TD Ameritrade launches WeChat chatbot in US

TD Ameritrade CEO Tim Hockey.
TD Ameritrade

• TD Ameritrade on Monday launched a new chatbot for
  WeChat users who based in the US. 
• The WeChat chatbot, similar to those on Facebook
  Messenger and Twitter, offers investment information, ranging
  from global market updates to volume spikes. It does not allow
  trading over the platform.
• The discount brokerage is trying to court more Asian
  investors. 

Discount broker TD Ameritrade unveiled a chatbot for
users of popular Chinese messaging app WeChat living in the
US. It’s the latest attempt by the discount brokerage to tap
further into the massive user base of the largest social network
in China.

TD had rolled out an initial partnership with WeChat in
August, but made the service accessible only to investors
in  Hong Kong. The new launch allows the firm to offer the
same services to WeChat users living in the US, a clientele it
inherited from its $4 billion acquisition of Scottrade in
2017.

“When we did our acquisition of Scottrade, as part of that
acquisition, we on-boarded a very robust and engaged client book
of Asia Pacific clients in the U.S.,” said Sunayna Tuteja,
director of innovation and strategic partnership at TD
Ameritrade. “They’re very engaged on WeChat.” 

The firm’s WeChat chatbot, similar to those it built via Facebook
Messenger and Twitter, provides users with investment
information, including market updates, company news, trading
quotes, or volume spikes, though users can’t trade on the
platform.

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The partnership with WeChat comes at a time when when TD
Ameritrade is trying to grow its business in Asia. Earlier this
year, TD Ameritrade opened a new office in Hong Kong and unveiled
the “ThinkorSwim”platform to offer trading in stocks, options,
and futures listed in the U.S. exchanges. In August, it rolled
out an AI-powered chatbot for investors in Singapore, allowing
them to trade via Facebook Messenger.

TD is aiming to enter into the mainland China market next,
said Tuteja. 

“We just want to be very deliberate and purposeful, so we
are taking at some time to really learn and understand how we
would structure that entry,” she added.

Founded by Tencent in 2011, WeChat is a fast-growing social
and messaging platform in Asia. It dominates the Chinese market,
but has also gained in popularity in other regions, like
Southeast Asia, Europe, and the US. As of February, WeChat
has hit 1 billion monthly active
users across the globe, according to “Pony” Ma Huateng,
Tencent’s co-founder and chief executive officer.