What makes us start using a social media platform? Is it just to connect to others and share photos? What about the ability to send money to friends and family? How about reading the news or shopping?
Instead of signing up for dozens of different accounts for each use or service, Weixin brings it all into one social network.
Meeting Users’ Needs
Each service provided by Weixin is designed to meet the needs, preferences and interests of their users. Weixin targets young, urban smartphone users aiming to provide an “all-in-one-platform” app.
Weixin is not just a mix of apps but is also a game platform, a bank, and even a gateway for food delivery, shopping and taxi service. They have introduced new features to a share traditional Red Envelopes with their connections, taxi reservations, and more that fit the busy and “always on” lives of their users. The app also caters to the difficulties of texting in Chinese by providing voice to text.
The sheer variety of services offered by Weixin brings users with different backgrounds and needs to the app. No matter their lifestyle or interests, users can find what they need on the Weixin app where their connections already exist as well.
The App For Daily Life
Weixin didn’t magically become the go to app for Chinese people’s daily life. They focused on building their platform with useful, every day functions like messaging and connections before branching out to incorporate additional features.
Increasing smartphone adoption, social networking, mobile payments, corporate services, and additional app functionality were all integral technologies that made an app like Weixin possible. The Weixin app goes beyond a simple messaging or social network app and has become an entire ecosystem of apps and functionality.
They tapped into the existing cultural traditions and partnered with companies across the country to provide a quality product and experience.
“Make your social media product a part of your audiences’ everyday routine and habit.”
Weixin has demonstrated the ability for an app to become a central element for everyday life in China. The company’s international version, WeChat, has provided similar service for users outside of China.
This type of app is certainly capable of gaining popularity internationally. Weixin and WeChat have over 1.2 billion active monthly users exchanging over 45 billion messages every day.
One App To Rule Them All
You can see similarities in the use of Apple, Google and Facebook. Each of these companies as well as hundreds of other apps across the world are all striving to expand their functionality and build their user-base.
Apple has been successful building a hardware ecosystem with integrated Apple products and services like Apple Pay. Google has a dominant social media platform in YouTube and services such as Google Pay, Google Drive, Gmail, etc. Facebook has built the world’s largest social media network and messaging platform, while its attempts to enter into payments has been met with concern.
Despite their incredible success, none of these tech titans have been able to dominate across dozens of services.
So when will we see apps that cover the breadth of services offered by Weixin in more countries?
Well for the U.S., not likely anytime soon.
Between America’s anti-trust regulations and a growing distrust of big tech companies, it is unlikely a single platform will be able to achieve dominance across so many different services. Whether this is a detriment or a benefit for consumers remains to be seen.
So would you want the convenience of all your services rolled up into a single app or do the concerns around privacy and competition outweigh the benefits?
Influence of a Higher Ed Marketer 