US-based brokerage firm TD Ameritrade, a broker-dealer subsidiary of TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation, has beefed up its offering for tech-savvy investors, announcing the introduction of a new WeChat-powered content service.
TD Ameritrade’s WeChat experience allows retail investors in the US to do their research, access market information, and get support through one of the most popular social and messaging platforms in Asia. The bot also leverages features unique to WeChat, like Shake and Mini.
The new AI-backed product is all part of a strategy that doesn’t require clients to come back to the firm’s website or log in to their mobile apps to interact with the company.
“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,” the company says.
“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," added Juliet Zhu, head of WeChat Marketing at Tencent.
Leveraging Innovative Technology to Retain Position
Following a successful launch of a similar service in Hong Kong in August, the new addition is an expansion of an existing educational product the company already included as part of its core offering.
TD Ameritrade, as well as several US discount brokers, are enhancing their offering to attract digitally savvy and younger investors, as a slew of emerging micro-investing apps like Robinhood now offer mobile apps that let beginners buy and sell public stocks without trading fees.
Earlier this year, the broker also leveraged an artificial intelligence (AI) technology to launch a bot for Twitter that serves as a virtual assistant to allow the company to communicate with its customers. It resembles the one it launched in 2017 and enabled customers from trading Equities and Exchange -traded funds using Facebook’s messenger services.
“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,” explains Sunayna Tuteja, head of emerging technologies at TD Ameritrade.
