Sogou started to provide the WeChat search service. It supports the account name search and the keyword search.

The third largest search engine provider in China 'Sogou' started to provide WeChat search service.

This search service supports the account name search and the keyword search.

  

About the account name search, it can search by the account name (displayed name on WeChat) and the account code. And if you click the displayed account name, then it will be displayed the posting history.

Last time, I explained that WeChat has not prepared the method of spreading information in the platform to the official accounts. But this search service will be useful for the official account on WeChat, because it will be able to be found by users more easily than now. It will be useful for users too, because it can help users to find the information easily what users want.

Sogou have provided the search engine since 2004 as a subsidiary of Sohu. But Tencent invested 448 million USD last September, and Tencent now has 36.5% stock of Sogou. They started to grope for the collaboration from that time, and this search service is surely the one of their result.

As I mentioned above, Sogou is the third largest search engine provider in China. And according to the recent report by CNZZ, their market share is 12.44% as of May 2014.

The difference with the two largest companies(Baidu and 360) is still big, but I think that this service can help to reduce that difference. Because WeChat will not provide such search result to that two largest companies.

Let's keep watching the future situation of this.

Source => WeChat search service by Sogou

WeChat strengthened the regulation of the marketing activities for the official account, and also published the regulations of the penalty.

Recently Tencent announced that they set a limit of the friend number of WeChat, and its number was 5000 users at most. And this time, they also published the regulations of the penalty for the official account on WeChat. According to them, the official accounts who force and recommend to their followers are rapidly increasing. So they decided to discipline to such heinous official accounts as follows.

According to this regulation, in case that the official account will be alerted the first time, then that official account will be stopped their activity during 7 days. And if the official account will be alerted 4 times, then the official account will be frozen eternally.

Actually, Tencent have expressed that WeChat is not the marketing platform for a long time, and they have not prepared the method of spreading information in the platform to the official accounts. But on the other hand, the normal accounts can post the information to 'Moments', and it's comparatively easy to get a lot of friends by using the function of 'People Nearby' or 'Shake'. So some official accounts use the normal accounts to spread their information on 'Moments'.

Tencent recognized that the some of such official accounts are heinous accounts, so they prepared this regulation. At this stage, we don't know how strict this regulation is, but it's better that official account of WeChat don't use the words such as 'recommend forwarding this information to Moments' or related message.


Source=> The official page of WeChat for the official accounts

The MAU of mobile QQ increased to 490 million, and QQ still have more energy than WeChat.

On 14th May, Tencent published their performance reporting of the first quarter.

And according to the reporting, the monthly active users(= MAU) of WeChat increased 87% compared with the same period last year, and it was 396 million people. The MAU of WeChat on the previous period was 355 million people, so it means the MAU of WeChat increased 40 million people compared with the previous period.

As you see, WeChat keeps their power in the Chinese social media market, and Tencent said that they will continue to enhance the payment solution of WeChat as before.

But as same as the previous period, QQ still has more energy than WeChat in this market. According to this reporting, the 'mobile' MAU of QQ increased 52% compared with the same period last year, and its number was 490 million people. In the previous period, the difference of MAU between WeChat and mobile QQ was about 70 million, but this difference increased to about 100 million people in this period.

The total MAU of QQ was 848 million people in this quarter, and so it can be said that QQ is still king of Chinese social media market.

And the total MAU of Qzone was 644 million people, and the number of its mobile MAU was 467 million people. 

We or some related news site have paid attention to WeChat in particular, but I think that we also have to pay attention to QQ or Qzone, particularly their mobile area.

Source -> The performance reporting by Tencent (PDF)

The monthly active users of WeChat was 355 million people as of the end of 2013, but QQ is still more welcomed than WeChat.

Yesterday, Tencent published the their performance reporting of 2013. And according to the reporting, the monthly active users (MAU) of WeChat was 355 million people as of the end of 2013 in total.

This report said the MAU increased 6% compared with the previous quarter, and it increased 121% compared with the same period last year. But they published only the total MAU number of WeChat, and they didn't published the breakdown of its number, for example the rate of China users and oversea.


And the other numbers that are related to social media are as follows:

- Monthly active users of IM (* It means 'QQ') were 808 million people.
(It decreased 1% compared to the previous period, and increased 1% compared to the year-earlier period.)

- The number of the peak simultaneous online IM was 180 million people.
(It increased 1% compared to the previous period, and increased 2% compared to the year-earlier period.)

- Monthly active users of Qzone were 625 million people.
(It increased 0.3% compared to the previous period, and increased 4% compared to the year-earlier period.)


This reporting said that the monthly active 'smartphone' users of QQ was 426 million as of the end of 2013. This number is larger than WeChat, so it may be said that QQ is still welcomed more than WeChat in China.

Few days ago, China's central bank demanded that payments made by scanning a bar code with mobile devices be halted, hitting the payment arms of Internet companies Tencent Holdings Ltd and Alibaba Group Holding.

We have to keep watching there will be what kind of influence for WeChat, QQ and their business.


Source => The performance reporting by Tencent (PDF)

The battle in the lunar new year greetings of the big three social media services in China. (QQ/ WeChat/ Sina Weibo)

This year, from Jan 31 to Feb 6th is the lunar new year holiday in China. And by the old calender, Jan 31 was the new year's day, and Jan 30 was the new year's eve of this year. Recently the person who send and receive the greetings of new year on the social media is rapidly increasing in China as I explained before.

Chinese big three social media service, QQ, WeChat, Sina Weibo published the announcement that is related with the new year's greetings as follows.

1. QQ (Tencent)

According to the official announcement, there were 13.6 billion messages in Jan 30th on QQ platform. And in a peak time, there were 32.7 million messages in 1 minute, and they also said that there were 16 million video messages in 1 day.


2. WeChat (Tencent)

According to the official announcement, in a peak time, there were about 10 million messages on WeChat. They didn't publish the total message number of Jan 30th, but they said that its total sending message number were double of the last year, and its total receiving message number were three times of the last year.

And they also said the peak time of exchanging messages were 22:00 and 24:00 on Jan 30th.


3. Sina Weibo (Sina)

According to the official announcement, there were 863,408 messages on the first one minute of Jan 31. They also didn't publish the total messages number, but there were 729,751 message at the same period of the last year, so it can be said its number was increasing.


Well, by looking only this result, QQ is the king. And the next is WeChat, and Sina Weibo was far away from them. But this result was based of new year greetings.

In general, the new year greetings are exchanged between the family, friends and the acquaintance. I think that the social media services can categorize two types by the point of their characteristic view.

Those are "social media service that directed inward" and "social media service that directed outward". Users mainly exchange the personal information between the close relationship in the "social media service that directed inward", and its typical example is Facebook.

On the other hand, user would like to spread their information to unknown people such as the purpose of personal branding in the "social media service that directed outward", and its typical example is Twitter.

And I think that QQ and WeChat is the "social media service that directed inward", and Sina Weibo is the "social media service that directed outward". So I think that Sina Weibo does not have to be pessimistic about this result. If the standard is different, its result also will be different.

But Sina Weibo is recently said that their total users or active users are decreasing.  I think, in the peak period of their growth( it is in 2011) , the users who like the "social media service that directed inward" also joined Sina Weibo, because their friend or acquaintance also use Sina Weibo. And recently, mainly such user was gone or stop to use Sina Weibo, I think.

So I think that Sina Weibo have to care the users who like the "social media service that directed outward", and at the same time, they have to decide how treat the users who like the "social media service that directed inward".


Last, I would like to introduce the status of SMS messages.

SMS has been the most popular method of exchanging the new year greeting in China for a long time. But as I explained before, its number is recently decreasing year by year.

Its number is estimated 30 billion messages during this Chinese new year's holiday, but its number will be decreasing 1.17 billion messages compared with the last year. Mainly almost young people, 80's or 90's, like to use QQ or WeChat when they will sent such greetings, so I think this trend also continue in future.


Many users sometimes have the different two intention in their mind, such as "social media service that directed inward" and "social media service that directed outward". When many users get tires of the "social media service that directed inward", then they tend to move to the "social media service that directed outward". And the reverse pattern is also true.

Now WeChat is the most powerful social media service in China, and it can be said that WeChat is the "social media service that directed inward". So I think the "social media service that directed outward" may come to the fore as a next trend of WeChat.


Souece => Social Media in China blog (Japanese version)

The alternation of generations is certainly ongoing. The latest report by CNNIC said Weibo decreased the number of its user and the usage rate for the first time.

Last time, I reported the summary of report by CNNIC, and I explained that the latest number of internet users and mobile internet users in China. And today, I would like to introduce the situation by each internet service in China.

The first picture is written about the number of users and the usage rate by each internet services in China.

Instant messenger still kept the pole position, and its user number was 532.15 million people, and its growth rate is 13.8% increasing compared with the previous year. And the travel booking service and the group buying service scored more than 60% growth rate, so it can be said that their service achieved rapid growth compared with the previous year.

But the most symbolic result is the decline of Weibo. Weibo decreased the number of its user and the usage rate for the first time. As I explained before, the growth of Weibo was slowing down from the last half of 2011. And its active users were also slowly decreasing. But this time, its fact was verified by this report again.

From the last year, WeChat and similar service was rapidly increasing users, and Weibo had been absolutely affected. Sina Weibo started the collaboration with Alibaba group last year, and they had groped the monetization of their platform.

Sina Weibo started the collaboration with Alibaba group last year, and they had groped the monetization of their platform.

But I think its monetization also had a one of the negative impact for their users. Because their collaboration brought a lot of advertize posting on their platform, so it seem that the quite a lot users decided to stop using their platform.

To keep balance of the monetization and the user satisfaction will be most important thing for Sina Weibo, I think.


And the next graph is the situation by each mobile internet services.

The service that achieved more than 10% growth are as follows: Mobile Online Video, Mobile Online Game, Mobile Online Payment， Mobile Online Banking， Mobile Group Buying

'Weibo' also decreased the usage rate in mobile internet area, and it decreased 8.9% compared with the previous year. And 'Mobile SNS' also decreased the usage rate, and it decreased 11.1% compared with previous year.


I wonder whether WeChat or similar IM services can keep their power or not, otherwise other new service may be appeared.

I guess that Chinese social media industry will be occured the diastrophism in 2014...


Source => The report by CNNIC

The number of WeChat monthly active users is 271.9 million people, and it increased 124.3% compared to the year-earlier period.

Because Tencent also published their performance reporting in the third quarter, so I would like to introduce some number that is related to social media.

At first, this report said that the monthly active users (MAU) of WeChat was 271.9 million people as of the third quarter.

It increased 124.3% compared to the year-earlier period, and increased 15.3% compared to the previous period.

Tencent haven't published the total number of WeChat registered users since the beginning of this year, so I don't know the actual ratio of active users. According to some source, the total number of WeChat registered users are about 500 million people, so it can be said that the ratio of monthly active users is about 54.3%.


And the other numbers that are related to social media are as follows:

- Monthly active users of IM (* It means 'QQ') were 815.6 million people.
(It decreased 0.4% compared to the previous period, and increased 4.0% compared to the year-earlier period.)

- The number of the peak simultaneous online IM was 178.2 million people.
(It increased 2.9% compared to the previous period, and increased 6.5% compared to the year-earlier period.)

- Monthly active users of Qzone were 623.3 million people.
(It decreased 0.5% compared to the previous period, and increased 5.1% compared to the year-earlier period.)


Tencent said that they will continuously strive to increase the MAU of WeChat, and they will also strive to get more WeChat users in overseas.

They published the latest version of Android client, but this adding function may be the small evidence of their effort to get more oversea users :)

Source => The performance reporting by Tencent (PDF)

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

Alibaba accelerated to promote their own IM tool 'Laiwang' again. They will give 2GB mobile packet to a part of users to promote it.

As I explained before, Alibaba strengthened to promote their own IM tool 'Laiwang'.

And recently, it seems that they accelerated its promotion again, they announced that they will give 2GB mobile packet to a part of their users.

To take this gift, users have to access this site and apply for.
* There is a limitation in this at this time, and the user who can get this gift is only as follows:

- China Unicom users in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Hunan.
- China Mobile users in Guandong


And on the other hand, Jack Ma repeatedly mentioned about 'Laiwang', and he also said that he is looking forward to battle with WeChat.

Furthermore, they will publish the management tool of the official account for their platform as same as WeChat or Yixin. It seems that they have not published its web site, but they already prepared it on the client side.

I can hardly imagine that Laiwang will close with WeChat as a common IM tool at this time, but Alibaba is the king of the EC market in China. So if they will focus to collaborate IM function and EC, then there may be a way.


Source => Tech Sina, Netease News-1, Netease News-2, TechWeb

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

WeChat added the statistical information function on the administration platform for the official accounts.

As I explained before, Yixin published their administration platform for the official accounts, but WeChat also upgraded its platform.

The function that was added this time is the management tool of the statistical information, and the administrator of the official accounts can check the some information on there.

1. The fluctuate history of follower

The administrator of it can manage the increasing number, the decreasing number, the total number and so forth, and the administrator also can set the term of it.

2. User property

The administrator can manage the ratio of men and women, the using language and the regional distribution by each follower.

3. The number of times that the posting message was read.

The administrator can manage the total number of receiving messages (送达人数), the number of reading the message (图文页阅读人数), the number of open the link in the message (原文页阅读人数) and the number of sharing the message (分享转发人数).

4. Checking the activation ratio of each follower

The administrator can check the activation ratio of each follower, and he/she can understand the total number of followers who was posting messages, the total number of the posted message, the average number per a follower and so forth.

So it means that this function can make each administrator manage the active ratio of their followers.


I think that these management tools are very useful for the administrator of WeChat. But unfortunately, these tools were only added to the domestic version of the official account management platform, and these tools weren't added to the international version of it yet.

About this, we have to wait the action by Tencent at this time.


Source => The administration platform for the official accounts of WeChat

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

Alibaba will also enter the battle of the IM market in China. They have a plan to collaborate with China Mobile.

WeChat already have about 500 million users, and Yixin also got the good start last week. So the IM market in China is becoming more and more hot, but it seems that Alibaba, who is the giant of the EC market in China, also would like to enter this battle by re-promoting their IM tool 'Laiwang'.

There are the two verifications for this.

1. Alibaba CEO sent the internal email to start the bounty system of using 'Laiwang' to the all of staff last week.
According to the leak, their bounty system is for encouraging to use 'Laiwang' to their staff, and it is said that the most potent person can get 100,000 RMB (= 16,210USD) bonus.

2. Alibaba started to consult with China Mobile the chance of collaboration in this market.
According to the insider, Alibaba recently started to consult the possibility of collaboration with China Mobile by this 'Laiwang', and it may be that they would like to follow the success of Yixin.


Alibaba already acquired 18% share of Sina Weibo on April, and they already started to accelerate their social media solutions. But they may would like to get the killer tool of IM to accelerate more this area, so I think that its action is very natural.

But its Sina Weibo also have their IM tool 'Meyou', and a company that Sina invested before also recently publish the IM tool 'WeMeet'.

Alibaba and Sina will go to the each way in this area, or also will have the collaboration as same as Weibo... We have to continue watching their actions as ever.


Source => TechWeb, BiaNews

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