These might also entail popular animated ‘stickers’- moving images of cartoon characters, your own face or even gifs.
Like Whatsapp, WeChat allows users to send each other emoticons. Besides that, WeChat has a ‘look around’ function where one can (temporarily) allow its location to be public this allows one to find people in the vicinity to interact with. ‘Moments’ is a closed social network between friends. It is easy to select which group of friends can see what- some updates may only be viewed by work-related relations, while others are meant to be seen by a close group of friends. Its ‘Moments’ function allows every user to have its own ‘timeline’ where they can post updates for all their friends to see. WeChat’s ‘walkie-talkie’ function is one of its most popular functions.īut WeChat incorporates more than that. Rather than sending written text, users send voice messages in a very walkie-talkie kind of way. It is noteworthy to say that, different from Whatsapp, WeChat’s voice message service is commonly used in China. In this sense, WeChat is very similar to Whatsapp, allowing users to transfer pictures, videos or speech, and enabling group chat. The core function of WeChat is its messaging function: sending free messages to phone contacts that also use WeChat. With China’s mobile user market exceeding 750 million, Weixin only has more room to grow (Wang 2014, 3).Īugust, 2013: foreign users exceeding 100 million
By now, there are over 400 million users, with Weixin’s influence going beyond 100 countries. In January 2013, the number of users had reached 300 million. Weixin was an instant hit just over 400 days after its launch it already had 100 million users. It has been successful in the social network market and online game industry. Tencent, founded in 1998, has proved that it knows what China’s (mobile) internet users want. The application was launched in January 2011 by Tencent Holdings Ltd (Chinese name: Tengxun 腾讯, known by the penguin logo). The growing fan base of China’s superapp WeChat has consistently been brought into connection with the declining popularity of Sina Weibo – although they are actually completely different platforms. The power of the app lies its in multifunctionality- making it irresistible to social media fans, mobile users and companies. WeChat currently is China’s most popular smartphone application, and it is winning over consumers within the mobile market in other parts of the world too. If 2009-2012 was the golden era of Sina’s Weibo, 2012-2015 is sure to be the prime time for Tencent’s Weixin, better known as WeChat. “Weixin is not just an application Weixin is a lifestyle, a symbol of this era,” experts say.
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