WeChat

Not to be confused with WeeChat.
WeChat

WeChat Running on Apple iOS 8
Developer(s) Tencent
Initial release January 21, 2011 (2011-01-21)
Stable release

iOS 6.3.8 (December 11, 2015 (2015-12-11)[1][2]) [±]
OS X 1.2.2 (August 18, 2015 (2015-08-18)[3]) [±]
Android 4.4. (June 3, 2015 (2015-06-03)[4]) [±]
Windows Phone 6.0.4 (June 26, 2015 (2015-06-26)[5]) [±]
Symbian V3 4.2 (February 4, 2013 (2013-02-04)[6]) [±]
Symbian V5 4.2 (January 17, 2013 (2013-01-17)[7]) [±]
BlackBerry OS 3.6 (May 30, 2014 (2014-05-30)[8]) [±]
BlackBerry 10 1.0.1.16 (July 30, 2013 (2013-07-30)[8]) [±]

Windows 1.1 (May 6, 2015 (2015-05-06)[9]) [±]
Operating system iOS,OS X, Android, Windows Phone, Symbian, BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry 10, Windows
Available in English, Chinese (Simplified & Traditional), Thai, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Malay, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Polish, Italian, Russian, Hindi, Turkish, Myanmar
Type Instant messaging client
Licence Proprietary
Website www.wechat.com (International)
weixin.qq.com (China)

WeChat (Chinese: 微信; pinyin:  Wēixìn; literally: "micro message") is a mobile text and voice messaging communication service developed by Tencent in China, first released in January 2011.[10] It is one of the largest standalone messaging apps by monthly active users.[11]

The app is available on Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and Symbian phones. Web-based OS X[12] and Windows[13] clients also exist; these however require the user to have the app installed on a supported mobile phone for authentication, and neither message roaming nor 'Moments' are provided.[14] As of May 2016, WeChat has over a billion created accounts, 700 million active users;[15] with more than 70 million outside of China (as of December 2015).[16][17]

WeChat provides text messaging, hold-to-talk voice messaging, broadcast (one-to-many) messaging, video conferencing, video games, sharing of photographs and videos, and location sharing.[18] It can exchange contacts with people nearby via Bluetooth, as well as providing various features for contacting people at random if desired (if these are open to it), next to integration with social networking services such as those run by Facebook and Tencent QQ.[19] Photographs may also be embellished with filters and captions, and a machine translation service is available.

For work purposes, companies and business communication, a special version of WeChat called Enterprise WeChat (or Qiye Weixin) was launched in April 2016. The app is meant to help employees separate work from private life.[20] Except the usual chat features, the program lets companies and their employees keep track of annual leave days and expenses that need to be reimbursed, employees can ask for time off or even clock in to show they are at work.[21][22] Security has been upgraded and companies must register before their employees can use the service.[23][24]

History

WeChat began as a project at Tencent Guangzhou Research and Project center in October 2010.[25] The original version of the app, "Weixin", was invented by Xiaolong Zhang, and named by Ma Huateng, Tencent CEO.[26]

In April 2012, Weixin was re-branded as WeChat for the international market.[27]

On 12 August 2015, Tencent revealed WeChat's Monthly Active Users metrics to be 600 million,[28] a quick growth over the previously released number of 549 million Monthly Active Users released only 5 months earlier.[29]

In March 2016, it had 706 million monthly active users.[30]

Features

Instant Messaging

WeChat supports different ways of instant message, including text message, voice message, walkie talkie and stickers. Users can send previously saved or live pictures and videos, namecards of other users, coupons, lucky money packages, or current GPS location with friends either individually or in a group chat. WeChat's character stickers, such as Tuzki, resemble and compete with those of LINE.[31]

Official Accounts

WeChat supports users to register as a official account, which enables them to push feeds to subscribers, interact with subscribers and provide them with services. By the end of 2014, the number of Wechat official accounts had reached 8 million.[32] Official accounts of organizations can apply for verified, official, public accounts. Official accounts can be used as a platform for services such as hospital pre-registrations,[33] visa renewal[34] or credit card service.[35]

Moments

WeChat supports users to post image and text, share music (associated with QQ Music) and article, as well as comment and "like" in the Moments. Only the friends from the users' contact will be able to view their Moments contents and comments. The Moments can be also linked to Facebook and Twitter account, which can automatically post Moments content directly to these two platforms. [36]

WeChat Payment

WeChat supports payment and money transfer, which allows their users to peer-to-peer transfer and electronic bill payment.[37] In addition to China, the payment service is offered in parts of Southeast Asia, Europe, North America and Oceania.[38] WeChat Payment also competes with Alipay.[39] WeChat allows users to tip their favourite posts as well. As of March 2016, WeChat Payment has over 300 million users worldwide. In April 2016, WeChat invested RMB 100 million in accelerating the market expansion of WeChat Payment. [40]

City Services

WeChat has launched the City Services feature in 27 cities across China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.[41] City Services include booking doctor appointments, paying electricity fees or traffic fines, and booking transportation.[42]

Friend finding

WeChat allows people to add friends by a variety of methods, including searching by username or phone number, adding from phone or email contacts, playing a "message in a bottle" game, or viewing nearby people who are also using the same service. In 2015 Wechat added a "friend radar" function.[43]

Censorship

Global Censorship

Starting January 9, 2013 reports arose that Chinese language searches even outside China were being keyword filtered and then blocked. This occurred both on incoming traffic to China from foreign countries but also exclusively between foreign parties. (The service had already censored its communications within China.) In the international example of blocking, a message was displayed on users' screens reading "The message "南方周末" your message contains restricted words. Please check it again." These are the simplified Chinese characters for a Guangzhou-based paper called Southern Weekly (or, alternatively, Southern Weekend). The next day Tencent released a statement addressing the issue saying "A small number of WeChat international users were not able to send certain messages due to a technical glitch this Thursday. Immediate actions have been taken to rectify it. We apologize for any inconvenience it has caused to our users. We will continue to improve the product features and technological support to provide a better user experience." WeChat has plans to build two different platforms to avoid this problem in the future; one for Chinese mainlanders and one for the rest of the world. The problem exists because WeChat's servers are currently all located in China and thus subjected to its censorship rules.[44][45][46]

Restricting Sharing Websites in "Moments"

On Dec 12, 2014, WeChat announced that according to "related regulations", domains of the web pages that want to get shared in WeChat Moments need to get an ICP license by Dec 31, 2014 to avoid being restricted by WeChat.[47]

Security concerns

WeChat operates from China under Chinese law, which includes strong censorship provisions and interception protocols.[48] WeChat contains the ability to access the text messages and contact books of its users and users’ locations through the GPS feature.[48] Countries and regions such as India, the United States, China and Taiwan all fear that the app poses a threat to national or regional security for various reasons.[48][49][50] In Taiwan, legislators were concerned that the potential exposure of private communications was a threat to regional security.[48] In June 2013, the Indian Intelligence Bureau flagged WeChat for security concerns. India has debated whether or not they should ban WeChat for its possibility in collecting too much personal information and data from its users.[50][51][52]

China

Users in China also have expressed concern for the privacy issues of the app. Human rights activist, Hu Jia was jailed for three years for sedition. He speculates that the guobao officials, or the internal security bureau, listened to his voicemail messages that were directed to his friends, repeating the words displayed within the voice mail messages to Hu Jia. Chinese authorities have further accused the app of threatening individual safety. China Central Television (short CCTV), a state run broadcaster, featured a piece in which WeChat was described as an app that allows criminals an easy way in due to its location-reporting features. CCTV gave an example of such accusations through reporting the murder of a single woman who was murdered by a man she met on WeChat after he attempted to rob her. The location-reporting feature, according to reports, was the reason for the man’s knowing of the victim’s whereabouts. Authorities within China have linked WeChat to numerous crimes. The city of Hangzhou, for example, has reported over twenty crimes in the span of three months.[48][53]

Supporters

Supporters of the app argue that WeChat is overall safe. Martin Johnson, a founder of the anti-censorship site GreatFire.org, states that WeChat is a less potential threat than the app Weibo based on WeChat’s focus on messaging between well-known acquaintances and social groups. Doug Young, a Shanghai-based author of the Party Line, notes that while the app may practice self-censorship within China, it will not, however, practice the same censorship ideals outside of China. Doing so, according to Young, would affect the app's image and possibility hamper its global expansion.[54]

Indiatimes had an article on why they thought WeChat had plentiful features and was a good alternative.[55]

XcodeGhost malware

On 24 September 2015, Apple published a list of the top 25 most popular apps infected with the XcodeGhost malware, confirming earlier reports that version 6.2.5 of WeChat for iOS was infected with it.[56][57][58] The malware originated in a counterfeit version of Xcode (dubbed "XcodeGhost"), Apple's software development tools, and made its way into the compiled app through a modified framework.[59] Despite Apple's review process, WeChat and other infected apps were approved and distributed through the App Store. Even though some sources claimed that the malware was capable of prompting the user for their account credentials, opening URLs and reading the device's clipboard,[60] Apple responded that the malware was not capable of doing "anything malicious" or transmitting any personally identifiable information beyond "apps and general system information" and that it had no information that suggested that this had happened.[56] Some commentators considered this to be the largest security breach in the App Store's history.[59]

Web client

WeChat provides a Web-based client, with messaging and file transfer capabilities, and it provides WeChat app for Apple Mac users. Other functions cannot be used on it, such as the detection of nearby people. To use the Web-based client, it is necessary to first scan a QR code using the phone app. This means it is not possible to get onto the WeChat network if you do not possess a suitable smartphone with the app installed.[61]

WeChat could be accessed on Windows using Bluestacks until December 2014.[62][63] Beginning then, WeChat blocks Android emulators and accounts that have signed in from emulators may be frozen.[64]

There are some reported issues with the Web client. Specifically when using English, some users have experienced autocorrect, autocomplete, autocapitalization, and autodelete behavior as they type messages, and even after the message is sent. For example, "gonna" gets autocorrected to "go", the E's get autodeleted in "need", "wechat" gets autocapitalized to "Wechat" but not "WeChat", and after the message is sent, "don't" gets autocorrected to "do not". However, the autocorrected word(s) after the message is sent appear on the phone app as the user originally typed it ("don't" is seen on the phone app whereas "do not" is seen on the Web client). Users can translate foreign language during the conversation and the words posted on moments. However, it is basically a useless function because the words after translation are full of mistakes.

Collaborations

In 2015 WeChat collaborated with Cogobuy's subsidiary IngDan Ltd for the "WeChat Hardware Competition". Cogobuy and WeChat successfully established an IoT ecosystem partnership with over one million followers as of February 2015.[65] By forming a closed loop ecosystem, Cogobuy serves each entrepreneur and innovator, even the entire IoT industry. IngDan Ltd provides the consolidated support with supply chain services and resource connectivity to assist hardware innovators to produce their products, as well as the platform to promote their products to there over one million WeChat followers through the collaboration.[66] International brands also use WeChat as their customer service tool

In February 2014 Burberry, partnered with WeChat to create its own WeChat apps around its fall 2014 runway show, giving users live streams from the shows.[67] Another brand, Michael Kors used WeChat to give live updates from their runway show, and later to run a photo contest "Chic Together WeChat campaign".[68]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Tencent Inc. (June 25, 2014). "WeChat". App Store. Apple. Retrieved June 25, 2014.
  2. ↑ Note:
    1. App Store has been noted 17+, which means download only for seventeen years and older (for Apple ID holder).
    2. iOS version available in iPhone only but user can run in iPad.
  3. ↑ Tencent Inc. (March 17, 2014). "WeChat". Mac App Store. Apple. Retrieved March 28, 2014.
  4. ↑ Tencent Inc. (August 12, 2013). "WeChat". Google Play. Google. Retrieved June 6, 2015.
  5. ↑ Tencent Inc. (June 26, 2015). "WeChat". Windows Phone Marketplace. Microsoft. Retrieved July 1, 2015.
  6. ↑ Tencent Inc. "WeChat 4.2 for S60v3 Release". WeChat. Retrieved October 12, 2015.
  7. ↑ Tencent Inc. "WeChat 4.2 for S60v5 Release". WeChat. Retrieved October 12, 2015.
  8. 1 2 Tencent Inc. (July 18, 2012). "WeChat". BlackBerry App World. Research In Motion. Retrieved July 18, 2013.
  9. ↑ Tencent Inc. (May 6, 2015). "WeChat". Windows. Microsoft. Retrieved May 6, 2015.
  10. ↑ "Weixin (微信) – Tencent’s Bringing the Mobile IM Revolution to theMainstream". TechRice. September 21, 2011. Retrieved April 20, 2012.
  11. ↑ It’s time for messaging apps to quit the bullshit numbers and tell us how many users are active. techinasia.com. January 23, 2014. Steven Millward.
  12. ↑ Mittal Mandalia (2014-02-28). "WeChat announces native Mac client; Windows version may follow soon". techienews.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-03-06.
  13. ↑ "WeChat for Windows".
  14. ↑ Sohu IT page (in Chinese) "登陆依然需要手机扫描二维码" (registration still requires having your mobile scan a code)
  15. ↑ "WeChat pay fees kick in". Business Insider. Retrieved 2016-05-05.
  16. ↑ "Tencent - Investor Relations - Financial Releases - 2014". Tencent. 12 August 2015.
  17. ↑ "WeChat breaks 700 million monthly active users". Business Insider. Retrieved 2016-05-05.
  18. ↑ https://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Blog/WeChat-Messaging-App-Review/ba-p/14153535 WeChat users can send free text messages (SMS), picture messages (MMS), voice messages, video messages, and make free voice calls and video calls. Group chat functionality, broadcast messages (sending voice messages to multiple users) and walkie talkie mode are also available. Other services include location sharing, contacts sharing, photo sharing, moments and games. Moments allow users to share photos with their Facebook or Twitter accounts. WeChat offers paid for services including downloading stickers and downloading games with in-app game purchases. After three months of launching WeChat’s Game Center in 2013, it registered over 570 million downloads.
  19. ↑ "WeChat - Features". wechat.com. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  20. ↑ Lopez, Napier (2016-04-18). "WeChat just launched a Slack competitor, but there's a catch". The Next Web. Retrieved 2016-05-05.
  21. ↑ "WeChat Enterprise could be the app to take down Slack". Digital Trends. 2016-04-18. Retrieved 2016-05-05.
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  23. ↑ Hook, Leslie. "Tencent’s WeChat uses its muscle to appeal to business users". Financial Times. ISSN 0307-1766. Retrieved 2016-05-05.
  24. ↑ Osawa, Juro (2016-04-18). "Tencent Targets Corporate Clients With Enterprise WeChat Launch". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2016-05-05.
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  27. ↑ 陈小蒙 (2012-11-07). "微信：走出中国，走向世界？". 36氪. Retrieved 2012-12-03.
  28. ↑ https://www.techinasia.com/wechat-monthly-active-users-q2-2015/>
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  30. ↑ C. Custer (April 18, 2016). "WeChat blasts past 700 million monthly active users, tops China’s most popular apps". Tech In Asia. Retrieved April 22, 2016.
  31. ↑ The sticker wars
  32. ↑ 方雨 (2014-11-04). "微信公众号已经进入标配期".
  33. ↑ 3139. "北京8家医院年内推出微信挂号服务 可挂专家号". people.com.cn. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  34. ↑ "港澳通行证续签新"技能"：微信续签送红包！". tongyue.com. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  35. ↑ 信用卡智能"微客服"
  36. ↑ "WeChat - Features". www.wechat.com. Retrieved 2015-12-13.
  37. ↑ "WeChat now supports payments between users and one-click payments | Finance Magnates". Fin Tech | Finance Magnates. Retrieved 2015-12-13.
  38. ↑ "Tencent to fully open WeChat Payment for overseas transactions". Shanghaiist. Retrieved 2015-12-13.
  39. ↑ "WeChat payment: 5 reasons Tencent might kill Alipay". WalktheChat. Retrieved 2015-12-13.
  40. ↑ "WeChat Pay invests USD 15 M to support its service providers". AllChinaTech. Retrieved 2016-04-22.
  41. ↑ "微信又一超赞新功能接入！ - 今日头条(TouTiao.com)". toutiao.com. Retrieved 2015-12-13.
  42. ↑ "WeChat City Services". Grata. Retrieved 2015-12-13.
  43. ↑ http://www.bgr.in/news/wechat-introduces-friends-radar-to-add-friends-to-your-list-with-a-tap/
  44. ↑ Millward, Steven (10 January 2013). "Now China’s WeChat App is Censoring Its Users Globally". TECHINASIA.
  45. ↑ Millward, Steven (11 January 2013). "Tencent Responds in Case of Apparent WeChat Censorship". TECHINASIA.
  46. ↑ Muncaster, Phil (11 January 2013). "China censors chat users outside China". The Register.
  47. ↑ "WeChat: Domains Need ICP License Before Being Shared (Chinese)". QQ.com. 12 December 2014.
  48. 1 2 3 4 5 Nicola Davison. "WeChat: the Chinese social media app that has dissidents worried". the Guardian. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
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  50. 1 2 "WeChat is a threat to national security claim researchers - ParityNews". ParityNews. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  51. ↑ "Chinese Mobile Messaging App WeChat Still A Big Worry For The Indian Government". lighthouseinsights.in. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  52. ↑ "WeChat aims to grow in US despite obstacles - Global Times". globaltimes.cn. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  53. ↑ "Tencent's WeChat is a Threat to Everyone". Tech in Asia. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  54. ↑ "China's hot messaging app WeChat may be good news for censors". Reuters. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  55. ↑ "10 Reasons Why WeChat is Better than Whatsapp". indiatimes.com. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  56. 1 2 "XcodeGhost Q&A". Apple. September 23, 2015. Retrieved September 24, 2015.
  57. ↑ Claud, Xiao (September 17, 2015). "Novel Malware XcodeGhost Modifies Xcode, Infects Apple iOS Apps and Hits App Store". Palo Alto Networks. Retrieved September 24, 2015.
  58. ↑ Claud, Xiao (September 18, 2015). "Malware XcodeGhost Infects 39 iOS Apps, Including WeChat, Affecting Hundreds of Millions of Users". Palo Alto Networks. Retrieved September 24, 2015.
  59. 1 2 Reed, Thomas (September 21, 2015). "XcodeGhost malware infiltrates App Store". Malwarebytes. Retrieved September 24, 2015.
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  61. ↑ "Web WeChat". qq.com. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  62. ↑ "WeChat for PC Download or WeChat for Computer (Windows 7/8 & Mac)". WeChat for PC Download or WeChat for Windows 7/8. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  63. ↑ Gaurav. "Wechat For PC – Download Wechat For Windows 7/8/". extraneous-kickassery.com. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  64. ↑ "安卓模拟器被全面封杀 微信开放性再引质疑".
  65. ↑ "Cogobuy - INGDAN.com Followers Hit Million Mark". Fox News. 2015.
  66. ↑ "Cogobuy Announces Unaudited Operation Summary for 2014 Q3". Stock House News. 2015.
  67. ↑ Mau, Dhani (10 August 2015). "HOW WESTERN FASHION BRANDS ARE USING SOCIAL MEDIA IN CHINA". Fashionista. Retrieved 5 May 2016.
  68. ↑ "Michael Kors' WeChat Selfie Competition Shows New York Heritage". Jing Daily. 2016-05-04. Retrieved 2016-05-05.

External links

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