Tencent has played down Donald Trump's ban on its WeChat app, believing it will only affect its US operations.

The tech giant runs an equivalent messaging platform in China called Weixin which it hopes will be unaffected.

The bigger fallout may be Apple's sales in China if its iPhones aren't allowed to download Chinese messaging apps.

WeChat has more than one billion users worldwide but says the US only accounts for 2% of its revenue.

Last Friday, US President Donald Trump ordered US firms to stop doing business with both WeChat and TikTok within 45 days citing national security concerns.

The TikTok ban was expected but still "shocked" the company's owners ByteDance. WeChat, and its parent company Tencent, also found itself caught in the crossfire of the escalating tensions between the US and China.

However, Tencent, the world's largest gaming firm, downplayed Mr Trump's executive order when it reported its second quarter results on Wednesday. It saw a 37% rise in profits.

"If you look at the executive orders from May 2019 and then obviously the executive order a couple of days ago, they specify very clearly they cover US jurisdiction, and consequently we don't see any impact on companies advertising on our platform in China," said James Mitchell, Tencent's chief strategy officer.

Source: BBC

BDST: 1529 HRS, AUG 13, 2020
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