But now it's increasingly
likely to be accompanied by the frenzied flourishing of smartphones, as
the participants add one another on WeChat, the phenomenally popular
instant-messaging app made by the country's biggest Internet company,
Tencent.
While name cards have yet to be completely supplanted, many now also have a QR code which, when scanned into a mobile phone, adds the card's bearer as a WeChat contact.
The popular function is
one reason behind the rise of WeChat -- called Weixin in Chinese --
which is unseating the Twitter-like microblogging platform Sina Weibo as
China's dominant social media.
Once a lively forum for
public debate that for a time wrong-footed Chinese censors, users are
ditching Weibo as tightened government oversight takes its toll.
WeChat's greater privacy and wider range of applications make it more
attractive to users.
Abandoning Weibo
Ye Jun, a 26-year-old project manager in Shanghai, started using WeChat when she upgraded to an iPhone last May.
By that time, most of her friends were already using the service, although she still preferred Weibo.
That changed in November,
when she caught the bouquet at a friend's wedding, and posted pictures
of the event on her WeChat activity timeline which, like Facebook,
allows users to share photos and status updates with their contacts.
"There were instant
comments from my friends. It was fun. I realized that WeChat was a
better, more effective social networking tool than Weibo, which has been
practically abandoned by most people."
The rise of WeChat
WeChat was launched in early 2011, attracting 100 million registered users in its first 15 months.
This was in part due to
Tencent's ability to promote the app to its huge base of over 800
million users of its many other services, including QQ, its desktop
instant messaging client.
Tencent has also been
quick in rolling out new versions of the app, adding features such as
mobile payment, e-commerce integration, games, marketing accounts for
brands, a taxi-hailing function and an online investment fund.
Many were quick to gain traction in the day-to-day lives of users. A function that allowed people to give and receive digital versions of Lunar New Year red envelopes saw 20 million exchanged.
As of last September, when Tencent's most recent figures were released, WeChat had 271.9 million active monthly users, up 124% from the previous year.
Dodging state censorship
There are growing
indications that Weibo, once a hotbed of public discussion, from
celebrity scandals to holding corrupt officials to account, is losing
its appeal.
The collision of two
high-speed trains near the Eastern city of Wenzhou in 2011 was a
watershed moment, seeing harried Internet censors play whack-a-mole with
comments by Weibo users, who were critical of the government's handling
of the aftermath.
Over the next year, the
government tightened its grip. Measures included requiring that accounts
be registered under real names, and that those posting "rumors" be suspended.
According to a report by researchers at East China Normal University commissioned by the UK's Telegraph newspaper, a significant drop in active usage came after venture capitalist and high-profile Weibo user Charles Xue was arrested for soliciting prostitutes.
He was paraded on state television, and confessed to spreading irresponsible messages online.
In addition, a report
by the China Internet Network Information Center backs the findings of
East China Normal University, claiming the number of microblog users,
which includes Sina Weibo and similar services, dropped by over 27.8
million last year.
According to Sina's
latest figures, Weibo's daily active users are still growing, albeit
slowly, with a 4.2% rise in the fourth quarter.
The company says
third-party claims of a drop in active users are flawed, and chairman
and CEO, Charles Chao said during a recent earnings call that the
average time users spent on Weibo did not change over the third quarter
of 2013.
Sina seems to be pushing ahead with the long-awaited spin-off and IPO of Weibo, with reports
that it recently enlisted Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse to underwrite
an offering of up to $500 million in New York sometime in the second
quarter for a share of up to 25%.
Will one replace the other?
The greater control WeChat offers over information sharing looks like one of the factors that makes it appeal more to users.
Posts made to Weibo are
public, and therefore can go viral in a very short time, while posts
made to WeChat timelines are shared only with contacts, and there is no
easy way to forward them.
Mark Englehart Evans,
digital strategist and co-founder of Techyizu, a technology and
entrepreneurship community in Shanghai, says this means the two
platforms are not necessarily mutually exclusive, although a change does
seem to be underway.
"Much like Facebook
versus Twitter, there seem to be more than enough dual users, or at
least people with both apps on their phones. (But) monthly active users
have certainly shifted. I know my Weibo app has gotten dusty," says
Evans.
This shift is palpable when speaking to Chinese social media users.
"It is very obvious that
fewer people are using Weibo, because I get less feedback when I tweet
and retweet," says Duan Wuning, a 29-year-old media professional.
"WeChat status updates
are private, so my friends and I prefer to post things about our daily
lives there. I have to check WeChat every day to make sure I don't miss
important things."
Going global
As Facebook announces
its $19 billion acquisition of WeChat competitor Whatsapp, the the
question of WeChat's potential for international expansion has come to
the fore.
Tencent still faces huge
challenges in going global. Its functionality could be appealing to
users but questions remain over what marketing approach the company will
take for a product that already boasts a 100 million-strong user base
abroad.
"This will be new for
Tencent and very expensive," says Evans. "It will be interesting to see
how hard Tencent is willing to spend to win new users outside of China,
and if they can scale up all its advanced features such as mobile
commerce and banking to other markets."
Link to source : http://edition.cnn.com
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