Asia loves mobile instant
messaging, and China is no exception. For youngsters, the most popular monthly
mobile phone contract packages probably include hundreds of free SMS. In
addition to SMS, China also has QQ, the decade-old instant messaging that
thoroughly dominates the space. Now Tencent, the company behind QQ, is bringing
the latest mobile messaging service to the mainstream. Whether you call them a
fast follower or an unashamed copycat, Tencent is adept at spotting and pushing
the latest internet trends to its vast user base. Tencent’s version is
called Weixin. From the start, Weixin was likely a clone of Talkbox, an instant voice messaging start-up from Hong Kong. After
Talkbox’s runaway success it became the target of many others including MiTalk,
Kiki Messenger, Youni, and of course Tencent’s Weixin. But Weixin has one key
advantage the others can only dream of: 700 million registered users. Just
about every single Chinese
internet user has a QQ account,
for many QQ is the internet. For Weixin, a QQ account is the only
log-in option, which also immediately allows the app to pull from a user’s
existing QQ social graph. Functionality-wise Weixin
is fairly standard comparing to its competitors. All have text messaging, photo
sharing, voice messaging, location-sharing, and group messaging. But Weixin
once again further leverages Tencent’s massive user base by offering an edgy
geo-location service. You can see and message any users within a 1000m radius
of your GPS position, whether they are a friend or not. Now you can strike up a
conversation with a random stranger near you, and we can all imagine the other
applications this neat little feature can lead to. One friend told me it was an
excellent way to find ‘beautiful girls’ in his vicinity. Social network and mobile media is a quite perfect combination.
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