What is Weixin?

I’m glad you asked! Known in China, Weixin (pronounced as Way-shin) oe WeChat is an instant messaging, social media, and mobile payment app developed by Tencent.

In partnership with Tencent, this company was launched in the winter of 2011. Today, Weixin has over 1 billion monthly active users and is the world’s largest standalone mobile app. WeChat has been dubbed China’s “app for everything” and a super-app due to its wide range of features. With WeChat, you can send text messages, hold-to-talk voice messages, broadcast (one-to-many) messages, video conference, play video games and share photos and videos – it’s pretty cool app.

Originally, Weixin allowed users to send text messages to each other, similar to WhatsApp. Eventually, it added video calling, phone calling, and the ability to post photos, links, comments, etc., making it a social media network. Similarly, it could be considered a similar app to Snapchat, especially in terms of disappearing conversations, but it is so much more. As the app evolved, it added taxi-hailing functionality and the option to directly link your bank account so you could pay with that. Furthermore, it allows users to create their own online stores directly on the website, similar to eBay or Facebook Marketplace.

Now that we know a bit about Weixin, let’s explore how this company swept social media in 2014.

What made Weixin popular?

You are probably thinking that their popularity was a result of what you read above, but it goes deeper than that. For example, with its 2014 Red Letter Campaign, users were able to send ‘red letters’ to one another virtually, giving it a huge boost in popularity. Chinese New Year is already a popular time for giving money to friends and family, so adding this capability made the procedure easier. The app even added a “lottery” type feature, where people could make a pool of money, add recipients to it, and the app would then randomly assign funds to each recipient.

My favorite aspect of Weixin was how it literally tailored itself to understand its audience. According to Mahoney & Tang (2016), their platform is targeting young, urban smartphone owners with an ‘all-in-one’ app. 94) Having seen their platform, they have been able to combine multiple platforms into one place, giving their audience the freedom to do anything they want, thereby increasing their appeal and creating high interest – which is certainly impressive.

Could you ever imagine using Weixin, Avery?

That’s a good question! This is actually a very good question. As for Weixin, I see no need for it since we have other alternatives in the US: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, etc. Although I’m curious about things, I’ll download it to see what it’s all about and discover something new, but other than that, I don’t see any benefit. The situation would be different if I were a Chinese resident. Having said that, what are your thoughts about the Weixin platform and how it has impacted social media? I’d love to know!