Yixin (EasyChat) released the update version 2.0. The new version was added the no-charge call function.

Yixin (EasyChat) released the major update version 2.0, and they started to provide some interesting functions in this version.

The first is the no-charge call function by VoIP.

  

It's like the Skype, and it can make a call without any charge in the Yixin client. But at this time, it does not support outbound call like the Skype-out.

But I think that they will absolutely try to materialize its outbound service as a pay service. Because China Telecom side with this Yixin, and they have a lot of know-how in this area(the knowledge of billing method, operation method and so forth). It's their original advantage that their rival WeChat doesn't have.


The next is the LBS service like the Google Latitude.

The Yixin user can know the current location of their friends via this function. But of course, if you don't wish provide the information of own current location, you can set that your friend cannot know your current location.


The last is not the new function, but is the change of displaying method in the top page.

The official accounts on Yixin were independently displayed on the top page, but from this version, these official accounts are displayed all in one piece as the menu of "Official account" as same as WeChat.

It may be a bad news for the person who would like to use Yixin for the marketing activity.


Well, its new version of Android was already released, and can download from their official site. And about its iPhone version, they said it is now under examination on the App Store of Apple.


As I explained before, I think Yixin should aim to the direction of total communication tool, and they should not aim to the same direction with WeChat. So I think this update is very meaningful and interesting.

I would like to keep the attention to their action as ever.


Source => The official page of Yixin, Ifeng

Yixin also started to provide its client for PC. But that function is restrictive at this time.

Their rival 'WeChat' have already provided its Web browser version as a PC client, but Yixin (EasyChat) also recently started to provide its PC client.

But this version is limited in the function as same as the Web browser version of WeChat now. For example, it supports only a part of the chatting function, and it doesn't support the function of using the social page, stamp, adding the new friend, voice chatting and so forth.

Its help page often uses the word of 'at this version', so we may be able to expect its upgrade. But basically, Yixin has focussed to the mobile solution, so I think that it will not bring the dramatic improvement.

So as same as the Web browser version of WeChat, it may be useful when we have to send a long message to the friend :)


Source => The official page of Yixin

Yixin expanded the campaign of providing the free data packet. All of Chinese mobile users have a chance to get 300MB data packets.

As I explained before, the own IM tool of Alibaba 'Laiwang' started to provide the free data packet to their users, but Yixin also expanded the similar campaign.

The target users of this campaign are not only included China Telecom users, but also is included China Mobile and China Unicom. But there are some different conditions between China Telecom users and other 2 careers to get this service.

China Telecom users only register Yixin, and then they can get 300MB free data packet. And if the user will post messages more than 5 times, then they can get 60MB free data packet every month. China Mobile and China Unicom users invite the 6 acquaintances to Yixin, and then they can get the 300MB free data packets. And they don't have the chance to get the 60MB gift every month.

It seems that there is not the limitation by area like the campaign of Alibaba.

Laiwang and Yixin started the similar campaign to get more users. Then how about WeChat is? It seems that the battle space of IM tool in China is not only the function field, but also was added the service field.

Let's keep watching their actions and the trend of this industry as ever.


Source => Official page of Yixin

The registered user of Yixin already exceeded 30 million people. Its main users are 16 to 25 years old.

Yixin (EasyChat)  got a good start, and they also continue to increase their users after that, but they officially reported their users already exceeded 30,000,000 people as of Oct. 28.

According to them, Yixin is mainly welcomed by young people, and actually 70 percent of their users are 16 to 25 years old (They are called post-85s or post-90s in China). And its daily active users are 28% of all, and over 32 million information is posted on there in a day.

The official said that they also continue to enhance its function, and at the same time they will also add the attractive new function. For example, they said that they will adopt the mobile payment function or games on their platform.

But I personally think this is an imitation of WeChat, so I think that they should choose the other way with WeChat, for example they recently adopted the international call function. Because they can utilize the infrastructure that China Telecom has.

In China, now Alibaba also strongly promotes their own IM tool 'Laiwang', and the largest electronics retail store in China 'Suning' also have a plan to provide their own IM tool 'Yunxin'. So we cannot take our eyes off of the future trend in this industry.


Source => Netease IT, CNFOL

Yixin (EasyChat) added the international call function to the new version. Its user can get 60 minutes free call from oversea to China.

Yixin (EasyChat) recently published the new version, but this version was added to the function of the international call.

This version only supports the call from the oversea to China, but its user can get the 60 minutes free call per a month.

How to use this? It's very simple.

1. Click the setting ("设定") button.
2. Click the international call ("国际漫游电话") button.
3. Click the call ("拨打国际漫游电话") button
4. Select the person who you want to call from the contact list.

That's all.

I think that this function is very useful not only for the traveler in China, but also is useful when the foreigner who lives in China temporarily go back to the own country.


This type of function can become the advantage compared to WeChat, but it is easy to implement for Yixin, because China Telecom joined this product. If WeChat would like to implement the similar function, they have to construct like the IP telephony system by themselves.

As I said before,  if Yixin will go the way to become the total communication platform in all of on the user's mobile phone like this solution, then Yixin can close in on WeChat more than now.


Source => Sohu IT, cnBeta

How to use the official account management platform of Yixin.

As I explained before, Yixin also published the official account management platform.

Last time, I explained the summary of this platform, but I would like to explain the use method of this platform today. Writing the conclusion first, their platform is very similar to the platform of WeChat, for example their function, operating procedures and so forth.

Login to this platform, and the following page is displayed at first.

The administrator of this platform can know the increasing history of the new follower and the receiving number of the information from their followers on this page.

The next picture is the management page of the information that the official account received from their followers.

The administrator can check that information by the period (ex. today, yesterday, 7 days, 30 days and so forth).

Next is the management page of their followers.

The administrator can set the specific user as a black list, and also can manage the followers by the category.

Next is the management page of sending the message.

The administrator can send the text, picture, voice, video messages via this page as same as WeChat. But there is an interesting function that WeChat don't have. That is a function of sending the event information.

By the way, the official account can send one message to their followers in a day.

These sending information can set on the following management page.

Next is the page of the advanced features.

The administrator can set the auto reply function on this page. And if they would like to be a developer of Yixin, they also can file the request from this page.

The last one is the settings page.

The administrator can set the icon or summary information of the official account. And Yixin also prepared the QR code of the official account, so you also can put this code on the official site and so forth.

According to the news, the official account number of Yixin already exceeded 6,000 accounts, and they are rapidly increasing even now.

Of course, the user of Yixin is also rapidly increasing, and according to the news, their users are averagely increasing 1 million people in a day.

But unfortunately, the company or organization that is not formally registered in China yet can't use this platform at this time. Because when filing the request, the number of business license is needed as follows.

About this, there is no other way waiting that they will start the overseas deployment.


Source => The official account management platform of Yixin, china.com

Yixin also published the management platform for the official accounts that is similar to WeChat. Can they differentiate with WeChat?

As I explained before, it can be said that Yixin made the good start. And as their second stage, they published the management platform for the official accounts that is similar to WeChat last weekend.

I cannot register the official account yet, so I would like to explain its summary today.

Their platform mainly has the four features as follows.

1. Customer service
2. Tools or APIs for the developers
3. Internal communications
4. Post the messages

The function of No.1, 2, 4 is same as WeChat, but the characteristic function is No.3. As I explained before, Facishare published the business version of WeChat, and recently a lot of companies published similar software in China. Furthermore I explained before, the companies who started to use the social media in the business scene is recently increasing in China.

So I think that the No.3 function is best choice for differentiating with WeChat.

And the client application of Yixin also updated at the same time as the management platform.

   

Of course, the latest version has the function that displays the official accounts like the above picture. Now the official account on Yixin is very little, and it's only exists a few accounts that Netease released. But it seems that some of them is very useful.

   


WeChat said that they wouldn't like the official accounts to use this as a marketing platform before, but how about Yixin?

We have to keep their action as ever.


Source => Netease IT, Official account management platform of Yixin

Yixin also may get involved in trouble of their trademark right. The other company has already filed the trademark of "Yixin" last September.

As I said last time, Yisin has still had some system trouble, but it can be said that the start dash of Yixin was successful.

But the new trouble was revealed, it is the problem of trademark right. According to the news, a Beijing based company already filed the trademark right of "Yixin" last September.

Their filing category was also No.38 that was categorized as the communication.

The end of last year, WeChat also got in trouble in the trademark right. As I said at that time, the trademark right is basically preferred the earlier filing, so there is a possibility that Yixin have to change their name, or have to pay the royalty of this trademark right.

To make matters worse, in the case of WeChat (Weixin), the other company filed the trademark right of "Weixin" was only one week earlier than Tencent. Furthermore Weixin had been already a well-known word as a service of Tencent at that time. But in this case, the other company filed the trademark of "Yixin" in 11 months earlier than China Telecom or Netease.

Of course, nobody knew that "Yixin" is the service of China Telecom or Netease at that time. 

According to the news on June, the trouble of the trademark right "Weixin" also have not been solved yet. So we have to continue watching these two troubles as ever.

Source => ifeng, TechWeb, CNNB

Yixin still have some problem, but it was a good turnout. In 24 hours after publishing, Yixin got more than a million users.

Last time, I introduced about 'Yixin' that is co-produced IM tool by China Telecom and Netease.

According to their official information, it made a good start just after its publishing, and Yixin got more than a million users in 24 hours.

And Yixin got the 1st ranking of social category in the App store that night, and it also got the 2nd ranking in all of free apps on there.

About the other number, there were more than 300,000 pictures in its social feature, and there were 1 million times SMS sending, and there were 400,000 times voicemail communications.

Actually, some user said that its voice quality is much better than WeChat, and my friends or colleagues also said that it seems it's better than WeChat.

As I said last time, they have a target that they will get more than 100 million users in the six months, but they announced a new target that they will get more than 10 million users till the end of this month.

But on the other hand, it's true that Yixin has a lot of trouble with registration, SMS communication, voicemail and so forth. About these troubles, they promised to solve as soon as possible on their official account of Sina Weibo.

There are some mortifying things other than these troubles. It's the registration from the oversea. Now there are some difficulties in the registration from oversea as follows:

- iOS version of Yixin cannot download from out of China.

*It seems that there is the regional limitation.

- The registration of Yixin is needed the mobile phone number of China.

- The menu of Yixin supports only simplified Chinese now.

*In the app store, they wrote that it supports English and simplified Chines, but actually it seems it doesn't support.

About the Android version of it, you can download its apk file from their official site, but there are still remains the problem of registration and its menu.

About this, there is nothing for it but to wait their correspondence.

According to the news, the stock price of Netease increased 20% compared to before publishing Yixin. It can be said that their start dash was successful, so let's watch their action and the market response from now on too.

Source => DF Daily, Netease economy

China Telecom and Netease formally published their collaboration IM tool "Yixin". They will establish a joint venture for beating WeChat.

China Telecom and Netease held a co-event today, and they formally published the collaboration IM tool "Yixin" today.

 


They announced following things at the event.

- They will establish a joint venture soon to promote Yixin.
According to the some sources, the investment ratio of this company is 7 (China Telecom) to 3 (Netease), and all of the investment amount is 200 million RMB (= 32.41 million USD).

- They aim to gain more than 100 million registered users and more than 50 million active users in the six months.

- China Telecom will pre-install this "Yixin" to their providing smartphones (not all).


And they also said that WeChat is their rival, but do they have a good chance of winning? Let's check the difference of functional aspect with WeChat.

Yixin has the feature of chat (including group chat), social, emotion icon and QR code and so forth as same as WeChat has. And its UI is also similar to WeChat.

But Yixin has some interesting features that WeChat doesn't have as follows:

1. Yixin can send/ receive the SMS message that is not only the mobile phone of China Telecom, but also China Mobile and China Unicom.

   

I send an SMS message from Yixin to my China Telecom's mobile phone, there was no problem with it, and also no problem to reply SMS message to Yixin.

I think this feature is especially good to use when the people who are out of China would like to send the quick message to the people who are in China.

2. The linkage functions with E-mail.

This feature helps check your email on Yixin. It's only you have to do is that register your email on Yixin.

Its feature is very convenient, but there is some limitation at this time.
- This linkage function can work with only the email service that Netease or China Telecom provides.
- When I tried this function, receiving the email on Yixin is no problem, but replying or sending email from Yixin doesn't work well.

I think we have to wait for their improvement at this time.

3. Voicemail features to the mobile phone or fixed phone.

I think this feature is also especially good to use when the people who are out of China would like to send the quick message to the people who are in China.

But unfortunately, it seems that it doesn't work well at this time as far as I tried.


Well, I think that Yixin has a good chance to compete with WeChat, because they have some good functions that WeChat doesn't have.

WeChat was added a lot of topics such as game center, mobile payment and so forth. So I think that Yixin should not go this direction as same as Wechat, and they should go the way to become the total communication platform in all of on the user's mobile phone.
Ex.) linkage functions with email, SMS, Weibo, WeChat and so forth.

If they will go that way, I think it's possible to compete with WeChat.


Source => Sohu IT, ChinaByte, CNFOL

The collaboration of Chat and Career is ongoing in China. China Telecom will collaborate with Netease, and Guangdong China Unicom will collaborate with WeChat.

In April, it was said that China Telecom will will change the name of their own chat app, and they will collaborate with Netease to promote it again.

It will be likely to materialize in the beginning of August.

Its name is "易信 (Easy Chat or Yixin)".
This app will be published in the beginning of August, and it is said that this is the status of final test.

According to the news, this app have the difference with WeChat, this app can send the message who doesn't have the account of this app. In other words, it means that this app can send the message to the SMS.


On the other hand, Guangdong China Unicom collaborates with WeChat, and they already published special SIM card that is named "WeChat Wo".

According to the news, this SIM card provides a lot of special favor to WeChat users. This SIM card is a regional service at this time. But if it will be succeeded, they will provide it to the whole China.


In March, it was said that WeChat will be changed to the paid service, and some careers wanted to charge the special fee to the WeChat users. Did the careers already change their strategy? Will their policy change to the cooperation with these OTT services? And, how China Mobile will take action?

We have to keep watching this trend as before.


Source => Techweb, 36kr

Each Chinese internet service visit duration ranking in 2012. Sina Weibo was ranked 3rd place.

For each internet services, the number of users is naturally important, but the visit duration is also very important. Meanwhile HTWISE just published the visit duration ranking of each internet services in China.

                        all visit duration in 2012       Share               Type of Service

                            (Unit : billion hours) 

#1 Baidu                           5.61                          7.0%                 Search Engine

#2 Taobao                        4.12                          5.1%                 EC

#3 Sina Weibo                 1.81                          2.3%                 Weibo

#4 Youku                          1.59                          2.0%                 Video Sharing

#5 Baidu Tieba                1.37                          1.7%                 Community

#6 Qzone                          1.32                          1.6%                 SNS

#7 Tudou                          1.06                          1.3%                 Video Sharing

#8 QQ Mail                       0.96                          1.2%                 Mail

#9 Baidu Knows              0.85                          1.1%                 Collective intelligence

#10 Renren                      0.74                           0.9%                 SNS

In 2012, Chinese search engine giants Baidu was the 1st place of this ranking, and their 2 other services were also ranked in top 10. So it can be said that they are just the internet giants in China.  

Chinese EC giants Taobao was the 2nd place. They have the top share of BtoC EC market in China, and its market is still rapidly growing, so it may be a natural consequence.

Sina Weibo was ranked 3rd place, but there are little bit difference with top 2. Video sharing service "Youku" and "Tudou" merged last year, both were ranked in top 10.

Next is the graph of focusing to Weibo services.

The left graph is the number of visiting to each Weibo in annual of 2012.

Sina Weibo was totally visited about 1 billion times in 2012. Tencent Weibo was visited about 0.5 billion times, and Sohu Weibo was visited about 0.4 billion times, and NetEase was visited 0.1 billion times in 2012.

The right graph is the ratio of visit duration on each Weibo. Sina Weibo had 71% share in this, and it was a landslide victory.

In 2012, Sina Weibo showed the overwhelming presence in Weibo market. But as I said, there are little bit difference with top two. Furthermore Weixin also exist their backward. 2013 is still challenging year for them.

Source => Yangtse

NetEase Weibo users exceeded 260 million people.

According to the  news, NetEase Weibo users recently exceeded 260 million people.

As of the second quarter, Tencent Weibo has 469 million users, and Sina Weibo has 368 million users, so it can be said that NetEase Weibo is placed third position in Chinese Weibo market.

But NetEase Weibo published that their user was 120 million people in the first quarter, so it means their user was increased to twice user in only six months.


NetEase Weibo is provided NetEase, Inc. who are internet company in China. As the sales scale of company, NetEase is placed the second position next to Tencent in the first quarter.

The almost their revenue was brought from game at the moment, but recently they accelerated their social media solution, and they continue to improve the UI/UX of their Weibo.


We have to catch up not only the action of Tencent and Sina, but also catch up the action of NetEase in future.


Source => NetEase tech, Sohu IT, TechWeb