WeChat already has control over money and contacts of the people using it in China. The next thing WeChat will be taking over and handling people's identity.
According to Xinhua's report this week, the Guangzhou city police have already started issuing China's first virtual ID cards.
The said virtual ID can be used replacing the hard-copy identification cards for things and activities like registering and booking hotels, applying for government services, buying tickets requiring real-name authentication and more.
After successfully testing the said program in Nansha District, WeChat IDs will be implemented across Guangdong province and then all over China starting January 2018.
At the moment, residents of Guangzhou need to enroll using an identity authentication app developed by China's Ministry of Public Security with the help of Tencent. Then, they can start using the virtual ID and forever leave their hard-copy IDs at home.
WeChat remains China's most famous app with nearly 1 billion active users. WeChat, since 2011, started making itself integral to the life of Chinese consumers such as sending red packets and more.
