claims in an article on the company’s own QQ Tech blog. That makes for an average of US$48.50 each, though Tencent says that its biggest savers made about US$7,200 in profit in the last 12 months.

The fund is accessible within WeChat and contains no stipulations on not using the money, unlike with the fixed deposit accounts at most Chinese banks. WeChat caps an individual at RMB 1 million ($162,000) in deposits.

China’s web giants rushed into online finances in mid-2013, spurred by Alibaba’s launch of a personal fund called Yu’e Bao, which is Chinese for leftover treasure. Following that, Baidu launched its own similar product. Alibaba’s is the largest, holding US$87 billion in October 2014.

The easy access to the WeChat fund, which can be connected with the user’s bank account, means that 30 percent of its customers add money to their personal fund after 10pm, says Tencent.

See: Tencent ready to launch China’s 1st private internet bank, WeBank

See: Here’s everything Tencent invested in or acquired in 2014