To further stimulate sales on WeChat Mini Stores, Tencent is investing substantial traffic incentives into live-streaming rooms.

The latest official WeChat announcement regarding the "2026 618 Platform Promotion for WeChat Mini Stores" indicates that traffic incentives for WeChat Mini Stores ahead of the 2026 618 shopping festival have been increased to more than three times the level of 2025. Accounts participating in major live-streaming events during the promotion period can receive up to 2 million points in e-commerce growth card incentives.

It is reported that both brand merchants and independent content creators can unlock the platform's tiered incentives by achieving a Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) of 300,000 yuan during the 2026 618 promotion period.

When the statistical GMV for a major live-streaming event exceeds 3 million yuan, merchants can receive a growth card rebate of up to 2.5% of the GMV.

Unlike previous 618 promotions, WeChat's e-commerce initiative has, for the first time, ventured into the core territory of traditional e-commerce by introducing "618 Cross-Store Full Reduction Subsidies."

To attract high-quality brands for deeper participation, WeChat E-commerce has also committed to providing 100% platform-funded subsidies to eligible brand merchants.

Social fission remains the defensive weapon within the WeChat ecosystem that is hardest for competitors to replicate.

During the 618 promotion, users who share WeChat Mini Store consumption coupons with friends have the opportunity to receive corresponding inflated coupons.

Clearly, Tencent aims to convert its vast private domain traffic into more GMV in the open market.

In recent years, Tencent's e-commerce ambitions have evolved from a singular focus on short-video live-streaming rooms to a coordinated effort across the entire WeChat ecosystem.

Tencent President Martin Lau has stated that while live-streaming e-commerce can grow rapidly, it eventually faces a natural growth ceiling. However, by systematically building an e-commerce ecosystem within WeChat and leveraging all available resources within the platform, it is possible to establish a larger, more meaningful e-commerce ecosystem with a higher ceiling.

Based on this, Tencent has repositioned its live-streaming e-commerce business to align more closely with WeChat E-commerce.

In August 2024, Tencent officially upgraded "Video Account Mini Stores" to "WeChat Mini Stores."

This signifies that Tencent's e-commerce venture has officially expanded beyond short videos and live-streaming rooms. WeChat Mini Stores will now support the circulation of store and product information across multiple WeChat scenarios, including Official Accounts (Subscription Accounts, Service Accounts), Video Accounts (live streams, short videos), Mini Programs, Search, chat sessions, communities, and Moments.

Later, in March 2025, WeChat announced a comprehensive push to upgrade Video Account Showcase creators to "WeChat Mini Store Sellers," allowing one account to be simultaneously linked to various scenarios such as Video Accounts, Official Accounts, Service Accounts, and Mini Programs.

Creators are no longer confined to the narrow grids of short videos or live streams; they now possess sales reach that can freely navigate the entire ecosystem of 1.3 billion users.

Information from the 2026 WeChat Open Class PRO reveals that in 2025, the cross-ecosystem sales scale of WeChat Mini Store Sellers more than doubled compared to 2024.

Additionally, the monthly average number of active merchants on WeChat Mini Stores in 2025 was 1.7 times that of the same period in 2024, Gross Profit Margin (GPM) increased to 1.5 times, and the sales scale growth rate for brands in 2025 reached 4.3 times the platform's growth rate. The overall user base making purchases exhibited characteristics of being younger and of higher quality.

Supporting this high growth among merchants is the rapid and continuous iteration of product features on WeChat Mini Stores.

Throughout 2025, WeChat Mini Stores intensively launched a series of social commerce components with distinct WeChat characteristics, such as "Send Gifts," "Buy Together," "Like to Buy," and "Match & Buy."

These features have, to some extent, broken the monotonous "search-purchase" path of traditional e-commerce, integrating transactions into daily social conversations, Moments, and Official Account content.

Although WeChat E-commerce has yet to present a GMV report card comparable to mainstream e-commerce platforms, Tencent appears to be in no rush regarding the sales growth of WeChat E-commerce.

Pony Ma has explicitly stated a willingness to give WeChat E-commerce five years or even longer to leverage the power of social networks, emphasizing meticulous work and quality over speed.

At the 2025 annual employee meeting earlier this year, Ma also meaningfully remarked that businesses like Video Accounts and WeChat E-commerce have their own growth logic and trajectories. He emphasized the need to combine their unique characteristics with new technological upgrades, advocating for giving them more time and patience, and acting only after careful planning.