Tencent has invested $50m in Kik, the teen-focused chat app which aspires to be the ‘WeChat of the west’, valuing the Canadian start-up at over $1bn.

腾讯(Tencent)向以青少年为目标用户的聊天应用Kik投资5000万美元，使这家加拿大初创企业的估值超过10亿美元。Kik的目标是成为“西方的微信(WeChat)”。

The Chinese internet group, which owns WeChat, is betting that Kik could replicate its own success in developing chat apps into a platform that incorporates everything from ecommerce to banking in the US.

微信是腾讯的旗下产品，这家中国互联网集团正押注Kik能在美国复制微信的成功，把聊天应用发展为一个覆盖从电子商务到银行业务等众多领域的平台。

Kik raised funds from venture capitalists including Union Square Ventures, which backed Twitter, and SV Angel, an investor in many social apps including Pinterest, last November.

去年11月，Kik从包括合广投资(Union Square Ventures)和SV Angel在内的风投机构获得了融资。合广投资曾投资Twitter，而SV Angel则是Pinterest等众多社交应用的投资方。

But it had hired advisers to explore more strategic investments, including, it was reported, a possible sale.

但是，Kik也聘请了咨询机构来探索更多的战略性投资，据报道，其中包括将自身出售的可能性。

Ted Livingston, chief executive of Ontario-based Kik, said Tencent was always at the top of its wish list of potential partners. He is looking forward to bouncing ideas off Tencent as he develops more services for Kik.

Kik总部位于安大略，其首席执行官特德利文斯顿(Ted Livingston)称，腾讯一直排在Kik潜在合作伙伴愿望清单的第一位。他期待在为Kik开发更多服务时与腾讯方面探讨想法。

The teen-focused app allows people to watch YouTube videos within chat and have conversations with ‘marketing bots’ programmed to give both helpful and funny answers.

这个专注于青少年的应用软件允许人们在聊天过程中观看YouTube视频、以及与“marketing bots”程序进行对话。“marketing bots”是一个提供既有用又好玩的答案的程序。

However, he wants to expand into other services that look to target teenagers while they are still forming their shopping habits.

然而，利文斯顿希望扩展至其他面向青少年群体的服务，这个群体仍然处于购物习惯的形成期。

“For all these youths coming online for the first time it is an opportunity for ecommerce sites and financial institutions to build something amazing just for them, in a place they are spending all their time anyway,” he said.

他表示：“就刚开始上网的少年人而言，这是电子商务网站和金融机构专门针对他们打造一些超棒服务的好机会，毕竟他们总是挂在这个平台上。”

Some 70 per cent of Kik’s 240m registered users are aged between 13 and 24, with the company estimating that about 40 per cent of US teens use Kik.

Kik拥有2.4亿注册用户，其中70%的人年龄在13至24岁之间，该公司估计美国约40%的青少年都使用Kik。

Tencent’s WeChat and Weixin, both similar chat apps, boasted 600m monthly active users last quarter, up 37 per cent year on year. But the vast majority of these users are based in China and the company does not yet have a foothold in the US.

腾讯旗下的微信和微信国际版是类似的聊天软件，上一季度二者合计拥有6亿月度活跃用户，同比增加37%。但其绝大多数的用户都在中国，腾讯尚未在美国站稳脚跟。

However, Tencent, like Chinese rival Alibaba, has been busy investing in western technology companies. It is widely reported to have invested in Snapchat, the disappearing photo messages app, as well as Whisper, an anonymous messaging app, Cyanogen, a mobile customisation app and Scanadu, a maker of health diagnostics hardware. Alibaba’s VC arm has also invested in Snapchat, as well as messaging app Tango.

然而，就像中国本土竞争对手阿里巴巴(Alibaba)一样，腾讯也忙于投资西方科技企业。有广泛报道称，腾讯投资了阅后即焚照片分享应用Snapchat、匿名通讯软件Whisper、手机系统定制应用Cyanogen以及健康诊断设备制造商Scanadu。阿里巴巴的风投部门也投资了Snapchat以及通讯软件Tango。

Mr Livingston said many western social apps did not understand the value of chat as a platform for other services. But he said Facebook had showed it did understand when it hired David Marcus, former chief executive of PayPal, to lead its work on messaging. Facebook has since begun integrating payments and conversations with retailers into the Facebook Messenger app.

利文斯顿称，西方很多社交软件并不理解聊天应用作为其他服务的平台的价值。但他称，Facebook聘请了PayPal前首席执行官戴维氠鎚斯(David Marcus)来领导通讯方面的工作，这表明它理解了这一平台的价值。从那之后，Facebook已开始将支付和与零售商交流的功能整合在Facebook Messenger软件中。

However, Mr Livingston said Facebook was no longer the preferred destination of teens. “If you are a retailer going after adults you will use Facebook Messenger but every study out there shows teenagers don’t like Facebook, they have it but they have it in the same way we all have a driver’s licence,” he said.

然而，利文斯顿称，Facebook不再是青少年所青睐的平台。“如果你是以成年人为目标的零售商，你会使用Facebook Messenger，但是所有研究都表明青少年不喜欢Facebook，他们安装了该软件，但是这就像我们所有人都有驾照一样，”他称。