![]() ![]() If WeChat is to really expand beyond China, it will have to convince users not only that it’s cooler and more efficient than WhatsApp, but also that it’s more liberating. But Weibo, which flew to such amazing heights a few months ago, is now slumping amid an overall crackdown on dissent. For most people, who use WeChat to buy stuff or play games or message Mom or flirt online with suitors across a crowded bar, such official supervision doesn’t matter. I have no need for stickers and don’t need an alert every time an emoticon is added to my potential library of cuteness.īut a much larger concern is this: WeChat - like Weibo, the microblogging platform that proliferated in China in the absence of Twitter - is monitored by the Chinese government. One is the sticker shop that tenaciously attaches itself to my profile. Oh, and unlike WhatsApp, WeChat is free to download for users. Popular Chinese messaging app WeChat has recently updated a number of emojis, including ditching the cigar from a smoking soldier. The parent company, which also runs a popular instant-messaging service, expects revenues topping $1 billion this year. Tencent is rolling out financial-services products that users can tap into via WeChat - imagine mutual funds via mobiles. Indeed, SMS traffic has declined in China because of WeChat. ( MORE: Not Using WeChat Yet? You Might Be Soon)īecause texting in Chinese characters is cumbersome, WeChat allows users to send quick voice messages instead. Group chats allow convivial and efficient communication - one high-level Chinese government official I met recently admitted to using group chats to catch up with old university friends. A more private comments system includes only those people you’re friends with - not random friends of friends who can clutter your feed. WeChat also refines the Facebook experience by allowing easy photo posting. It sounds silly but walk into a crowded Beijing restaurant, and you’ll see a fair amount of shaking going on. A function called “shake” allows WeChat users within a certain radius to find each other by jiggling their cellphones. This Chinese New Year, for instance, users delighted in sending and receiving online red packets (红包) of lucky money. (Some ideas have been borrowed from another Chinese Internet giant, Alibaba.) From playing mobile games and hailing taxis to posting video and making online payments, WeChat is an all-you-can-use mobile service. WeChat combines the best of Facebook and WhatsApp - and then adds a slew of monetizing innovations of its own. ![]()
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