WeChat Mini-programs: A strategy for the future?

June 6, 2018

In March this year, Tencent’s flagship mobile application, WeChat, has reached one billion user accounts. The application which stands out due to its versatility as well as its flexibility continues its search for innovation.

WeChat is a social phenomenon !

“The strategy for WeChat is that they’re trying to embed themselves into your lives so that you can’t leave WeChat,” says Matthew Brennan, Co-founder of WeChat consulting firm China Channel. The app is basically an “operating system for your life in China,” he adds. Indeed, it is quite hard to a great number of people to stop using this application as it connects them to their friends, family and the rest of China.

The app is basically an “operating system for your life in China,”

This is where mini programs come in :

WeChat mini-programs are “sub-applications” inside WeChat system. Since their creation in 2016, they’ve made available numerous functionalities such as web-based business (e-commerce), task and coupon management.

JD.com (the second biggest B2C online business in China) has built up an internet business mini-program that allow users to access the wide range of products offered by online retailers. In addition, the direct access to the WeChat wallet make it easy for users to purchase products and improve the overall experience.

Mini-programs have innovative feature :

For instance, if you are at a bus station, you might see its QR code. But if you’re not waiting for a bus, it won’t appear. A good mini program can give users updates about incoming buses.

wechat mini-programs future bus

BUS TIME CHECKER : 车来了精准的实时公交

In Tencent’s final quarter budgetary strategy for 2016, the organization showed a clear interest in developing and expanding mini-programs. As stated: “broaden and deepen services in low-frequency use cases, connect more offline services to online users, and provide more venues for users to sample functionalities offered by apps”. (see more)

A long-term strategy…

Eventually, WeChat seems to be willing to replace the current systems used by Apple and Google: iOS and Android. Indeed, with Google play blocked in China, there is a niche to be compensated, that Tencent wants to fill by offering a very accessible store (one of the most accessible in fact).

In addition, Apple may see the traffic on their app store decrease with the success of the mini programs. This would be unfavorable for Apple as China is an important market for the company’s growth.

That being said, Tencent could be an important actor of an eventual “post-app” era which could transform the way consumers consume.  And the giants of the industry, Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon (GAFA) be ahead of the pack. At stake could be a dominance of the industry valued at about $102 billion by 2020.

 

Interested in technology? Discover how WeChat is integrating AR into the platform to build an innovative user experience!

 

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WeChat guide: How to use and build mini-programs ?

December 11, 2017

Tencent launched the WeChat Mini programs earlier this year and took the market by storm. So what are these mini programs and how can you use it?This blog will give you all that you need to know about WeChat’s interesting feature.

 

These mini programs are essentially sub applications/apps within WeChat itself. The user can make use of these features without having to actually download or install them. How exciting! Thousands of mini programs have already been launched where you can order food, watch videos, book tickets for movies, book cabs or even shop online!

And this is just the beginning, the mini programs feature looks more promising by the minute.

So what are the things that make mini programs a great addition to WeChat?

 

Easy to use

There are 3 different ways to get the WeChat Mini Programs and they are incredibly easy!

 

  • Option 1 –  By typing the name of application you are looking for in the WeChat search bar
  • Option 2 – By clicking on the mini program link shared by your friends
  • Optin 3 – By scanning the QR Code of the application you want

 

Finding these apps do not involve any extra effort and the sheer simplicity of this process makes Mini programs extremely user-friendly. And if you like an app, you can easily share them with your friends and get them to use to it too!

 

Multitasking

Wechat articles requires the user to exit the article if they want to chat with someone. But mini programs does not possess this problem.The users can pin the app on their Chats page by selecting “Display on Top”. Then they can re-enter the app whenever they want.This is a huge plus point for the app.

 

Open platform for developers

Based on the update in March, individual developers can add their products to Mini programs. This open platform approach encourages more people to innovate and create new apps on the program.

 

Do you have any favourite apps from this feature? Let us know in the comments below!

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WeChat owner Tencent beats Facebook in value and become Asia’s First $500 Billion company

November 22, 2017

Founded in 1998, Tencent, which is one of the biggest tech giants in China made its way to the Top 5 Biggest Firms in the World. It is now the first Asian company to be valued at over $500 Billion surpassing Facebook that was dominating the social media field.

 

 

The most successful app created by Tencent, Wechat, is said to have around 980 million monthly active users, with 38 billion messages sent daily. And the Youtube alternative in China, Tencent Video boasts of a huge subscriber base. Revenue from its gaming division, rose to 18.2 billion yuan  due to its fantasy role-playing hit “Honour of Kings”, which is expected to release in the United States next year.The company also holds 12% of the popular picture messaging app, Snapchat.

 

Tencent’s Hong Kong listed shares have doubled in value this year and on Tuesday the company’s value was estimated to be $523 Billion. This is followed by Tencent’s rivals in Asia, the AliBaba group (valued at $481 billion) and Samsung electronics (valued at $364 billion).

 

With the drastic surge in growth, Tencent will surely be making waves in the tech, gaming and social media sector next year.

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How the TOP 500 Official WeChat Accounts are performing ?

June 16, 2017

WeChat is fast growing as one of the biggest social platforms and is an essential part of the daily life in the Chinese market. Brands are increasingly using this platform as a way to leverage their goods and services in China. The market being highly competitive, for brands to make it to the top 500 WeChat accounts is a great feat!

Every month, top performing WeChat accounts are tracked and these are the findings. NewRanks tracked the performance of a pool of the most popular accounts between April 2016 and April 2017 and these are the top highlights for this analysis.

1. Average article views have reduced

In a short span of a year, WeChat added over 170 million monthly active users. However, the analysis found that there has been a decrease in the average articles viewed by the users. In fact the number saw a decrease of 5,257 views per article. An important influencer of this number may be the increase in the official accounts on WeChat. This means the users have more options to choose from and the official accounts are becoming increasingly competitive. On the other side, the number of likes to articles has increased by 138 per article.

2. Ranking of the Top 500 Accounts

An analysis of the top accounts from April of last year indicate that 75% of these top accounts have seen a decrease in their ranking compared to last year. Only 21% of these official WeChat accounts moved up in ranking in 2017. The decrease can be attributed to official accounts investing more in creating quality content over quantity of articles. Also, there is the viral paradox where you can’t predict the viral aspect of the platform.

3. Ranking Changed drastically for brands

Among the top 500 WeChat Accounts in April 2016, only 274 accounts managed to retain their position as being in the top 500. Even the most popular accounts have had to revamp their content considerably to keep up with the changing trends in social media.

A brand to note here is, Global Times (环球时报) that went up 428 ranks in a period of a year. Another brand to note is TripAdvisor that lost 15,584 points.

4. The shifting trend from traditional media to WeChat Accounts

Among the top 104 performing accounts 24% of the accounts are media related. This is a huge indicator that Chinese media is shifting the trends from traditional media to the new age media. Media accounts have the advantage to report live and get the information out faster with this platform.

5. Original Content Linked to Increasing Ranks

The percentage of original content increased from 8.7% to 11.2% in a year. The interesting thing to note is accounts that produce more original content have an increase in ranking as compared to accounts with decreasing ranking that produce 9% less original content. The publishing of audio content has also increased 4.8% as compared to 2.1% in 2016.

As the competition gets more intense, marketers have to increasingly develop unique content strategies to match the ever fast pace of the social platform.

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Search, the WeChat way!

May 25, 2017

In order to understand how much positive energy is prevalent in the country, China watchers tracked the term “transmitting positive energy to society”  and the number of times it was mentioned in the chinese newspapers, especially People’s Daily the country’s top print.

 

This exploration was headed by David Bandurski, a researcher with the China Media Project at the University of Hong Kong. He found that the term was taken into importance after it was mentioned by Chinese president Xi Jinping during a 2012 meeting with former US president Jimmy Carter, calling for more positive energy in the China-US relationship. He also used the term “transmit positive energy” when he toured state-controlled news outlets last year.

However the usage happen to decline from a peak in 2014 has resurfaced in the international stage resulting in the term appearing in 111 People’s Daily articles so far this year.

 

When exploring such research it brings us to understand how easy it is to find and track such content today in the digital world. Tencent recently launched a new feature ‘WeChat Search’ that will allow us to search content within WeChat (Moments, Articles and Official accounts). This feature has surely made WeChat a great threat to Baidu, the internet company that provides search engine services.

 

Baidu has been predominantly used for checking company’s background and reputation, while WeChat allows users to see the engagement of other users, the articles and the social comments in turn establishing the performance of the brand and its influence real time. With Tencent purchasing a 36.5% stake Sogou, the pioneer of search engine that is able to index WeChat content on their special section bringing the much need integration for WeChat.

 

Baidu’s slow growing revenue is no match to Tencent’s profits and revenues shooting upto 50% growth each year. The more the merrier can be the motto for the search engine industry, striving on mere existence of data, more of which enables better output upon the results. The popularity of WeChat brings in users, more users leading to more data which again leads to more users and it goes on.

 

WeChat has created quite the buzz in the digital space and it is surely taking the lead among its competition in the country.

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How brands can leverage WeChat Index to measure their popularity on WeChat ?

May 17, 2017

Apart from brands having their own official WeChat accounts (which provides them with direct feedback from their consumers), the application has recently released a new feature called “WeChat Index” (微信指数) – to access this tool, simply type the previous Chinese keywords in the WeChat search bar.

 

WeChat Index is a trend projector showing the popularity of a brand upon searching the relevant keywords on the tool. The tool enables the brand to identify and understand their performance, once entering the keyword on to the tool the number of times the keyword mentioned in any of the articles within the app for the last 7, 30 or 90 days hits the screen in a trend graph.

 

The service is based out to be on big data analysis and mobile indexing, where it understands user behaviour patterns and other data aspects and characteristics to project the brand’s popularity and performance among the 898 million WeChat users in turn helping the brand to build and evolve with real time feedback from its consumers.

 

With WeChat Index as a listening tool, the app also had various ways of marketing for brand such as content promotion through articles on product reviews and information, advertising via moments and account ads. Linking the brand’s online website portal to their official account along with strategic partnership emphasizing the use of WeChat wallet are other ways of marketing on WeChat.

 

WeChat is much more just another instant messaging app, it has replaced the wallet for users in China. With the recent report by Tencent projecting 93% adoption rate to using WeChat Pay (in cities) majority of them reasoning it as to not carrying cash at the time of purchase. Addressing the change in consumer behaviour, WeChat enables their users to book hotels and restaurants, buy movie tickets and handle all viable transactions through the app. A clear shift or transition towards a cashless society is being welcomed by the country.

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WeChat Pay chasing Alipay with 1.2 Trillion of USD in 2016

May 5, 2017

China has taken the lead at an astonishing rate in adapting online platforms as a common mode of payment compared to the rest of the world. In a period of five years (2010-2015) the percentage of digital payments, mostly mobile in the country has increased from 3.5% to 17% for all retail transactions.

 

The total amount processed through such payment portals in the year 2016 has been 3 trillion USD, with WeChat Pay chasing Alipay with 1.2 trillion USD. This demand for mobile payments became visible after the establishment of these two services, which combined owns 63% of the market share in digital payments today. With 800 million new WeChat Pay users to Alipay’s 450 million, WeChat Pay takes the lead while Alipay leads in payment volumes.

 

According to the data published in the Tencent Penguin Intelligence Survey, WeChat pay is the primary payment method for offline purchases with 93% adoption rate across tier 1 and tier 2 cities which includes Beijing and Shanghai. Cash comes in second place (39 percent), while debit and credit cards are third.

 

With respect to the competition, both WeChat Pay and Alipay are directed towards a common goal of minimizing cash transactions in China and are doing their best in expanding overseas by collaborating with local partners and becoming easy and attractive to implement.

 

As a testament to the central stage mobile payments has taken in Chinese consumers lives, Ogilvy & Maher and Ipsos concluded in a survey of China’s mobile payment market that “[Chinese] mobile payment has permeated all aspects of life and changed basic, everyday habits.”

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