Like it or not, the moment you step into the middle kingdom (China), or has friends from this part of the world, you will hear of it, or even forced to use it as if it’s the only tool you can be contacted by your Chinese friends.
For those who still haven’t heard of Wechat, simply put, it’s the Chinese whatsapp and it’s the communication tool in mainland China. “So what’s the big deal? If there is no such thing as GFW, Whatsapp can easily rule China, just like it rule the rest of the world outside the Middle Kingdom”. OK. Partially true. There are something from Wechat that I think it’s worthy learning from.
The secure social element that’s acceptable in China
In my world, outside China, Whatsapp is for communication and Facebook is for checking in with families and friends — the social bit. But as FB’s messenger evolve, whatsapp is gradually losing its ground. Now I only use for people I’m still reluctant to friend on FB. But in short, Whatsapp = communication, Facebook = social.
In my world within China (there is a wall), FB is not visible yet unless you know what’s a VPN. Whatsapp didn’t really take off because…it doesn’t have a Chinese version. So we have Wechat. Yes, you can say Wechat copied Whatsapp, just like QQ copied ICQ back in the early 90s. But these are just tools, they simply connect A with B, me and my friends. Any app or software that let me communicate with with people I care and it’s cost effective, I will take it, providing most of the people I care are there. So from the interface it seems Wechat copied Whatsapp, but I don’t think this argument really matters that much.
Wechat started as a chat app. Its mothership Tencent connects it with QQ’s large network that nurtured its rapid expansion. Accomplishing the “communication” element is easy for Wechat. What differentiate Wechat from Weibo, RenRen other that social network, it’s its closed social network — the “Wechat Moment” (In Chinese is 朋友圈, or Friend Circle). There are a few things they did it right but I think the most important one is that they didn’t release the desktop view. Users can access the chatting tool via web.wechat.com, but its social platform is never open for desktop view. Knowing how things work here in the middle kingdom, you probably don’t want to things to be too easily viewable, uploadable and transferrable. Learn from weibo, if things uploaded are not so appropriate yet get widely reposted, it does concern some people. Being in a closed network keep people’s content relatively private and within inner circle. Just like Instagram before it decided to open the web access after being acquired by Facebook. Sometimes it’s a good thing, from a user’s standpoint. And from a governor’s view, closed is good. Within control is good. Not easily spreadable is even better.
Having said that, when the Uniqlo thing came up, oh man, it got travelled within this closed circle way faster than anyone could anticipate. But as long as it’s not publicly viewable or searchable, it’s fine by the people who govern.
Think Money
Apple Pay is a buzzing word in…the US. It’s gaining it’s popularity and gradually taking off. But things here in China is developing much faster. Alipay and Wechat Pay is already dividing the mobile pay market into two half. Although Alipay seems to be having a bigger pie, Wechat pay is fighting the battle with little mercy.
What really made people associate money with Wechat was the Chinese New Year of 2015. Wechat did two things right during that holiday.
(1) Their red pocket campaign really took off! About red pocket (or Hongbao 红包), simply put, it’s a red envelope with money that traditionally people give to children during Chinese New Year for good luck (read more here). Wechat took that concept and enable users to give red envelope with money electronically via wechat network. To make it even more fun, user can send a red envelope with a given amount, say 50 yuan, and start a lucky draw within a chatroom. First grab first get, the amount is randomly assigned. It doesn’t sound as fun when you read it from here, but believe me, if you are a Chinese and in a holiday mood, it was actually very fun and additive. (You can read more from here).
(2) They worked with official media to connect mobile with the world outside mobile. Here is how they did it (let me see if I can put it in a western setting). Picture this, you finished your Christmas dinner and watching Christmas celebration with your families. At about 9pm, if you launch your Wechat app and shake it preciously at 9pm sharp, you might receive some lucky money from the Christmas show on TV, and you can even interact with what’s going on TV. It might sound crazy. But as crazy as it sounds, that’s how they did it. Except they did it with CCTV — the official China TV channel — and interact with the new year celebration gala, which is the most watched show during the Chinese new year.
They brought enormous marketing and business attentions to the Wechat platform and it’s money transfer platform. People started to understand how it works. And because it’s during the holiday season, people had more time to spend on teaching others and brought more friends into the game.
I was one of those people got hooked.
Since then, Wechat wallet (微信钱包) really took off. Now it has become a really “wallet” that I use for shopping in supermarket, buying lunch, paying flight and train ticket, booking hotel, order take away and paying taxi drivers. Yes, all that just with one app. Sorry, did you say Apple Pay? I say by the time it arrive in China, it might be too late. I might be wrong, but from what I can analyse now, it’s quite likely to be the case.
