{"id":8214,"date":"2019-08-02T14:14:14","date_gmt":"2019-08-02T07:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.adeptasiaconsulting.com\/?p=8214"},"modified":"2019-05-09T15:31:52","modified_gmt":"2019-05-09T08:31:52","slug":"the-next-phase-of-wechat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.adeptasiaconsulting.com\/the-next-phase-of-wechat\/","title":{"rendered":"The next phase of WeChat"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Thousands of people<\/span> gathered Wednesday night in a southern Chinese city to hear Zhang Xiaolong, Tencent\u2019s low-key executive who built WeChat eight years ago. It\u2019s no longer adequate to call the app a messenger, for it now enables myriad functions that infiltrate Chinese people\u2019s private and public lives.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t just the tech circles tuning into the event. Civil servants, real-estate agents, salon owners, fruit vendors, teachers, artists \u2014 anyone who uses WeChat <\/a> to facilitate daily work watched attentively for news and tips that came out of the annual conference.<\/p>\n

Zhang, nickname Allen, is by nature a hardcore product manager. He went to great lengths during his four-hour speech, telling people productivity is WeChat\u2019s holy grail, and that he wants to make user sessions \u201cshort and efficient.\u201d He called out apps obsessed with keeping users on, which many may agree include ByteDance\u2019s video app TikTok<\/a> and news aggregator Jinri Toutiao.\"wechat\"<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a tough sell, though, for WeChat is anything but a disposable tool. The app now boasts more than 1 billion daily users; 750 million of them open WeChat Moments, a scrolling feed of friends\u2019 updates, each day, during which they check it more than 10 times. User growth is cooling, but that\u2019s expected, given the super app\u2019s enormous base. In addition to being a social network, the juggernaut has also devised a host of new features that may generate more eyeball time \u2014 and help it maintain meaningful growth.<\/span><\/p>\n

An app universe<\/h3>\n

Two years ago, WeChat made a move that would speed up its evolution from a simple app into an all-in-one platform. It rolled out so-called mini programs, which are stripped-down versions of native apps with only core features in exchange for smaller size and quicker access. To date, there are more than 1 million such lite apps<\/a> and 200 million people access them every day, an achievement that inspired other tech giants to follow suit.<\/a><\/p>\n

Zhang said from the outset that mini apps weren\u2019t meant to replace regular apps, for the latter provide a more complete user journey. In effect, mini apps are getting more powerful as they further integrate with chats and gain new capabilities, such as an upcoming Siri-like voice assistant. <\/a>Mini programs are also making inroads into the offline world, facilitating transactions like scan-to-pay at subway turnstiles, all without the fuss of app downloads.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no mini-program \u201cstore\u201d at the moment, but a less conspicuous infrastructure is taking shape. Users can already look up mini apps on WeChat\u2019s internal search engine and may soon be able to rate them, according to Zhang. WeChat will in turn factor those reviews into search results, akin to how the App Store works.<\/p>\n

The public space<\/h3>\n
\"\"<\/p>\n

Allen Zhang Xiaolong, senior executive vice president and president of Tencent\u2019s Weixin Group. Photo: Tencent<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Whether mini programs threaten the existing app ecosystem is disputed, but one thing is certain: They have a strong appeal to those without the capacity or need to build full-size apps, like a teacher who wants a tool to broadcast announcements to parents. There may be only a few dozen users, so a lightweight, easy-to-build app makes more economic sense.<\/p>\n

Governments have also warmly embraced WeChat as part of a national effort to streamline public services. Anyone who\u2019s lived in China would dread its red tape. Mini programs are digitizing many tasks that traditionally required numerous visits to government offices, such as renewing one\u2019s Social Security card.<\/p>\n

While public services may not be a big revenue driver, they do boost users\u2019 dependence on WeChat. Alibaba\u2019s digital wallet Alipay <\/a> also offers a plethora of public services, though many are limited to payments. \u201cAfter all, WeChat has more use cases, from social networking to payments, so local governments find it closer to people\u2019s lives,\u201d a third-party mini program developer for government services told TechCrunch, asking not to be named because the person wasn\u2019t allowed to discuss the matter publicly.<\/p>\n

New growth fuel<\/h3>\n

The world is watching for when China\u2019s most used app will hit its wall on user growth. WeChat hasn\u2019t seen much momentum overseas, except among Chinese expats and outbound tourists<\/a>. Back home, senior users are fueling its growth. Indeed, 65 million of WeChat\u2019s monthly users are now over the age of 55, the app\u2019s fastest growing cohort. Many of them turn out to love mini games, which are part of the mini-program universe. These games, which tend to be casual and easier to play than PC or mobile app games, have surpassed 400 million monthly users. For some context, China reached an estimated 700 million mobile game population in 2018, according to market research firm iResearch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Curiously, WeChat hasn\u2019t pushed monetization aggressively despite commanding a gigantic user base. Zhang has reiterated that monetization isn\u2019t his priority, but changes are underway. WeChat is planning to add more advertising inventories to mini apps in 2019, executive of WeChat open platforms Du Jiahui said during the event. Tencent earnings<\/a> show that lite apps and Moments are already driving advertising revenues for the company over the last few months. Tencent is also under pressure to find alternative monetizing channels as its core revenue driver \u2014 video games \u2014 took a hit amid an industry shakeup last year,<\/a> prompting the firm to place more focus on enterprise-facing businesses.<\/a><\/p>\n

Thousands of people gathered Wednesday night in a southern Chinese city to hear Zhang Xiaolong, Tencent\u2019s low-key executive who built WeChat eight years ago. It\u2019s no longer adequate to call the app a messenger, for it now enables myriad functions that infiltrate Chinese people\u2019s private and public lives. It wasn\u2019t just the tech circles tuning […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[378,674,224,222,1077,1213,629,529,240,921,1029,3158,3088],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe next phase of WeChat - Adept Asia Consulting<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.adeptasiaconsulting.com\/the-next-phase-of-wechat\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The next phase of WeChat - Adept Asia Consulting\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Thousands of people gathered Wednesday night in a southern Chinese city to hear Zhang Xiaolong, Tencent\u2019s low-key executive who built WeChat eight years ago. 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