Ann: Funds Under Management - January 2020, page-30

It’s worth keeping in mind WeChat is only one component of Tencent’s vast empire. One can’t invest purely in WeChat as such. So even if it were to be shutdown as you say, Tencent would survive. My previous post may have led to some confusion, as in haste I wrote the subheading ‘WeChat’ when instead it was a reference to ‘Tencent’.

As for the likelihood of the Chinese government shutting down WeChat, I ascribe it a probability of close to zero. It’s public information that WeChat provides the government with its major source of data surveillance. Chinese law even states “any organisation and citizen” shall “support and cooperate in national intelligence work”.

Ethical issues aside, it’s clearly in the government’s interest for WeChat to increase its active user numbers and diversity of applications. For investors this is highly supportive of future business growth.