WeChat: A Standing (Inn)Ovation

Apple introduced Apple Pay and the world went crazy, despite its slow and limited introduction. China, however, has been using WeChat, a mobile application much more powerful than the thoughts of most people who have only heard of it. It does not do WeChat justice to compare it to Whatsapp, for it is so much more. It connects to your bank account, and then accepts payments between WeChat users, stores, and even the tiniest of shops. Forget plastic; let’s pay by mobile! Going to a restaurant with some friends? One will cover the bill; everyone else can pay them over WeChat. Aside from video and audio calling, and a proper desktop app, WeChat offers many other features, such as a Tinder-comparable “Discover” section, news, cab-calling, and so much more.

It is amazing just how hooked people are to WeChat. Every serious business will have a WeChat (and QQ, an older, less-advanced app comparable to WeChat) account associated with it where customers can communicate with the business owners. This gives brands an immense amount of control when marketing to their customers, since the initial WeChat add acts as a source of inbound leads. From thereon, brands can deliver extremely tailored, direct messages to their consumers.

This one-stop-shop nature of WeChat has made it dominate China in a very short time. The question must be raised, however: if China’s Great Firewall had not been blocking Facebook at the time of WeChat’s launch and growth, would it have grown so much? Furthermore, avoiding hypothetical situations, can WeChat enter and dominate the West, where Facebook has so much control?