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

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 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

The number of WeChat monthly active users is 236 million people.

Tencent also published the performance reporting in the second quarter today.

You can download from here (PDF) its full version, but I would like to introduce some numbers that related to their social media area.

They announced that WeChat monthly active users is 235.8 million people, and this number increased 176.8% compared to the YoY.

Tencent recently does not officially publish the actual user numbers, but it is said that the number of WeChat registered users are more than 400 million people. This means their monthly active user rate is about 60%.

60% are high or low? According to a news, their rival LINE has about 90% of monthly active users rate. So it may be said that it's a little bit low.

Tencent CEO Ma said in this report that Tencent will continue to focus on the mobile solutions from now on too, and they recognize that WeChat will play a central role not only in the domestic market but also the oversea market.

WeChat has more than 70 million oversea users now, but their rival LINE already has more than 100 million oversea users. So firstly they have to catch LINE, and also have to increase the rate of active users.

By the way, I also would like to introduce the number that is related other social media services.

- The number of IM monthly active users were 818.5 million people, and this number increased 4.5 compared to YoY.

- Peak simultaneous online IM user accounts were 173.2 million people, and this number increased 4.0% compared to YoY.

- The number of Qzone monthly active users were 626.4 million people, and this number increased 4.8% compared to YoY.

I explained before that Tencent dominates more than 65% of mobile instant messenger market in China. But looking this report, I recognized the power of Tencent in Chinese social media market again.

Source => The performance reporting by Tencent (PDF)

A report said that 13.4% of the WeChat user already canceled to follow the official accounts. Why...?

Sootoo published the report that was written about the user activities on WeChat before, but they also published another interesting report that was written about user analytics at this time.

1. How did you get to know the official account?

#1 Already know on the other platform and so forth    55.7%
#2 QR code    39.1%
#3 Recommendation from the other person  36.2%
#4 Advertisement   27.4%
#5 Search   16.4%

Other   2.9%

About QR code, it has to put on somewhere like the official site or Weibo, so it can be said that this can categorize getting from "other site".


2. What is the purpose that you have followed the official accounts?

#1  For getting the special benefit or information    34.3%

#2  For paying attention to the hot topic or news   26.3%

#3  For the hobby or killing time   22.8%

#4  For the personnel exchange   14.4%

Other   2.2%




3. What type of the official account have you followed?

#1  News    65.5%

#2  Comedy   37.3%

#3  Science and technology   30+％

#5  Analects    17.1%

#9  Travel and traffic   10.3％

Some big news site, such Tencent or Sohu, also have provided the official account on WeChat, but more than 65% users have interest to them as a result.


4. How often read the information from the official accounts?

#1  Occasionally read   42.3％

#2  Frequently read   24.7%

#3  Canceld the follow   13.4%

#4  Already known   12.5%

#5  Unknown   7.1%



13.4% of the WeChat user already canceled to follow the official accounts, but the next graph explained why they already canceled it.

The first reason of it is that the all of the posts were spam or advertising (56.2%), and the second reason is that the posts were worthless information (53.0%).

Tencent would like to avoid that the official accounts use WeChat as a marketing platform, but it follows that the user side also wouldn't like to read the such posts.


As I explained before, WeChat for iOS was updated to the newest version "5.0", but Android version was also updated the last week. And as I explained before, the display method of the official account was already changed.

   


Anyway, we have to read the changing of the official account policy among with this again, and we may have to rebuild the strategy or activity of marketing on WeChat.


Source => Sootoo research center

The rule was changed. The official account on WeChat was divided into two types, but you have to be careful when you select the type of your official account on them.

Yesterday, the new version of WeChat 5.0 was published on Apple's App Store.

This new version was added some interesting functions including that I explained before, but I would like to explain about these previews the next time.

And today, I would like to explain the details that the rule of the official account on WeChat was changed. I explained before that the official account on WeChat will be divided into the two types, but that was actually divided into the two types as the following picture.

The official account user can choice that will become the "服务号 (Service accounts)" or the "订阅号 (Subscription accounts)". And on the official site of WeChat, it is introduced that "服务号 (Service accounts)" is the better choice for the corporate users as follows.

For example, the service accounts can customize the style of their information, and they can automatically share the information to the Tencent Weibo, and so forth.

When we look this information, we surely feel that the service account is the better choice not only the corporate users, but also for others.

But there are two points to be noted when we change our official account to the service account.
* As a default, the existing official account belongs to the subscription accounts.

1. As I explained before, "Subscription accounts" can post one message in a day, but "Service accounts" can post only one message in a month...

2. There is only one chance that you can choose the type of the official account of WeChat.
* This means that you cannot change the type of the official account after the first choice.

It seems that Tencent would like to induce that the official account user choose the service account, because they wouldn't like the accounts to run the marketing activities on WeChat as I explained.
But I personally think that the best choice is that temporally remain the official account as a subscription account and continue to observe the progress.

If you are an administrator of the official account on WeChat, you have to consider the above limitation, and have to choose the best way for your own.


Source => The official account management tool of WeChat

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

The rule of WeChat official account will be changed. Tencent emphasized that WeChat is not a marketing tool again.

As I explained last time, Tencent held a partner conference on July 3. And I explained that oversea users of WeChat already exceeded 70 million people. And today, I would like to explain another important thing related WeChat.

At that conference, there was a session related to official accounts of WeChat, they announced that changing the rule of WeChat official accounts.

I explained before that the display method of official accounts will be changed in the next version of WeChat. And in addition to this, they announced that official accounts will be categorized two types as follows.

1. 订阅号 (Subscription accounts)
2. 服务号 (Service accounts)

According to their explanation, "Subscription accounts" can post one message in a day, but its message is not displayed in the top page of WeChat as I explained before. And "Service accounts" can post only one message in a month, but its message is still displayed in the top page of WeChat as same as the current version.

Now it's not clear that the existing official accounts will be categorized which type. But some resource said that the official accounts of media (News and so forth) will be categorized as a "Subscription accounts", and other official accounts will be categorized as a "Service accounts"...

It's not clear that this definition of categorization is true or not at this time, but anyhow, the effect of marketing on WeChat will become much less than now.


VP of WeChat said "WeChat is not a marketing tool, it's like a Social CRM tool" before, but it can be said that this message is gradually embodied. So we have to prepare the action for this trend, and we have to reconsider social marketing method in China.


Source => Tech QQ, Ifeng Net

WeChat oversea users already exceeded 70 million people. They assigned Lionel Messi as a new spokesman to accelerate overseas market even more than now.

As I explained before, Tencent has a partner conference today. And they announced two important things related WeChat, so I would like to explain one of them at this time.

Oversea users of WeChat exceeded 40 million people in April, and they exceeded 50 million people in May. And today, Tencent announced oversea users of WeChat already exceeded 70 million people now.

And for expanding more oversea users, they also announced that assigned Lionel Messi as a new spokesman for WeChat.

They already prepared the special page on wechat.com, and also already published the TV commercial.


They also published its Spanish, Turkish and Bahasa Indonesia version, and they also announced that this TV CM started to provide to 15 countries from today.

Of course his WeChat account is also available now.

Their rival "LINE" already has over 100 million oversea users, and it was already welcomed in over 230 countries. So we have to keep watching this war situation for the development from now on.


Source => Tech QQ, WeChat Official Page

WeChat and Weibo both are mainly accessed from mobile devices.

A data research company "DRATIO" published a research report of social media in China.

This report is written about the comparison of Sina Weibo and WeChat user, and there are some interesting trend. So I will explain the summary of this report.


1. Do you use Weibo or WeChat or both?

Weibo only     20.6%

WeChat only  22.4%

Both   57.0%







The over half of users use both services, but there is an interesting trend by the below picture that was categorized by age.

Only using Weibo users has turned out that the older ages have the higher rate, but I think that old users maybe use QQ as a communication tool instead of WeChat.


2. In the recent one month, how often did you use each service?

The highest utilization rate of WeChat is over 4 times in a day, and the highest utilization rate of Weibo is 3 to 4 times in a week.


3. How many hours do you averagely use each service in a day?

Less than 30 minutes is the highest rate of Weibo user's using hours, and 30 to 60 minutes is the highest rate of WeChat user's using hours.

The users who are using WeChat more than 4 hours exist 13.4%, so it seems that the using time of WeChat is relatively longer than using Weibo.


4. Which devices do you usually use for each service?

Mobile access is the most popular method of usage of both services, but this is a natural thing. Because as I explained before, mobile device already became the top of all method connecting to the internet in China. Furthermore, Tencent defines WeChat as a mobile communication tool, and Sina said that their more than 60% users have used mobile devices to access Sina Weibo.


5. Where do you usually use each service?

#1   at home
#2   at office
#3   at transportation facilities
#4   at public place
#5   at outside
#6   at lodgings
#7   at classroom
#8   other




As a result, more than 80% users have used each service at home. And it is a characteristic thing that using each service 'at office' is more than 'at transportation facilities'.


6. Which feature do you usually use on each service?

Though it's a natural thing, 82.5% of WeChat users usually use chat feature on it. And the characteristic thing is that very few users use the social feature of WeChat compared to Weibo. I think this is one of the most important fact when we would like to utilize each service for our business.


For capturing Chinese social media market, it is a very important thing that compares Weibo and WeChat, and understanding deeply each property. So I would like to continue introducing that point of view in future too.


Source => DRATIO

Tencent will hold the partner conference on July 3 in Beijing. They intend to publish the game platform on WeChat.

According to the email from Tencent, they will hold the partner conference on July 3 at the Beijing National Conference Center.

Its conference will be held from 9:30 to 17:30 on July 3. And in the morning, we can attend the session of their corporate strategy or current trend. And in the afternoon, we can choose to attend the one of interesting theme from 5 categories (QQ, Marketing, Game, WeChat and Cloud).

According to the news, Tencent intends to publish the detail of game platform on WeChat. And they also said that they already contracted with Temple Run and Fruit Ninja.

Their rival LINE and KakaoTalk are leading in this area compared to Tencent, but their future action will be worth watching too.


Source => Tencent Partner Conference 2013

Many WeChat users are following official accounts for their hobby.

Last time, I introduced the report of "The behavior analysis of WeChat users" that was published by Sootoo Research, and I explained the part of the situation of utilization. And today, I would like to introduce the situation of official accounts on WeChat in that report.

1. Which type of official accounts do you follow?

Leisure and Life    36.12%

Corporate   16.74%

News and Media   26.48%

Famous person and star   42.29%

Other   12.78%



From this result, we can find that many WeChat users are following the official accounts for the purpose of their hobby. And this is proved again in the next question.


2. Why are you following the official accounts?

- For leisure and hobby   61.29%
- For getting the wisdom of living   41.49%
- For getting the current information   40.86%
- For study   29.03%
- For getting the current status of the corporate   25.81%
- Recommendation from friends   22.58%
- Other   11.83%



3. What was the opportunity that you started to follow the official accounts?

- Recommendation from friends   42.57%

- The information on Weibo   61.39%

- The information on official site   37.62%

- Other   15.35%



Actually, it's difficult to increase the followers only in WeChat itself. This result also proved that the promotion on the outside of WeChat (such as Weibo or official site) and word‐of‐mouth communication are very important for increasing their followers.


4. What timezone is convenient for your getting the information from official accounts?

We can't find the characteristic difference in this result, but it seems that the timezone of morning and after work are relatively welcomed.


Well, I think that the company who were starting marketing activity on WeChat is still more increasing. How about referring the this report in conjunction with the information of the next version of WeChat?


Source => Sootoo Research

Sootoo Research said that over 60% users use WeChat everyday .

Sootoo Research published the report of "The behavior analysis of WeChat users", and so I would like to explain the part that is written about the situation of utilization at this time.

1. Have you ever used WeChat?

92.97% of respondents said "Yes". It's very high rate, but Sootoo is the company that provides the IT field news, so there may be a little bit bias in this answer. But on the other hand, it's true that WeChat users is rapidly increasing, and their user will reach 400 million people soon.


2. What is the reason that you started to use WeChat?

- That reason is that friends or colleagues have already used WeChat --- 71.34%
- That reason is that was interested in WeChat --- 47.42%
- That reason is that can send the voice or text by WeChat --- 34.05%
- That reason is that can use video call on WeChat --- 29.31%
- That reason is that can use group voice chat on WeChat --- 21.34%
- That reason is that use every time the products provided by Tencent --- 2.59%

In the last report that was written about "whole" social media, the answer of "Friends or colleague have already used it" was also the top reason. So it can be said that the one of the most important thing is the word‐of‐mouth marketing as I thought.


3. How often do you use WeChat?

- Many times in a day  36.23%

- One time in a day   27.17%

- One time in few days  21.24%

- One time in a week  15.36%





As a result, it follows that over 60% users use WeChat every day.


4. How many hours do you use WeChat at one time?

Less than 5 minutes  29%

6 to 15 minutes  34%

16 to 30 minutes  15%

More than 31 minutes  22%








5. Which feature do you usually use on WeChat?

- Voice Chat  93.51%
- Sending pictures  77.28%
- Watching pictures on Moments  61.66%
- Sending pictures to Moments   53.55%
　　　　　　　・
　　　　　　　・
- Checking the information from official accounts  22.52%
　　　　　　　・
　　　　　　　・
- PC version of  WeChat  7.91%



I think that this result proved that WeChat is the communication tools with friends or colleague regarding almost people at this moment.


This report also explained about the use reality of official accounts on WeChat, but I would like to explain about it at the next time.


Source => Sootoo Research

WeChat started to provide the mobile payment solution. Its first user is McDonalds.

As I explained before, WeChat will provide the linkage feature with EC in the next version 5.0. In addition to this, they provide the mobile payment solution on WeChat, and actually it's already provided by McDonalds.

  


At first, WeChat user have to become a follower of McDonalds account. After that they will provide a message that includes a link. And WeChat user click the link to get a card that is called "茶点卡", and after that the screen of above picture will be appeared.

And user click the button of "立即购买 (Buy Now)" on this screen, and pay 3 RMB through TENMPAY, user can get the "茶点卡 (Tea card)".


But at this time, this card has some restriction to use.
- User can use this card only from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
- User cannot use this card to buy coffee or some services.
- There is an expiration date. (3 months)


I don't know using this card has some merits compared to cash at this time, but I think it's a very interesting trend from the point of view that is the linkage of mobile payment and social media.

Sina Weibo also already started mobile payment solution on their platform, so the linkage of mobile payment and social media may become the one of the hot topics this year in China.


Source => TechWeb