⁷ This partnership, which continues today, solidified WeChat’s super app status, as it became a powerhouse for a diverse and varied suite of services: chat/communications, payments, social networking, gaming, and transport. In January 2014, after Tencent invested $45 million in Chinese ride-hailing company, Didi, WeChat partnered with the transportation company to allow users to hail rides and pay for them via WeChat Pay. It included social gaming features (a strong revenue driver today) and mobile payment functions, the humble beginnings of today’s WeChat Pay. ⁶ WeChat’s evolution to super appĪfter having reached roughly 200 million monthly active users, Weixin/WeChat (hereinafter WeChat) launched version 5.0 in August 2013. ⁵ Moreover, Weixin 4.0 marked the launch of an English version app for the international market it was called WeChat. Launched on April 19, 2012, (after the app had reached 100 million registered users,) Weixin 4.0 introduced ‘ Moments, ’ a feature which brought social networking functionality to the app. Weixin 3.5 launched in December 2011 with QR code functionality that allowed for online-offline interactions, but the next release which significantly boosted Weixin’s growth trajectory anew was version 4.0.
This Shake functionality was the first of its kind in the market, a veritable Weixin innovation, and it proved extremely viral, raising Weixin’s growth trajectory to new levels. Two months later, on October 1st, Weixin 3.0 was released with another new feature, 'Shake.' When users shook their phones in a specific way, they’d be connected to others on the Weixin network who had shaken their phones at the same time. This feature struck a chord with users and Weixin experienced explosive growth for the first time.
#Foxmail 5.0 update
On August 3, 2011, Weixin 2.5 was released, with an update that allowed users to view and communicate with people nearby, making Weixin a tool not only for chatting with friends & family but with strangers as well. On May 10, he & his team released Weixin 2.0 with a new feature, voice messaging soon after, user acquisition began to accelerate. After all, Tencent already offered a communications tool, QQ Instant Messenger, that boasted millions of users, so why continue building a redundant and failing product?ĭespite that logic, Zhang persisted. With growth still only trickling in in the coming months, Zhang's team felt strong pressure from internal Tencent teams to shut down the project. Unlike the instant runaway success that Kik enjoyed, user registrations for Weixin were far and few between. Appropriately, they called it Weixin (微信), which roughly translates to 'micro-message’ in English.
⁴ Two months later on Jan 21, 2011, they launched a bare-bones, text-driven messaging app.
The team, none of whom had significant experience in mobile app development, was comprised of 10 people: 2 iOS developers, 3 Android, 1 Symbian, 1 UI, 2 focused on the backend, and Zhang himself. ” ⁴īy November 2010, the project was launched. Ma simply replied with four Chinese characters: 马上就做, or in English: “ Do it now. And he proposed that his Guangzhou R&D division develop a smartphone-based communications tool for the future he envisioned. He fired off a long email to his boss, Tencent CEO Huateng ‘Pony’ Ma, explaining the upcoming threats and opportunities as he saw them. Two years later in October 2010, inspired by the launch of Kik Messenger, which gained 1 million users in its first 15 days, Zhang developed a vision of China’s mobile internet future. Tencent now enjoyed a dominant position in webmail (via QQ Mail) and in desktop email (via Foxmail). ³ By 2008, QQ Mail was praised by users for its simplicity and ease of use, and it became China’s largest email service provider. His primary task? Strengthen its webmail product, QQ Mail. ²Īs part of the purchase agreement, Zhang joined Tencent, where he was named General Manager of its Guangzhou R&D division. Tencent, the internet conglomerate that had listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2004, acquired Foxmail, China’s largest email client at the time, in March 2005-its first acquisition. ¹ Four years later, newly-public Tencent came calling. By 2001, it enjoyed 33% market share in China with over 3 million users daily, besting Netscape and others, while its English version found favor among users in over 20 countries. Over the next several years, Foxmail would win acclaim for its fresh, minimal aesthetic and user-friendly interface. In 1996, in Guangzhou, China, Xiaolong ‘Allen’ Zhang released the beta version of a desktop email client called Foxmail.
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