Thursday, July 12, 2018

WeChat


WeChat (Chinese: 微信) is a Chinese multi-purpose messaging, social media and mobile payment app developed by Tencent. It was first released in 2011. It is described as one of the world's most powerful apps by Forbes, it is also known as China's "app for everything" and a "super app" because of its wide range of functions and platforms(Wikipedia). WeChat based on the platform of mobile incorporates many features such as messaging (one to one, or one to many), official accounts, moments(social feed of friends), subscription accounts, payment service,  friend seek, city services, and so on.
 In our course textbook, it mentions that Networked Individualism: People have become increasingly networked as individuals, rather than embedded in groups. WeChat is one of the best tools to demonstrate this point. It is one of the world's largest standalone mobile apps by monthly active users, with over 1 billion monthly active users (902 million daily active users) by 2018. Each of my family member, including seniors and children, built this tool in her/his own mobile to individually contact with others and to broaden his/her social network. For example, my mom has several friend groups on her WeChat account (previous colleague group, dancing group, table tennis group, middle school classmate group and so on). In each group, people share or communicate distinct topics regarding their hobbies and backgrounds. It is an excellent way to mitigate the adverse effect of context collapse.

1 comment:

  1. Having spent some time in China recently, it is difficult to articulate just how ubiquitous Wechat is for everyday Chinese. Think the jump between MSN messenger to Facebook, then make that jump again and you have Wechat.

    Everyone is on Wechat! Almost the entire administration of the school I attended was run using Wechat Groups and messages. Also you can pay for just about anything using Wechat pay. Walking through a small rural town and see someone selling corn on the cob, well, you can probably (almost certainly) pay by Wechat pay.

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