Tencent rallies forces of online charity

Internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd launched its secondinternet charitydayandis expected to donate the money it raised from Wednesday to Friday of up to around 200 million yuan ($30 million).

Starting from Wednesday to Friday — Sept 9, the “9.9 charity day”, initiated by the Shenzhen-headquartered company and dozens of wellknown companies, public welfare organizations and celebrities, was established with an aim to call on the masses of Chinese netizens to donate to the needy.

Last year 2.05 million netizens donated 127.9 million yuan.

During this year’s event, more than 120 institutions will introduce nearly 4,000 various charity projects, connecting those who need help and those willing to lend a helping hand, via online and offline platforms.

Chen Yidan, one of the founders of Tencent, said that links between the internet and charity would enable “the ecosystem of charity” to evolve in newways.

Tencent Vice-President Cheng Wu said that the full use of the mobile internet, in relation to personalized forms of charity, would help encourage people in large numbers to actively participate in public welfare undertakings.

This year companies participating in the charity day event will accept online donations, instead of traditional offline donations. After people donate money onWeChat platforms, they can choose to complete the donation with the participating firms.

By August, morethan 3,000 public welfare organizations had registered on the Tencent online charity platform, involving around 15,000 charity projects. The number of people who made donations totaled 66 million, the organizations said.

Zhang Xunhong, director general of the Bureau of Online Communities of Cyberspace Administration of China, said the involvement of Tencent and others was of great significance in drawing the whole society’s attention and encouraging people to actively participate in charity.

China’s charity law took effect last Thursday, including regulations to prevent fraud and supervision of the management of online charity platforms.

The law requires online charity platforms to work with 13 websites approved by civil affairs authorities.

the number of public welfare organizations that registered on Tencent online charity platform by August

Ouyang Shijia to this story. contributed

PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY A volunteer paints pictures on stones, during one of the charitable programs displayed by Tencent on Monday.