How many Apps are there on your mobile phone? What do you think of an App that can combine Facebook, Whatsapp, Uber, Paypal, Instagram, Yelp, Expedia, Techcrunch and hundreds of small apps together?<\/p>\n
In-Wechat-Apps: 50 functions in 1 App?<\/strong><\/p>\n We use fewer and fewer Apps in smartphone now. According to eMarketer, 46% of respondents using one to five apps per week, whereas only 35% use six to 10. And the monthly number of new Apps that are downloaded by the consumers are around 1.2-1.6. Wechat, an App created by Tencent with ~800m MAU (Monthly Active Users) was originally a social networking App like Facebook: The Wechat moment is a similar feature like Facebook feed and the messenger service is akin to Facebook Messengers. However, it is now transforming the Application market in China by launching \u201cIn-Wechat Apps (IWA)\u201d. IWA is Wechat-based download-free apps that provide a suite of modules for developers to create web apps that run within Wechat and can provide largely the same functionalities as native apps. IWA doesn\u2019t require installations and thus make the App experience more convenient for the consumers. It also creates opportunities for smaller App developers by decreasing the marketing expense and efforts for people to download and try a new App. Below are some examples of how the IWA change consumer\u2019s behavior and the industry landscape.<\/p>\n Wechat Pay transformed how Chines People distribute \u201cred-envelope\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n Wechat Pay considered one of the most innovative feature in China tech industry. It\u2019s an electronic payment system akin PayPal or Venmo, however, it combines with Chinese people\u2019s culture of giving red-envelope to friend\u2019s and family. The Red-envelop giver can send red-envelop to a friend\u2019s group and the participants can get random money based on the algorism. On the New Year\u2019s Eve of 2016, more than 400 million people participated in a \u201cred packet\u201d campaign and sent 32 billion packets of digital cash to their families and friends during the celebration. The Wechat Pay also become one of the most frequently-used payment in online and offline channels, from different vertical e-commerce website, supermarkets, to small restaurants and mom and pop shop. In addition, Wechat pay users can also purchase wealth management products such as money market fund or the mutual funds. The Wealth management product becomes an efficient way to increase the stickiness of Wechat Pay. Currently the Wechat\u00a0has become one of the most important selling channels for China mutual funds.<\/p>\n Hungry? A service combined \u201cYelp\u201d and \u201cGroupon\u201d that you can share with your friends <\/strong><\/p>\n The consumers can also order meals directly from different restaurants within Wechat. The consumers can simply click the restaurant lists shared by their friends, look at the ratings of the companies and the 3rd<\/sup> party App can deliver the food to your home. The Wechat channel becomes the main outsourcing channel for most of smaller restaurant\u2019s delivery service.<\/p>\n In-Wechat-App become part of consumer\u2019s life<\/strong><\/p>\n The In-Wechat-App is really powerful for both users and developers that even the big Apps want to become part of the system. Currently Linkedin has also created an In-Wechat-App function within Wechat that the consumers can link their profile to Linkedin. Wechat has penetrated 90% of China\u2019s mobile phone users who spent 43% of their daily mobile time on Wechat. The In-Wechat-App will further enhance this behavior to attract more service providers and Wechat will eventually build-up an ecosystem to control most of the China\u2019s mobile market.<\/p>\n Next Step: Customization of In-Wechat-Apps? <\/strong><\/p>\n The key successful factor of Wechat is that it combines people\u2019s necessity of life with its strong social networking effect. The In-Wechat-App can not only increase the efficiency of purchase\u00a0but also create opportunities for people to share with their friends. The consumers\u00a0prefer the In-Wechat-Apps over native Apps because it\u2019s convenient and neat. However, with more and more In-Wechat-Apps, it becomes harder and harder for consumers to choose from and becomes a regular Apps Store. I believe Wechat can solve this problem by using big-data to customize the In-Wechat-Apps functions for different customers, based on their daily payment behavior or friend\u2019s behavior. (720 words)<\/p>\n Source:<\/p>\n Summary\n
\nWechat, the Chinese version of Facebook develop \u201cIn-Wechat-Apps\u201d that combine the third party Apps into the one platform that the consumers can use all functions in Wechat App without downloading the native 3rd-party App. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1768,"featured_media":14626,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[2050,91,247,2049],"class_list":["post-14625","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-app","category-mobile","category-payments","category-social"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/assignment\/digitization-challenge-2016\/","yoast_head":"\n