The social network profile in China has since become an official ID card

The largest social network in China, WeChat, will become the official electronic ID card in the country, with the pilot program linking the identification code WeChat ID

The project was launched in the city of Guangzhou in the Chinese province of Nansha.

Authorities in the southern Chinese province of Guangzhou announced that its citizens will soon be able to identify through the social network WeChat ("Weixin" in China), Xinhua reported.

The virtual ID will be valid as well as that physical issued by the Chinese state, it adds.

This will allow online and offline access to government services and other things requiring authentication such as registration and online sales.

The move is aimed at preventing identity theft through the face recognition technology used to check the person before an online ID card is assigned to them.

ID cards are available in "basic" format, when simple proof of identity and "advanced" format for complex cases are required, including those requiring a registration process.

More than 30,000 people applied for WeChat cards within 24 hours of starting the process. According to Xinhua, the program will quickly cover the entire city of Guangzhou, before expanding to other parts of the country starting in January 2018.

The project ID of the identity card was developed by the research institute of the Chinese Ministry of Public Security and the WeChat programmer from Tecent, with the support of the banking sector and several other government agencies.

According to Tencent, WeChat has 980 million active users per month, and it is the largest social network in China.

• 2 Jan, 2018
• 1004 views