WeChat dominates the social networks in China. Now, it wants to pull attention from the app store of Apple in favor of its own app store app. The parent company of WeChat, Tencent announced the Xiaochengxu or ‘mini programs’ feature. Moreover, WeChat told Reuters the function would enable users to access the services of merchants with no need to download their applications.
The biggest social network in China started as a chat application but has grown into a social platform that’s based around its core messaging feature and provides the same functions to Facebook. Extending the experience with mini apps help to further push it into becoming a full social network and lets users spend more time within WeChat. The initial response to Xiaochengxu, according to Tencent has been positive with interest from different merchants, which include hotels, airlines and travel agencies. It would be the content quality that will decide its success of failure. With app stores like the app store google, and Play Store worth billions of dollars, they have become a key target for others to copy. Chinese web giant Baidu launched a similar in-application downloading platform called Light App in 2013. There are 768 million active WeChat users, more than double the whole population of the United States, made over 100 million video and voice calls daily via the application in 2016.
WeChat is the largest and most popular social network in China and has made a deep way into the limelight the past few days since the release of a feature that could be used as an alternative to the popular app stores, like app store google, app stores run by Apple or Google. WeChat focuses on boosting its profile and diverting customers from Apple’s App store concept. The new functionality of the application is aimed at almost 768 million users. Apple and Google have benefited millions of dollars via their common application stores and so this has pressured China to take an effective step. Users of the internet depend on these applications for different reasons, like checking the bank statements as well as online shopping and many more. Based on the Developer Tech report, Tencent said that the current functions enable users to access merchant services without downloading their applications. Furthermore, the company also stated that the initial response to Xiaochengxu received a huge acclaim from different audience groups, like travel agency, airline and hotels.
Billions of dollars are up for grabs from the most common application stores that are run by Apple and Google, making them a major target for China. Applications are relied upon heavily by internet users all over the world, for everything, from grocery shopping to checking bank statements. This is just another indication that this is now the world of WeChat, for western brands this presents a chance to capitalize on the infrastructure that connects such a huge number of prospective customers that are all in one place and also highly engaged. Built-in applications would strengthen or reinforce branding in China on the most powerful social platform. This also further strengthens WeChat’s fortress, their app is the most integrated in the world, with services that range from photo sharing, messaging, dating, gaming, financial management, taxi ordering, geo-localization and eCommerce shopping. Previously, WeChat doesn’t have a built-in app service, thus has none to lose by launching its own version. The message here is that WeChat could fulfill all one’s needs, the time spent in browsing on the web is even within WeChat without having to ever leave the application.
To get into the app store of WeChat, companies would have to develop applications that vary from their iOS and Android versions. These are built with a special framework that’s designed by Tencent and reportedly would be based on JavaScript. Applications could be set up in accordance with brands official accounts that already serve as micro-sites for dissemination of content and presentation of information. The applications would have to be developed with local, specialist bodies to fulfill Chinese regulatory requirements. Furthermore, the apps should also be strongly targeted for Chinese consumers, so using local knowledge is paramount for re-branding through apps.
By marrying user applications with official accounts, users could be engaged longer and at numerous entry points. Intelligent brand communication could be developed within the mini applications, which then could directly link to an official account. The applications are accessed from within a new panel inside WeChat, this is close to hundreds of millions of people regularly posting links of photos to their ‘Moment’s’, the equivalent of WeChat to Facebook’s news feed. The new process likely would keep users pending even more time in WeChat, which already accounts for 30 percen tof all mobile online time spent in China. The presence of WeChat is now more important.
The biggest social network in China started as a chat application but has grown into a social platform that’s based around its core messaging feature and provides the same functions to Facebook. Extending the experience with mini apps help to further push it into becoming a full social network and lets users spend more time within WeChat. The initial response to Xiaochengxu, according to Tencent has been positive with interest from different merchants, which include hotels, airlines and travel agencies. It would be the content quality that will decide its success of failure. With app stores like the app store google, and Play Store worth billions of dollars, they have become a key target for others to copy. Chinese web giant Baidu launched a similar in-application downloading platform called Light App in 2013. There are 768 million active WeChat users, more than double the whole population of the United States, made over 100 million video and voice calls daily via the application in 2016.
WeChat is the largest and most popular social network in China and has made a deep way into the limelight the past few days since the release of a feature that could be used as an alternative to the popular app stores, like app store google, app stores run by Apple or Google. WeChat focuses on boosting its profile and diverting customers from Apple’s App store concept. The new functionality of the application is aimed at almost 768 million users. Apple and Google have benefited millions of dollars via their common application stores and so this has pressured China to take an effective step. Users of the internet depend on these applications for different reasons, like checking the bank statements as well as online shopping and many more. Based on the Developer Tech report, Tencent said that the current functions enable users to access merchant services without downloading their applications. Furthermore, the company also stated that the initial response to Xiaochengxu received a huge acclaim from different audience groups, like travel agency, airline and hotels.
Billions of dollars are up for grabs from the most common application stores that are run by Apple and Google, making them a major target for China. Applications are relied upon heavily by internet users all over the world, for everything, from grocery shopping to checking bank statements. This is just another indication that this is now the world of WeChat, for western brands this presents a chance to capitalize on the infrastructure that connects such a huge number of prospective customers that are all in one place and also highly engaged. Built-in applications would strengthen or reinforce branding in China on the most powerful social platform. This also further strengthens WeChat’s fortress, their app is the most integrated in the world, with services that range from photo sharing, messaging, dating, gaming, financial management, taxi ordering, geo-localization and eCommerce shopping. Previously, WeChat doesn’t have a built-in app service, thus has none to lose by launching its own version. The message here is that WeChat could fulfill all one’s needs, the time spent in browsing on the web is even within WeChat without having to ever leave the application.
To get into the app store of WeChat, companies would have to develop applications that vary from their iOS and Android versions. These are built with a special framework that’s designed by Tencent and reportedly would be based on JavaScript. Applications could be set up in accordance with brands official accounts that already serve as micro-sites for dissemination of content and presentation of information. The applications would have to be developed with local, specialist bodies to fulfill Chinese regulatory requirements. Furthermore, the apps should also be strongly targeted for Chinese consumers, so using local knowledge is paramount for re-branding through apps.
By marrying user applications with official accounts, users could be engaged longer and at numerous entry points. Intelligent brand communication could be developed within the mini applications, which then could directly link to an official account. The applications are accessed from within a new panel inside WeChat, this is close to hundreds of millions of people regularly posting links of photos to their ‘Moment’s’, the equivalent of WeChat to Facebook’s news feed. The new process likely would keep users pending even more time in WeChat, which already accounts for 30 percen tof all mobile online time spent in China. The presence of WeChat is now more important.
