(Yicai Global) Sept. 9 -- WeChat, China’s most popular social messaging app, launched its new search function today, which lets users directly trawl the resources on the app, run by internet behemoth Tencent Holdings, as well as other linked content while chatting.

This will help direct more users to the company’s business terminal, the WeChat team said on its Weibo account today.

By pressing the ‘Chats’ icon on the bottom left hand side of the screen for a few seconds, then clicking on the ‘Search’ option that appears, users can instantly inform themselves of things they were not sure of, it added.

The program not only supports searching within the WeChat app, but will also gradually support other sites, too, it said. Outside brands and services can be linked to the new function so that, for instance, a user can track the delivery of a parcel by copying and pasting the number into the search option should it support that particular courier firm.

The function can also direct online traffic to other in-house businesses so as to build up an ecosystem, Liang Zefeng, the director in charge of this project, told online news portal Sina.

Content from Zhihu, the Chinese question and answer site, and microblogging platform Weibo, are already searchable by the new program, Liang added.

The new function has been made possible by China’s second-largest search engine Sogou, in which Tencent holds a 36.5 percent stake. In July the Shenzhen-based internet giant offered to take the company private and buy out its remaining shares.

Editor: Kim Taylor