Chinese app spreading poll news in India

Chinese company Tencent’s WeChat, a social media smart phone application increasingly popular in India, has for the first time tied up with leading media companies to spread live and updated information about the nine-phased Indian general elections.

Official WeChat accounts of the BBC and Dainik Jagran, a leading Hindi newspaper, will update its users with electionrelated information from across the country besides uploading regular news stories and features. News channel Headlines Today is also set to tie-up with WeChat on election coverage, the company’s India team told HT over email.

It is for the first time that WeChat, which has a huge number of users in China, has tied up with Indian and foreign news companies to spread news in India.

“The Dainik Jagran official account is aimed towards disseminating latest feature, election, world news in Hindi within the chat window… Further, the official account will also have a special tab for the upcoming elections to ensure that the users are informed about the electoral process and all minute to minute updates,” Nilay Arora, vice-president, marketing and business development, for the company’s India operation, told HT over email.

“The BBC News India official account has been being launched to give audiences unprecedented coverage of the Indian election campaign,” Arora said.

WECHAT, WHICH HAS A HUGE NUMBER OF USERS IN CHINA, HAS TIED UP WITH INDIAN AND FOREIGN NEWS COMPANIES