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 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)

Two things that Sina Weibo have the problem.

Sina published the performance reporting in the second quarter yesterday, and some number of Sina Weibo also became clear with this.

The total revenue of Sina Weibo was about 37.7 million USD in the second quarter, and it increased 46.1% compared to the last quarter. Among the revenue, the advertising revenue was 30 million USD, and the service revenue was 7.7 million USD.

About the advertising revenue increased more than 50% compared to the last quarter, but the service revenue was slight increase.

According to the annual reporting in 2012, 77% of Sina Weibo revenue was earned from the advertising revenue, other 23% of revenue was earned from service revenue.
But the rate of the advertising revenue in this quarter was about 85.7%, so it can be said that their dependence on the advertising revenue is more and more running high.

I think that this dependence (in other words 'bias') is the first problem for Sina Weibo, and I think that they have to strengthen other revenue more, such as the collaboration with Alibaba (It means "Social Commerce").


The second problem is the low rate of active users.

They announced that their daily active users were 54 million people, but their total registered user was over than 500 million people. It means that the rate of daily active users was only about 10%.

According to the news, the recent daily active user of Facebook was 699 million people. Compared to them, it can be said that the daily active users rate of Sina Weibo is very low.

Increasing the rate of active users have been the long term problem for Sina Weibo, but it can be said that it is still midway.


According to the news, PifferJaffray recently estimated that the market value of Sina Weibo is 6 billion USD, but this number is more than the value when Alibaba acquired 18% share of Sina Weibo in 586 million USD. And according to the some resources, Sina Weibo intends to list stocks independently in the future.


We have to keep watching whether their plan will achieve or not as ever.


Source => TechWeb, Sina Tech

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 sales number of Smart TV in China was 5,300,600 units in Q1. Smart TV maker may have to fight with the foreign enemies after this.

Smart TV is gradually becoming hot in China from last year, because its price is gradually becoming affordable.

According to the report by Eguan, the sales number of Smart TV in China was  5,300,600 units in Q1. The sales number of whole flat-panel TV was about 12,780,000, so it means the sales percentage of Smart TV was 41.5% in Q1.

And the next graph is the market share of Smart TV by each maker in Q1.

Skyworth  16.9%
TCL   16.2%
Hisense   15.8%
KONKA   15.5%
ChangHong   13.3%
Samsung   6.1%
SHARP   5.6%
Haier   4.2%

Other   6.4%


There is not the specific maker that has enormous power in Chinese Smart TV industry, and 5 companies stand on the top group now. As the second group, there are the foreign companies such as Samsung and SHARP.

But anyway, it can be said that the Smart TV market in China is still the status of rival warlords.


By the way, this report said that the Smart TV market has continued growing, but what's going to happen to this market now? I think that there are two threats for their growth.

1. Chromecast
2. STB

As you know, Google recently released the Chromecast, and its price is 35 USD.  At this time, I don't know whether Google will provide it to Chinese market or not, but I think there is some impact even if they will not provide it to China.

And recently, Xiaomi provides their own STB, and Alibaba also have a plan to provide their STB in the near future. Both prices are also about 50 to 65 USD.

These two threats can implement with cheap flat-panel TV, if its TV has the HDMI terminal. It means that this combination can materialize the same function with Smart TV, and furthermore this combination is basically cheaper than Smart TV.

So I think that Smart TV makers have to prepare for the fight with the "foreign enemies".


Source => Eguan

Tencent dominates more than 65% of mobile instant messenger market in China. The king of IM tool "QQ" is still keeping the top position.

As I explained many times, "Instant Messenger (Chat)" is the most popular internet service in China. According to the recent report by CNNIC, the utilization of chat tool is 84.2% in China, and the hottest chat tool "WeChat" is expected to have more than 500 million users soon.

And it is the most popular for mobile users, and CNNIC said that the utilization of mobile instant messenger is 85.7% as of the end of June.
In a situation like that, Eguan published the market share of mobile instant messenger service in China as follows.

QQ (Tencent)                    38.07%
WeChat (Tencent)           27.97%
Feixin (China Mobile)     18.37%
Yiliao (China Telecom)     4.98%
MSN (Microsoft China)    3.80%
Wangwang (Taobao)         2.38%
Miliao (Xiaomi)                   1.43%

Other     3.00%




The above picture is the market share of the total registered number of mobile instant messenger users.

Recently, WeChat has been the hottest topic in the news related to internet services in China, but the king of IM tool "QQ" is still keeping the top position in this market. As I said above, WeChat is expected to have more than 500 million users soon, but it is said that QQ already has more than 700 million users totally, and a most of QQ users are using mobile devices.


The next picture is the market share of its active users.

QQ (Tencent)                     42.54%
WeChat (Tencent)            23.38%
Feixin (China Mobile)      17.65%
Yiliao (China Telecom)      6.76%
Wangwang (Taobao)         3.07%
MSN (Microsoft China)     2.53%
Miliao (Xiaomi)                   1.08%

Other     2.99%




There are not so much differences with the market share of total users in the ranking, but there is an interesting result.

The difference in the market share between QQ and WeChat is more than the difference of total users. What was this?

Actually, WeChat is rapidly increasing their "registered" users, but I also feel that a lot of people are still usually using QQ more than WeChat. Especially, in the business scene, in the provincial city, the user of the earlier 80's or 70's and so forth.

So I think that these factors are may be reflected as a result.

Anyway, it's a surprising thing that Tencent (QQ + WeChat) is dominating more than 65% of this market.


Well, mobile internet is the hottest topic and the hottest industry in China now, and furthermore mobile instant messenger is one of the hottest among them. We have to continue watching the trend of this as before.


Source => Eguan