TD Ameritrade First U.S. Brokerage Firm to Team With WeChat
Consumers in the U.S. can now get market updates and investor education using WeChat.
After the successful launch of its first WeChat experience in Hong Kong in August, TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation (Nasdaq: AMTD) is now bringing investor education, financial market updates, and research to retail investors in the United States through WeChat, also known as Weixin in China, which recently hit 1 billion monthly active users. Powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and backed by live client service support, users can now do their research, access the markets and get support through the popular Chinese social and messaging platform. TD Ameritrade is the first U.S. brokerage firm to launch this kind of service on WeChat.
“We want to meet our clients where they are and engage with them on their terms. Our goal in applying technologies like AI and machine learning to the conversational platforms people use every day is to help make investing simpler and more accessible to more people,” said Sunayna Tuteja, head of strategic partnerships and emerging technologies at TD Ameritrade. “When building this experience, we tapped into the bespoke features unique to WeChat like ‘Mini Programs’ and ‘Shake’ to make access to and learning about the markets particularly engaging.”
TD Ameritrade has a proud history of innovation dating back to its founding in 1975 that includes being the first to enable stock trading over the touch-tone phone, the first to offer trading over the Internet, the first to offer mobile device trading, and – most recently – the first to leverage artificial intelligence to offer trading via an automated agent.
“TD Ameritrade joins thousands of renowned brands that are already using the power of WeChat’s scale and unique features to enhance customer engagement and service. WeChat has been expanding its offering globally, and we are very excited that TD Ameritrade is using WeChat to bring our unrivaled convenience and accessibility to its customers,” said Juliet Zhu, general manager and head of WeChat Marketing at Tencent.
By connecting with TD Ameritrade through WeChat, users in the United States can:
- Get updates on U.S. markets, indices, sectors, currencies and futures.
- Get a quote, track company events or trends.
- Learn about investing with educational videos and get answers to frequently asked questions.
- Utilize WeChat’s unique ‘Shake’ feature to help discover and watch relevant education content.
- Check account balances and positions.
- Chat with an automated agent or a live agent any time.
- Set up proactive push notifications.
- Access TD Ameritrade’s Mini Program within the WeChat platform to seamlessly begin opening a TD Ameritrade account.
- Locate a nearby TD Ameritrade branch and schedule an appointment with a financial consultant.
Consumers can similarly connect with TD Ameritrade through third-party platforms including Facebook Messenger, Amazon Alexa, Apple Business Chat and Twitter Direct Message.
