It’s been a year since Tencent launched WeChat Mini Programs. As I predicted back then in WeChat Mini Programs Explained Part I, WeChat has seen the mini program ecosystem flourish — with more than half a million live mini programs (580k+ programs/170k DAU)— and has helped WeChat secure a position as more of an OS than an app, while remaining light.
This month’s WeChat annual public forum confirms WeChat’s further commitment to the mini program ecosystem and much more. You can rewatch the keynote and other specific topics (in Chinese) here. Here are some key points:
On WeChat Overall:
Allen Zhang, keynote speaker and the man behind WeChat, champions the idea of WeChat being a tool, as opposed to platform or ecosystem. It might just be a play of semantics, but in the context of this conference, I believe Mr. Zhang is meaning to emphasize WeChat’s product philosophy — to maximize utility for end users, not for any other parties. This philosophy is further illuminated by the following ideas Mr. Zhang put forth.
“Exit After Use” VS. “Come Back for More”
The essence of “Exit After Use” lies in the efficacy of a tool in a given task. Mr. Zhang stresses the point that a good tool let you finish a given task quickly and free up more time for you to accomplish other tasks elsewhere; and this idea does not contradict “Come Back For More” because people will come back to use this tool if it proves to be efficient and pleasant the first time around. (And I would argue this is the core idea underlying mini programs or Google instant apps for that matter.)
WeChat is trying to orchestrate the delicate dance of maximizing a tool’s utility and monopolizing a user’s time. Though Mr. Zhang has been emphasizing the former at the conference, but how WeChat can manage to curb the latter — while maintaining high-quality engagement — remains to be seen.
WeChat as a “Decentralized” Tool
The idea of decentralization goes back to the beginning of The Internet itself. At a time when the practice of algorithms feeding users news or search results according to individual preference have come under increasing scrutiny, the discussion of decentralization is particularly relevant. WeChat has somewhat been abiding by a “decentralization principle” ever since its inception: for example, users have complained that content on WeChat Moments — equivalent of Facebook Newsfeed — is not discoverable or searchable by non-friends, or that subscription accounts lack a centralized directory for ease of search and browsing. Now WeChat offers an official explanation of why that is: WeChat does not rank or weigh the UGC (user generated content) or PGC (professional generated content).
The idea is, in some strange way, radical in today’s climate. WeChat professes not to pre-select or present any particular content in front of users. The choice to discover and share has always been with the users. To a great extent, I believe WeChat does follow this principle and it is one of its key success factors.
A Designated App for Official Account Management
Currently, there’s only a desktop portal to manage and publish content for WeChat official accounts. Mr. Zhang confirms that a mobile app will be released soon to compliment the current desktop version.
The Tipping Feature Resurrected
Early last year, WeChat disabled the official account tipping system in all iOS devices because Apple considered tipping an in-app purchase. At the conference, Mr. Zhang revealed that Tencent and Apple have reached an understanding and tipping will soon be brought back. We don’t know if Apple still demands a cut or it made good with Tencent in order to win brownie points in the wider Chinese market.
But the return of tipping comes with a big stipulation — likely the result of Apple’s pressure: instead of rewarding the official accounts, the new tipping system aims to direct the reward towards individual authors. Cultivating a stronger loyalty towards authorship and originality is certainly a move in the right direction.
Currently, only content with more than 300 Chinese words can be marked original content by the author and hence enabled to receive tips. With the introduction of an Official Account Management App, authors may be allowed and encouraged to create shorter original content on the mobile app.
Subscription Account ≠ News Feed (with Ad)
Mr. Zhang hints that WeChat Subscription Account might change, but will not take on the form of News Feed. Currently, subscription accounts are grouped under one tab within the chat window, and the accounts followed by a given user will appear chronologically according to the latest content publication time in that tab.
The change, as Mr. Zhang declares, will entail a better experience and improved efficiency for the subscribers — a easier way for users to search within subscribed content. But it does not mean creating an algorithm to push unsubscribed content to users. The principle of decentralization is, again, evident here.
On Mini Programs — Long-term Ambitions:
WeChat sees mini programs as a set of very light tools — compared to regular apps — to reach users, and connect them with the real world (plus the information behind it). In other words, WeChat is expanding the capabilities to be resembling more of an operating system, and the mini programs within WeChat becomes users’ everyday apps. You see who is getting less screen time because of this? All the other apps on your cell phone!
WeChat is uniquely positioned to make Mini Programs possible
With omnipresence of WeChat in China makes it THE app to be able to push out mini programs successfully. Google Instant App is targeting the same issue: accessing information and services in a lighter way. But Google has nowhere near the kind of dominance over any markets WeChat has over the Chinese market. If any company can succeed to do mini programs or instant apps, it would have to be WeChat.
Mini Programs are not created exclusively for e-commerce
This seems to be a message directed towards those who want to bet on mini programs as “the next big thing”. It is no surprise that the early mini program successes are mostly in e-commerce because e-commerce within WeChat is quite mature and early adopters of new channels is bound to happen in this field. Perhaps it’s also true that the mini program is most suitable for e-commerce or gaming (as they soon have become the top industries to flourish within mini program ecosystem). But it certainly is not the intention nor the ambition of the creators.
Mini Programs’ ambition is much larger than just in one or two industries; they want to be a real platform, where all kinds of businesses can reap benefits.
Mini Programs are also decentralized
There isn’t a central entry point to access mini programs.
- Users are able to search for them within WeChat
- WeChat can recommend mini programs according to users’ geo-locations
- Once users have used a mini program, it will have a shortcut on top of the WeChat main chat window if users press and pull down on that screen.
Mini Program vs. App
The main difference lies in the immediacy and lightness of mini programs. There are plenty of easy tasks that can be easily accomplished by a few clicks of a button, while downloading an app seems too cumbersome. That’s when mini programs come in. For more specific examples, you can read my earlier articles on mini programs, Part I & Part II.
On Mini Games
Mini Games, namely games in mini program form, are an instant hit on WeChat. The game 跳一跳 （Skip and Jump) has a DAU as high as 170 million after a few days of release!
This is a classic case FOR the mini program format, for the gaming industry:
- Instant access: no download or installation, no uninstall either.
- Easy to share, and share directly into friend groups
The majority of Tencent’s revenue come from gaming. For a long time, the gaming branch and the WeChat branch do not seem to be working together. Or the idea of social gaming has not been fully figured out. So, with the advent of mini programs, allowing WeChat to be more gaming friendly opens up a floodgate of opportunities for the company. I’m sure there will be impressive developments in this direction in the near future.
In Conclusion
Absent Google, developing a mini program for WeChat in the Chinese market may get your product to market faster than developing a full-on app and spending too much on online ads or app store ranking.
Mini Program is still quite new, so the competition is not as fierce.
But with the size limit, and other coding limitations, mini programs are still generally much lighter and simpler than full apps. Developers and PMs need to weigh carefully the pros and cons between the two.
