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WeChat, super app

WeChat - A super app from China

What is WeChat? And why do people call it a super app? This article introduces this all-in-one Chinese app and its unique features from the perspective of globalization, cultural flows and scapes.

WeChat, globalization and the network society

"A new economy emerged in the last quarter of the twentieth century on a worldwide scale. I call it informational, global, and networked to identify its fundamental distinctive features and to emphasize their intertwining " ( Castells, 1996). 

Under the influence of globalization and the fast development of technology, especially in terms of the communication revolution, social media came into existence and prevailed in the digital era. 

Social media like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and WhatsApp are becoming a major trend and inevitable part of everyday life in most of the world. The emergence of WeChat came along with global flows of knowledge, technology and culture. WeChat not only connects users in China, but people all over the world.

Main users distribution of top popular social media around the globe.webp.jpg

wechat super app case study

WeChat's super app can be analysized with Appadurai's (1990) terms: ethnoscape, mediascape,technoscape and finanscape. Ethnoscape refers to mobility of people who constitute the distribution of WeChat users worldwide. Tourism, labor migration, and expatriates all lead to the global mobility of WeChat and bring more global users.

Mediascape means the capability to produce and disseminate information and provide large complex repertoires of images, narratives and ' ethnoscapes' to viewers throughout the world, in which the world of commodity, the world of news and the world of politics are profoundly mixed.

WeChat as a messaging app facilitates the exchange and flow of news and information, however, it's also a commercial app which creates a lifestyle of commodification and convenience through combing multiple functions.

In terms of technoscape, WeChat has solid technical support for its accessibility worldwide and in different devices and platforms. Finanscape indexes that global capitalism and international trade made WeChat Pay an advantageous way to influence users' consumer behaviors. In the end, the relationships between ethnoscapes, mediascapes, technoscapes, and finanscapes are deeply connected and unpredictable.

Why is WeChat called a super app?

WeChat, Weixin in Chinese, is a free chat app for mobile devices that offers free video and voice calls, videos, images, games, stickers and text messages to help you stay connected with people who matter most. WeChat was launched in 2011 by Tencent, a leading internet service provider in China. WeChat has developed into an all-in-one app that people in China can use to call a taxi, order train and flight tickets, order takeout meals, do online shopping, purchase cinema tickets, book a hotel, rent public bicycles, pay household bills, and even trade second-hand goods.

People in China can use WeChat to call a taxi, order train and flight tickets, order takeout meals, do online shopping, purchase cinemas tickets, book a hotel, rent public bicycles, pay household bills, and even trade second-hand goods

WeChat has created a new lifestyle that complies with modernity in a digital era and boosts online life experience of hundreds of millions users with its innovative features. The platform integrates instant messaging and social entertainment, allows users to engage in real-time communications via free text and multimedia messages, make video calls or share photos or videos on their “Moments.”

Apart from the similar free texting and calling features that WhatsApp, Facebook and other social media have, other lifestyle recreational features include “Games”, “Sticker Gallery”, “Shopping”, “Mini Program”, and convenient friend-adding services such as “Scan”, “Shake” and “People Nearby” that make WeChat unique and entertaining.

WeChat also offers companies “Official Accounts” to create original consumer experiences through its open platform and extended services. These enterprises use WeChat Pay is a feature and service which contributes greatly to cashless consumer economies in China, which is a truly mobile digital lifestyle.

What makes WeChat most intriguing is that its features and functions continuously evolve following users' needs. It has evolved into a connector and open platform across industries, connecting users with one another,smart devices and business services.  A video on Youtube called “WeChat Top Feature Guide” could gives a general idea of its super power in daily life.

WeChat's technical flexibility and accessibility to various versions of systems constitute its main unique features. WeChat is accessible on mobile devices through data networks and Wi-Fi worldwide which means no matter where you are in the world, you can freely message or video call people as long as you have a mobile device with internet at hand.  

For different devices and operating systems, WeChat has designed customized versions for each: WeChat Windows, WeChat Mac, WeChat Web, WeChat for Android and iOS, Blackberry and Nokia phones. Over 100 countries’ users can register WeChat accounts with their phone numbers WeChat also supports 21 different interface languages.

Over 100 countries’ users can register WeChat accounts with their phone numbers. WeChat also supports 21 different interface languages

English being an international language, the recent feature of 'scan to translate' between English and Chinese is making daily communication much easier for both foreigners in China and Chinese traveling abroad. When struggling with an English or Chinese menu or a text on a shop window, you can use the "Translate" function in the "Scan", you can find it by clicking "Discover" tab.

WeChat-Out.png

wechat super app case study

In December 2015, WeChat officially launched its VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) business service: WeChat Out. WeChat Out provides good call quality to mobiles and landlines and also offers low calling rates.

However, WeChat Out is only available for users outside mainland China. It is suspected that this is simply an act to enhance part of WeChat's functions to confront international competitions, as Line and Skype also have released similar services in the same year. As for domestic users,  most of them don't have the habit to use VOIP services while the western world has already started using Skype. The dominance and restrictions from domestic telecom operators is also a major cause.

As an integrated feature and convenient service, WeChat pay enables users to conduct quick transactions on their phones through attached bank accounts. WeChat pay supports direct transactions between CNY and ten other different foreign currencies. It is a rather safe and efficient payment service. With more and more Chinese people travelling to other countries, especially in Southeast Asian countries, WeChat Pay has become one of the most popular ways for payment during travel in countries such as Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia.

WeChat Wallet, a digital wallet embedded in WeChat Pay that allows users to attach bank cards and make instant payments and transfers, was launched in South Africa in 2015. China CITIC Bank was the first bank institution to embrace e-payment solutions in Hong Kong, and launched its instant bank payment service to WeChat Pay.

WeChat's official accounts & Mini Program

We live in a network society:  information and knowledge have always been critical components of economic growth, and the evolution of technology has indeed largely determined the productive capacity of society and standards of living, as well as social forms of economic organization" (Castells, 2010). Besides its main function of messaging, WeChat also provides resourceful information and news on its platform.

An enormous user base, efficient payment service, and innovative business model in Mini Programs create great advantages for WeChat to monetize through brand advertising, membership management, and other entertainment and commercial services such as mobile gaming and online shopping.

WeChat has definitely boosted the prosperity of e-commerce globally

WeChat as an integrated ecosystem combined multiple business models and functions. More and more international brands have WeChat official accounts, which is an efficient channel to promote and market their products and services but also to boost customer loyalty and service.

WeChat has definitely boosted the prosperity of e-commerce globally. Mini Programs can be seen as light apps within WeChat, with no need to download anything. They allow merchants to reach an enormous population of potential customers for online marketing and purchasing.  Mini Programs are used in five sectors: Retail (Walmart,  Family Mart), E-commerce (JD), Lifestyle (resturants, bike rent, buying movie tickets), Mini Games and Goverment Service( pay fines, upload court trails).

To give a simple example: if people want to order a burger from McDonalds, they don’t need a McDonalds app on their phone. All they need to do is search for the McDonalds Mini Program within WeChat. They order the food and pay both through WeChat and go back to whatever they were doing. China is the world's largest market for luxury products, and WeChat-based marketing is a necessary strategy for brands to localize and tap into the market. With one million Mini Programs and 600 million monthly active users, Mini Programs have no doubtgranted brands a more robust channel to access consumers.

wechat super app case study

Multinational stickers/emojis in WeChat

Stickers/Emojis have different indexicalities as one of the top popular features in WeChat. First,surface semiotic content reveals the cultural diversity involved. Second, semiotics express various layers of meaning in different contexts and also reflect how diversified the WeChat users are in terms of nationality, culture and ethnicity. Stickers create meaning and bonds or connections in online communication. As Blommaert and Varis (2012) state:

"Although the demands of recognizability and the identity templates of consumer culture keep our accents in check, in a superdiverse world of global flows, articulations and identities become less and less predictable. The super semiotic of the internet provide for the easy creation and fast publication of potentially infinite creation of accents- and infinitely fractured range and scope of 'how to'."

Below are some examples of the diversity of semiotics.

To celebrate Singapore’s 50th birthday on August 9, 2015, an Ang Ku Kueh girl sticker set was introduced. Itwas inspired by the traditional Singaporean snack Ang Ku Kueh, a red tortoise cake which is made of soft sticky glutinous rice pastry wrapped around a sweet center. The stickers intended to deliver universal values such as love, kindness and tenacity, and spread the beautiful image of Singapore’s local culture and heritage.

Indian winner’s creation at  WeChat World Sticker Challenge

South Indian Lungi Man 2.gif

Different regions in the world have different taste for favorite sticker sets.

WeChat-Stickers.png

wechat super app case study

Distributions of WeChat users: Chinese and Non-Chinese

In the third quarter of 2018, WeChat monthly active user accounts reached more than 1.825 billion. The majority of WeChat users are native Chinese. Ethnic Chinese overseas use WeChat to communicate with their family in China, and foreigners living in China socialize  through WeChat. WeChat has also become the dominant messaging and video app in the country of Bhutan. As the Internet is widely available in Bhutan, almost one-third of adults use WeChat in their mobile devices. In Macau, Hong Kong, Singapore, WeChat has also gained a lot of popularity among social media apps.

Global distribution of WeChat users in January 2013

WeChat Global Expansion.jpg

wechat super app case study

As the above map shows, apart from China, WeChat is also popular in Southeast Asia , compared with Europe, North and South America and South Africa, who have fewer WeChat users.

WeChat Interest over last 5 years Google trend.png

wechat super app case study

WeChat on its way to the world

Due to national boundaries and different government policies, foreign apps find it difficult accessing the Chinese market; the same applies to Chinese local apps trying to go abroad. In order to expand WeChat's popularity in global markets, Tencent offers a budget of 2 billion RMB for international development of WeChat even though WeChat has been facing great competition from other social media apps.

Multifunctional WeChat may encounter some difficulties and discrepancies in its expansion in other countries. Poor localization could be the main reason for WeChat's restricted development overseas. WeChat hasn’t shown the same level of adaptation for international markets.

For example, WeChat cannot offer food deliveries or movie ticket services in the US like they do in China. In the case of stickers, in different countries there should be different themes, such as Carnival themed stickers for Brazil and American football stickers for the US. Even though WeChat has faced great challenges from Alipay in payment services, its goal is to create a seamless experience at home and abroad by integrating its payment service with Chinese consumers’ daily lives.

Tencent built up its first overseas WeChat team in America in 2012. The WeChat Mini Program’s innovative business model has been selected into one of the top 15 world leading internet scientific and technological achievements in 2018 at the 5th World Internet Conference.

wechat super app case study

World-famous football celebrities advertizing WeChat

WeChat overseas brand celebrity.webp.jpg

wechat super app case study

As Van Dijck (2013) states:

" Connectivity derives from a continuous pressure — both from peers and from technologies — to expand through competition and gain power through strategic alliances. Platform tactics such as the popularity principle and ranking mechanisms hardly involve contingent technological structures; instead, they are firmly rooted in an ideology that values hierarchy, competition, and a winner-takes-all mind-set."

As the poster above shows, the famous Argentina football star Lionel Messi is advertising for WeChat to the world. Even though the effect of advertising is uncertain, at least, WeChat is making its efforts to gradually walk onto the main stage of the world.

Nowadays WeChat is getting more and more attention through the internet. Recently, an American TV series called “Startup” accidently advertised for WeChat in Hong Kong. In the episode, a taxi driver is driving crazily in a crowded Hongkong night market because he is so busy with his phone. Then the passenger gets angry and finds out the driver is obsessed with his WeChat, “the only app in his phone and it’s all-in-one,” according to his words.

In other parts of the world, WeChat has built business with different enterprises. For example, in the US, WeChat partnered with LinkedIn to promote its popularity in the American market, and, what’s more, the global payment service provider Western Union offers WeChat users in America its global money transfer service. In South Africa, WeChat cooperated with the Standard Chartered Bank to provide payment service to retailers. In Malaysia, WeChat has a localized digital wallet. Malaysia is the first country after China and Hong Kong where WeChat has rolled out a local version. As a payment method, WeChat Pay is accepted in over 40 countries and regions where it serves Chinese tourists, according to the company.  

In Europe, WeChat Go is a travel tool to serve 120 million Chinese travelers abroad each year. In Europe, to boost the travel experience, WeChat cooperated with Netherlands Royal Communications Group (KPN) to launch the WeChat Go “Europe Experience” in the platform of a Mini program in March 2018.

wechat super app case study

In South Korea, Japan, and other countries, many stores support WeChat Pay to boost their sales and customer loyalties. The most important factor for WeChat’s development in the international market is to customize its strategy and features to each local market and convince a number of international and local brands to join its platform.

Will WeChat conquer the world?

The term globalization is most commonly used as shorthand for the intensified flows of capital, goods, people, images and discourses around the globe, driven by technological innovations mainly in the field of media and information and communication technology, and resulting in new patterns of global activity, community organisation and culture (Castells 1996; Appadurai 1996).

Mobility of people, goods, culture, technology and capital, along with internet and mobile phones as infrastructure have contributed to the global expansion of WeChat and its super power.

WeChat Pay, WeChat Out, WeChat Go, Official Account, Mini Program and Stickers are all integrated into WeChat ecosystem. Its all-in-one multifunctionality and accessbility make WeChat a leading lifestyle and a competent international social media app.

However, its influences in Europe, America and some other part of world is still lacking. The majority of users are still the Chinese population. It's still a long way to go for WeChat to perfect its localization in international markets and to exhibit its salience in the globalized and superdiverse world.

Appadurai, A. (1990). Disjuncture and difference in the global cultural economy. Theory, Culture & Society , 7(2-3), 295-310. doi:10.1177/026327690007002017

Appadurai, A. (1996).  Modernity at Large . Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Blommaert, J. (2010). The Sociolinguistics of Globalization . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Castells, M. (1996).  The Rise of the Network Society . London: Blackwell.

Van Dijck, J. (2013).  The culture of connectivity : A critical history of social media. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Varis, P., & Blommaert, J. (2012).  How to ‘how to’? The prescriptive micropolitics of Hijabista . Tilburg Papers in Culture StudiesUniversity. Paper 30 (2012).

https://help.wechat.com/cgi-bin/micromsg-bin/oshelpcenter?opcode=2&lang=...

https://www.tencent.com/en-us/system.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_EMxBmQbVU

https://blog.wechat.com/

https://blog.wechat.com/2015/12/31/new-year-new-feature-wechat-out/

https://technode.com/2018/01/18/wechat-mini-programs-2017/

https://technode.com/2018/08/15/wechat-mini-program-valentines-day/

https://technode.com/2018/08/22/wechat-wallet-malaysia/

https://technode.com/2018/03/12/wechat-nonstop-features/

https://blog.wechat.com/2018/04/03/wechat-go-the-one-travel-tool-to-rule...

https://www.researchgate.net/Global-distribution-of-WeChat-users-in-Janu...

https://blog.wechat.com/2015/10/25/celebrating-wechat-india-world-sticke...

https://blog.wechat.com/2015/11/03/new-data-revealed-what-is-the-wechat-...

https://www.techinasia.com/3-reasons-wechat-failed-internationally-chine...

The race to create the world's next super-app

  • Published 5 February 2021

A woman sells fruit and vegetables in a Chinese market stall with a QR code on display

How many apps do you have on your phone?

If you're anything like me, it's a lot.

But imagine installing just one app that does almost everything - from buying a pizza, hailing a taxi, chatting to your friends and even booking a massage.

It does exist and it's known as a super-app.

There are two major players in the market and the most popular, with over a billion users , is WeChat.

Created in 2011 by Chinese tech giant Tencent, WeChat started life as a messaging platform.

It is now estimated to offer more than one million services through mini programmes, which are apps created by third-party companies and accessible through WeChat.

More than an app: Trump's WeChat ban shocks Chinese abroad

What is Tencent?

That means you never have to leave WeChat's virtual universe (except perhaps to go to the bathroom).

Most of these services are only available to users in China, which is why you may not have heard of it despite its dominance.

The other main player is Ant Group's Alipay, which also has more than one billion users and offers 120,000 mini programmes.

Angeline Liu

Business booms on WeChat

Singapore-based Chinese entrepreneurs Angeline Liu and Angee Teng saw a unique opportunity to tap into WeChat's captive audience.

"WeChat is a part of our daily life that we [can't] live without," says Ms Liu, who spends two to three hours a day on the app.

"Basically everything you need is within this one app and every part of your life is touched [by it]."

Three years ago they launched a business selling premium meat to Chinese customers in Singapore.

"You can browse the products, make purchases, make payments and complete the whole cycle within this app," Ms Liu says.

They don't advertise through traditional channels or social media yet business is booming, with tens of thousands of dollars worth of orders rolling in every month.

Angeline Liu on WeChat

Why is China so good at creating super-apps?

China leapfrogged into the internet era, which means people went from telephones to smartphones pretty quickly.

This allowed internet companies to innovate in a way their counterparts in the West haven't been able to.

Rui Ma, who co-hosts the podcast Techbuzz, tells me it's also because data laws in China are quite different.

"In the West we have a lot of rules and regulations, creating a lot of friction around these services that in China the government simply hasn't gotten around to regulating," she says.

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How a little Ant became a financial giant

That's not the only reason.

"Chinese internet companies think of building entire ecosystems, versus product-first or product-centric companies," she says.

"They're not just building a feature or one service. They're thinking about how to take the user's entire lifestyle and move it online."

A life lived online means a lot of transactions and a lot of data.

Under Chinese law, all companies - not just WeChat - can be compelled to hand over that data to the ruling Communist Party.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) says it has found evidence of censorship on WeChat in China and warns this could also happen to overseas users.

Person on smart phone in front of Chinese flag projection

"The risks associated with WeChat's lack of end-to-end encryption is that Tencent and WeChat can have access to any of your data on WeChat," says Audrey Fritz, who co-authored an ASPI report looking at the Communist Party's influence on Chinese internet firms.

"[They are] bound by [China's] cyber-security laws to give any data on WeChat or any of their apps to the government, if the Communist Party should request that."

Tencent told the BBC it complies with the laws and regulations of each market it operates in, adding that user privacy and data security are core values.

"User privacy and data security are core values at Tencent. We hold ourselves to the highest standards in protecting our users while ensuring we comply with all laws and regulations in the markets in which we operate," the company said.

Concern over privacy and data security could be among the reasons it has been difficult for these Chinese apps to expand overseas.

Throw in the fact that the domestic market in China is so big, there's really no need to go anywhere else.

A GoJek rider and passenger in Jakarta

South East Asia a contender to produce the next super-app

The race to build the world's next super-app is revving up and many of the frontrunners are based in South East Asia.

With 600 million people spread across the region, there are already half a dozen companies vying for their attention.

Grab, Gojek and the SEA Group are among the biggest and best funded.

Chinese companies Alibaba and Tencent have invested in them, as have US firms including Facebook, Google and PayPal.

Indonesian-based Gojek has grown from a motorcycle-hailing platform to an app offering car rides, payments and food delivery.

Singapore becoming hub for China's tech giants

  • The airline founder building Asia’s next super app

Gojek co-chief executive Kevin Aluwi says the region is a natural fit for super-apps.

"Having to only download one single app is something that is probably uniquely appealing to a part of the world where, for most people, the first real experience of the internet happened on mobile."

Perhaps surprisingly for a company that calls itself a super-app, Mr Aluwi says Gojek isn't trying to monopolise its users' time.

"Many super-apps view their objective as to increase the amount of time that customers are actually viewing their app," he says.

"For us, we want our customers to get in, find the thing they need to solve their problem at that moment and then get out and get on with their lives."

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Case Study: Super-Apps and the Exploitative Potential of Mobile Applications

Case Study: Super-Apps and the Exploitative Potential of Mobile Applications

For those concerned by reporting of Facebook’s  exploitation  of  user data  to generate sensitive insights into its users, it is worth taking note of WeChat, a Chinese super-app whose success has made it the envy of Western technology giants, including Facebook. WeChat has more than 900 million users. It serves as a portal for nearly every variety of connected activity in China.  Approximately 30% of all time Chinese users spend on the mobile internet  centers around WeChat and  over a third of WeChat users spend over four hours a day on the service . WeChat’s multifunctional indispensability for many Chinese users make deep and integrated stores of personal data available for analysis and exploitation – by WeChat itself, by third parties or by the Chinese government.

What Is WeChat?

WeChat – known as Weixin (微信) in China – is a mobile application developed by Tencent, a Chinese technology company. WeChat first emerged as a chat service, permitting users to send messages using their mobile phones over the internet. Over time, however, Tencent has seamlessly integrated many other features into WeChat, transforming the application into the dominant gateway to the internet for its users. For instance, WeChat is also a social media platform, enabling users to follow each other and post updates, as well as to “subscribe” to other accounts, including media outlets, who use the WeChat platform to deliver content.

WeChat also has a “Wallet” feature, which serves as the hub for virtually any financial transaction. Using the Wallet, users can pay utility and credit card bills, transfer money to friends, and book and pay for taxis, food deliveries, movie tickets, hotels, flights and even hospital appointments, all without ever leaving WeChat. For example:

  • Didi Chuxing, China’s largest ride-hailing company, has a button  embedded  within the “Wallet,” which directs users to its service to book and pay for rides.
  • WePiao  is a WeChat movie app, through which users select their city, theatre location and movie, and then pay for tickets.
  • Some  hospitals  have set up WeChat accounts, allowing users to use the platform to make appointments and pay for registration and medicine.

Part of WeChat’s success resides in its constant innovation of how users interact with the application. Take, for example, its  deployment of the quick-response (“QR”) code . WeChat assigns each user a QR code, which serves as a digital ID, and also integrates a QR scanner into the application. WeChat users rely on QR codes to exchange contact information, make or receive payments (including in-store) or access web links, all without ever having to type anything into their mobile device.

In 2014, WeChat introduced a  “Red Packet”  feature, based on the Chinese tradition of exchanging red envelopes filled with cash on holidays or special occasions, such as weddings or birthdays. A “Red Packet” is a digital red envelope, which users can fill with predetermined amounts and send to other users. Over the 2016 Chinese New Year,  516 million users sent 32.1 billion red packets . The “Red Packet” feature, in turn, has  reinforced user engagement  with the WeChat “Wallet” and mobile payment system as well as boosted the growth of chat groups.

Tencent is also eyeing the growing integration of the “Internet of Things” and artificial intelligence (“AI”) into WeChat. In 2014, Tencent unveiled an  API for smart devices , which permits hardware manufacturers to develop WeChat applications for those devices. And in 2015, it introduced an  operating system  for internet-connected devices. More recently, Tencent has begun dedicating resources to researching AI,  opening labs in both China and the U.S.  WeChat offers a rich resource for training AI including, for example, through the wealth of text and voice  “conversational data”  it collects.

What Is The Problem?

WeChat’s dominance among Chinese mobile applications has caught the attention of Western technology giants, including Facebook. David Marcus, the Head of Facebook Messenger, has described WeChat as  “inspiring”  and openly discussed his plan for Messenger to incorporate WeChat-like features and services into its platform. Indeed,  Messenger’s product roadmap demonstrates this trajectory with plans, for example, to allow users to send money to one another or to purchase certain products or services directly on the platform.

And yet, rather than merely marveling at WeChat’s success at embedding itself into nearly every facet of everyday life, we should also think critically about its implications for individual rights and society as a whole. Consider first the information that  WeChat can collect  at the individual level:

  • Biometric information, such as voice data when logging in via “Voiceprint”
  • Contact lists shared with WeChat to connect with “Recommended Friends”
  • Location data – i.e. location of the device, IP address, and other information relating to location (e.g. geotagged photos) – while using WeChat
  • Log data, which includes web search terms, social media profiles visited, and details relating to other content accessed or requested using WeChat
  • Communications metadata ( i.e.  who, when, where) related to every chat, call and video;
  • Social media posts (text and photographic) and their metadata;
  • Bank and credit card details;
  • Financial transactions and their metadata, including payments of utility and credit card bills, to other users, and for everyday services such as meals, transportation, entertainment, travel, and even health.

As WeChat strives to embed its platform into the Internet of Things, the sensors on those devices – cars, toys, refrigerators – will also begin to generate data about user behavior. The result is that nearly every facet of our daily lives may soon be expressed as data and collected by WeChat. Pieced together, those bits of data can produce a rich, multi-layered profile of an individual, including his or her religious affiliation, political views and personality traits.

Consider further that WeChat can generate and collect this wealth of data at near-population scale. WeChat boasts over  937 million users ,  768 million  of whom are active  daily . The vast majority of these users reside in China. In China’s  Tier 1 cities , such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou,  approximately 93% of individuals are registered WeChat users .

The data generated and collected by WeChat can yield inferences – accurate or inaccurate – about individuals as well as a broader population. Inferences can then be used to make decisions that affect people’s lives and even have a societal impact. At the same time, automated processing techniques like artificial intelligence are increasingly determining inferences and making decisions. The use of AI – a complex, computational system – makes it inherently different to understand and challenge both inferences and decisions.

Today, WeChat sends  BMW advertisements  only to a select group of users. Tomorrow, will it block services such as taxi-hailing or health appointment booking for certain categories of users? Today,  WeChat manipulates timelines by censoring posts with certain keywords , depending on the  location of the user . Tomorrow, will it  manipulate timelines of users to determine their reactions  to different political events? Today, WeChat user data may go towards a  determination of creditworthiness by a peer-to-peer lending site . Tomorrow, will WeChat user data become integrated not only into credit scoring, but also into other records, such as health and employment histories? 

Finally, and no less important, the collection of such vast stores of data make that data a honeypot for a variety of third parties. The most visible third party is the Chinese government, which has announced  a plan to roll out a “social credit” system nationwide by 2020 . That system – currently being piloted by various public and private bodies, but not Tencent – would seek to produce credit scores on the basis of an individual’s  social and financial behavior, including internet activity . A person’s credit score could then be used to determine eligibility for a range of public and private services, such as school admissions, travel abroad and financial products. The depth and breadth of user data generated and collected by WeChat – as well as its own inferences generated from that data – make it a rich vein to tap for the social credit system.

China is also home to a pernicious ecosystem of private data brokers. Last year, Guangzhou’s  Southern Metropolis Daily  published  an expose  revealing how the sum of approximately $100 can unlock access to an astonishing amount of information about a person – including bank accounts, driving records, apartment rentals, hotel stays, and airline flights. The user data generated and collected by WeChat, which would encompass virtually all of this information, makes it a particularly attractive target to data brokers.

What Is The Solution?

Tencent is looking to  expand WeChat beyond the Chinese market . And as discussed above, Western technology companies are enamored with the blueprint offered by WeChat and may seek to introduce similar features into their platforms. But rather than blindly embrace the integrated services WeChat has to offer, we should also seek to consider and challenge the myriad privacy and security concerns presented by such a platform.    

First, we must begin to recognize and confront the problem of data – our data – being generated, collected, processed, and shared beyond our consent and our control. We must further acknowledge and challenge the reality that this lack of consent and control is often by design. In the case of WeChat, users should begin to ask:

  • What is the minimum data about me WeChat can generate, collect, process, and share in order to run the services I use?
  • Can I see a record of all the data about me that WeChat generates, collects, processes, and shares?
  • Can I ask WeChat to delete all prior data about me?

Second, we must simultaneously recognize and address the insecurity of our technology, including our devices, networks, and, in this case, services like WeChat. Users should further ask:

  • How does WeChat secure the data about me it generates, collects and processes? Does it take any measures to ensure third parties secure my data shared by WeChat?
  • Can I seek redress from WeChat (and third parties) if my data is compromised?
  • Does WeChat make its software available for independent review? Does it permit its service to undergo an independent security audit?

Finally, we must recognize and confront the fact that data yields inferences and those inferences undergird decisions made by those in possession of our data. Users should ask:

  • Can I request what inferences WeChat (and third parties) are drawing from my data? What decisions they are making on the basis of those inferences? Can I challenge those inferences? Those decisions?
  • Can I request what societal-level inferences WeChat (and third parties) are drawing from the pool of user data? What decisions they are making on the basis of those inferences? Who can challenge those inferences? Those decisions?
  • Can I opt-out of contributing my data to the development of inferences? If so, can I still access the WeChat services I use?
  • Can I choose to maintain my anonymity when using WeChat? Can I create multiple profiles that are not linked to one another?

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The rise of the super app

Social media companies are increasingly super apps that encompass more of what we do online, for better or worse..

By Alex Heath , a deputy editor and author of the Command Line newsletter. He’s covered the tech industry for over a decade at The Information and other outlets.

Illustrations by Micha Huigen

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wechat super app case study

Say you want to see Japanese Breakfast play in Sacramento next week with a couple of friends. The process of going requires jumping between at least a few apps — you might coordinate plans on WhatsApp, buy your tickets from Ticketmaster, book a ride through Uber, and pay each other back for drinks over Venmo.  

But what if all that activity happened in one app on your phone?

Over the next several years, I predict that the biggest social media companies around the world will become super apps, acting as gatekeepers to a wider array of things people do online. While they started as ways to mainly keep in contact with friends and family or be entertained, these social networks — Facebook, Snap, and TikTok, for example — will become increasingly important ways people shop, bank, and entertain themselves. Some of these firms that started in the US, such as Snapchat, are already starting to resemble super apps, even though they’re still primarily thought of as social networks.

Western social media firms are playing catch-up

The idea of the super app first gained popularity in China with WeChat, the messaging app that essentially acts as a platform for facilitating life online in the world’s most populous country. WeChat doesn’t just let you message your friends and see their updates in a feed; it can also be used to take out a loan to buy your next car. Commerce done through mini-apps that WeChat lets other developers build on its platform reached a staggering $240 billion last year alone, more than double from the previous year.

In the Western world, social media firms are playing catch-up. They’re morphing from single or dual-use case apps — messaging friends or browsing feeds of content — to encompass more and more of what people do online. Last year, Facebook started adding shopping features that keep users from needing to complete purchases elsewhere. The head of Instagram, which is part of Facebook’s family of apps, recently made headlines when he said the app was no longer primarily about sharing photos.

WhatsApp, which is also part of Facebook, recently added a directory in South America to let users find local businesses, and in India, it’s trialing banking products like loans. Twitter started as an SMS, text-based service, but now, it lets users natively host audio rooms and newsletters and put their tweets behind a paywall. TikTok recently added an in-app shopping experience and introduced a platform for developers to build their own app experiences into its main video feed. 

Becoming a super app is mainly about becoming more integrated into people’s lives

Out of all the big social media firms not from China, Snapchat is perhaps the furthest along towards becoming a super app. A few years ago, it introduced mini-apps by other developers that let people do things like play games together, mediate, or book movie tickets — all without leaving the app. There are now more than two-dozen mini-apps in Snapchat, though the company hasn’t disclosed overall usage of them yet.

In a crowded landscape of apps, becoming a super app is mainly about becoming more integrated into people’s lives and maintaining a grip on their attention, whether it be an endless feed of short videos or an easy way to find clothes to buy.

“Any company that has an app, you’re really focused on getting to the point of being a Home Screen app,” said Nicole Quinn, an investor at Lightspeed Venture Partners who has backed the mental health app Calm and Cameo, an app that lets you book shoutouts from celebrities.

wechat super app case study

A tectonic shift in how the ad-supported app economy works is also driving the rise of super apps. Social media companies that largely thrived from tracking users across different sites can no longer be sure that their ads will lead to someone buying something elsewhere. That data sharing has historically let apps easily track users as they move around the internet, in turn giving advertisers a strong signal about the kinds of ads specific people will respond to. 

Apple recently made it harder for third-party iOS apps to share data with other companies for advertising purposes, thanks to a new prompt that’s now shown to users. Google is planning a similar approach for Android and has already announced the end of third-party cookies in its Chrome browser. Regulators around the world, particularly in the European Union, are in addition contemplating laws that would further restrict the sharing of user data between different companies.

The rise of “content fortresses”

Simply put, if ad-driven platforms like Facebook can’t track how people interact with other apps, they’ll work more to keep people in their apps as much as possible, especially for activities that involve money like shopping. Eric Seufert, an influential ads industry analyst and consultant, calls this phenomenon the rise of “content fortresses.”

Since these changes by Apple and regulators largely don’t restrict how apps collect data about their own users, that first-party data is now more valuable. If a Facebook user makes a purchase without leaving to complete it in another app or website, Facebook can provide that information to the advertiser who paid for the ad that led to the purchase. Advertisers, in turn, pay more money when they know their ads work.

WeChat, by contrast, has been decidedly slow to build an ads business, instead opting to take a cut of transactions done through its app and native payments service. Its parent company Tencent makes most of its money from other areas, such as its many gaming divisions.

The biggest risk to super apps is the increasing scrutiny of the tech industry’s power

Also helping this trend of super apps is pressure being put on Apple — which controls the most lucrative and second-largest mobile app platform — to loosen its grip on what apps are allowed to do on iOS devices. Apple’s rules currently forbid third-party developers from hosting app stores within their apps, and they’re, for the most part, not allowed to accept purchases in their apps without paying Apple 30 percent. Thanks to legal pressure, that’s starting to change. And if Apple’s rule that bans app stores within third-party iOS apps is ever undone, social networks like Facebook could be freed to host app stores themselves, letting people more easily discover mini-apps or web games within their apps.

The biggest risk to companies with super apps — or ambitions to become a super app — is the increasing scrutiny of the tech industry’s power. Regulators in the US and Europe are increasingly more critical of the biggest internet platforms. Even China has, in recent weeks, started forcing WeChat and other local firms to open up their platforms to rivals. It’s a sign that the country where super apps first rose to prominence now sees them as having too much power.

“We are betting on the whole ecosystem becoming big.”

For now, the biggest super apps are still in China, and they are well ahead in terms of developer activity. There are about three million mini-apps in WeChat and about 1 million in Alipay, the second most popular super app in China. Users in China and other non-western countries have flocked to super apps over the past several years, but it remains to be seen if the concept will take hold with people elsewhere who are already accustomed to downloading lots of apps for different purposes.

The main contenders for super apps are apps that integrate payments, according to Kaniyet Rayev, the CEO of a new startup called Appboxo that builds tools to easily let companies create mini-app platforms inside their apps. He started the company after taking a trip to China several years ago with his cofounder Nursultan Keneshbekov, where they observed how much time locals spent using WeChat. Appboxo is now working with companies in southwest Asia, India, Japan, and other parts of the world to help them build developer platforms inside their apps, said Rayev.

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Breakthrough innovation and platform leadership: a case of super app from India

  • Published: 02 September 2022
  • Volume 17 , pages 229–238, ( 2022 )

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  • Kirankumar S. Momaya   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7658-2006 1  

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Leveraging select factor advantages, several firms of Indian origin (FIOs) are doing quite well in emerging industries, including rapidly growing segments such as apps and digital platforms (DPs). Yet, gaps between apps by FIOs and super apps in China and other countries are quite vast on multiple dimensions. The entry of ‘large industrial houses of India’, with diverse capabilities across member companies, in relevant segments can help evolve innovation platforms. Particularly, it can help catch-up on critical capabilities related to management of technology and innovation (MoT) that demand deep talent and finance pools. In this short case study, efforts are made to clarify the context and dilemmas faced by top leaders of a firm, synthesized for a chief technology officer (CTO). The case provides an exciting opening context for learners of management and strategy, particularly experienced executives, as well as top leaders in firms, governments and bureaucracy. It also has a section summarizing high importance dilemmas for researchers and academicians to undertake exciting studies.

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wechat super app case study

Source: Securities report by Bank of America

Code availability

Not applicable for this case study.

The name of the CTO and the firm has been anonymised at request of the firm.

Dr. K. S. Momaya developed this case solely to provide material for class discussion. The author does not intend to illustrate either an effective or less effective handling of a managerial situation, actors or processes. The author has disguised certain names and other identity information of individual or firms to protect confidentiality.

This material may not be transferred, photocopied, digitized, or otherwise reproduced in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Copyright @ 2022, Kirankumar S. Momaya, SJMSOM, IIT BombayVer. 522.

Related roles such as chief innovation/information officer (CIvO/CIO), chief digital officer or vice president (Technology/products/platforms/digital/R&DDE) are also used in different proactive firms.

Our definition of technological platforms includes innovation or hybrid platforms, where technology development is orchestrated by the flagship firm(s) (Momaya et al., 2013 ).

Such flagship firms may be defined as a focal firm (e.g. in a value chain or value network) that has capabilities to shape evolution of the industry value system (IVS, Momaya, 2001 ) or network due to high level capabilities (incl. technological innovation, collaboration,..) on value curve (e.g. Umamaheswari et al., 2008). Such firms emerged to be a critical success factor in an emerging industries in a study (e.g. Momaya, 2011 ).

The ideas is to help learners identify and select better companies for higher comparability in benchmarking exercises. Only pointer to companies are given; you need to do homework on analysing their journeys.

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Acknowledgements

I acknowledge constructive comments from reviewers. We thank participants of ‘Çompetitiveness Awareness Workshops’ and ‘Paper Development Workshops’ at IITs and Glogift conferences for questions and comments. I thank Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management, IIT Bombay for the research infrastructure. I appreciate support from members of Group on Competitiveness (GoC), particularly Shivakumar M., Padmanav Adhikari, Pranusha Manthri and Sneha Bhat with data collection or pilot testing of draft caselets. Partial financial support from Wadhwani Foundation through Industrial Research and Consultancy Centre (IRCC), IITB for data collection part. and interactions at the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE), IIT Bombay are acknowledged.

The author did not receive financial support from any organization for the submitted case.

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figure a

Appendix A1: Working definitions of key terms

Corporate flexibility.

Capabilities of a business corporation (can be an industrial house, trading house {e.g. sogo sosha}, or orchestrator through financial linkages {e.g. Keiretsu, Chaebol,…}, or even state owned enterprises (SOEs {e.g. in China}) to leverage diverse capabilities (e.g. products to services, manufacturing to financial, software to hardware).

Digital platforms : A building block, providing an essential function to a technological system—which acts as a foundation upon which other firms can develop complementary products, technologies or services. DPs can bring together two or more types of firms, SBUs, organisations or market actors and can scale-up rapidly, if able to leverage network effects (Adapted from Gawer et al. 2002, Cusumano et al., 2020 ).

Digital platform capability : Firms ability to make connections with other firms using online platforms and orchestrate all the different resources and activities at a large scale during the process to enhance competitiveness, ideally international competitiveness on carefully selected factors of high relevance for a given context (Adapted from Shi et al. 2020, Momaya 2019).

Platform Owner : Platform owners are the focal ecosystem actors, who are responsible for the platform’s architecture and facilitate access and value creation through governance mechanisms.

International competitiveness

International competitiveness of a firm can be defined as the capability of a firm to design, engineer, produce, service a product or service or undertake above or other activities of choice on industry value system much better than competitors on relevant factors of competitiveness (Momaya, 2001 ). Above activities may be undertaken in one or multiple countries, but the relative level of international competitiveness may be evaluated on criteria such as net foreign exchange earnings (absolute, as well as percentage of net sales).

In context of platform firms, the relevant activities that help scale-up the platform in domestic and international markets can be of higher focus.

Organisational fitness

Organisational fitness is a concept that transcends traditional profitability measures by including an organisations dynamic capabilities to be innovative for continuous organistional survival and prosperity. Organisational fitness can be measured in two ways (adapted from Leibold, 2002):

Internally: looking within the organisation

By its ability to self-organize internally quickly and effectively in the face of change. This ability ranges from (1) inefective self organising that freezes in a place, through (2) an ability to keep pace with today’s rapid rate of change but not to lead this change, and culminates in (3) an ability to reorganize much faster than others.

Externally: looking externally.

By adaptation an entity exhibits within its changing context…

Appendix A2: Emerging issues of high importance

While emerging countries take baby steps on challenge levels such as SuperApps, there are several emerging issues and topics for studies where huge gaps in knowledge exist and provide high-potential for studies of different type—from micro-studies to Ph.D. level projects. We cluster issues under following heads: Macro, meso to micro level. Only more relevant micro-level issues were discussed in main part; macro-level and meso-level issues are discussed here.

Macro-level:

Excessive dominance by ‘Big Tech’ have created different approaches to ‘rein in’ by big tech countries. For instance, the countries in the European Union tried to protect emerging and local firms through tech regulations such as data privacy. Such regulation could have created baclout for tech giants such as Meta Platforms Inc. thousands of other firms that rely on free flow of information across the Atlantic (Bloomberg, 2022 ). The EU and the US tried to break the deadlock through a new data transfer pact. China has different approach to rein in tech gaints such as Alibaba and Tencent, when it seemed that imbalances were happening. Many emerging countries in other continents have less clarity on approach that can work for them.

Since regulation can create major obstacles for so called super apps, some companies may have chosen to adapt strategies such as “Hidden Champions” (Simon, 201X), a concious strategy adapted by many companies across countries. Since, super app often creates a notion that the firm is attempting to create oligopolies, even the big-tech companies having apps that come close to what super apps are supposed to deliver have consciously shied away from calling their apps super apps. Since, there are hardly any firms of Indian origin (FIOs) that have such technologies or other key competitiveness assets (Momaya, 2001 ) and the landscape in India is hyper-competitive and hence more VUCA, even most capable FIO or even industrial house should be willing to take toughest challenges to emerge a domestic winner, where real strings are in hands of less visible players. Who are such players keen on India and what are their game plans, capabilities and cooperative strategies (e.g. Momaya, 2011 ) can provide some exciting topics for studies.

Industrial houses such as Tata’s have firms with diverse capabilities across several manufacturing and services industries. Some of them have high or growing international competitiveness (e.g. TCS,……or Tata motors, Tata Steel). While earlier notions of corporate flexibility where mostly focused on synergies of conglomerate (e.g. based on financial criteria, cross-holding,…), adventures across industry boundaries by tech giants (e.g. from the USA) indicate potential of gaining competitiveness in even polar industries. For instance, starting from a book store and expanding to be an e-com giant, Amazon has been entering and disrupting diverse industries incl. in hardware (e.g. electronics) to space. Their counterpart such as Flipkart many have capabilities, but may not have been able to consider such less-related diversification for several reasons. What are such reasons constraining advances on hardware products (can be from retaining, servicing,…to getting contract manufactured abroad) for FIOs? For instance, IH such as RIL entered in hardware through pilots such as LYF (which became a top selling brand of mobile phones for some time in India), but seems to have stagnated prematurely. Can more experienced His such as Tata can go longer distances with planned SuperApp TataNeu? What capabilities across different businesses may create synergies that can be leveraged for international competitiveness of Neu?

Appendix A3: Limitations and topics for exploration and adventure

Like most mini-cases of this nature, this case also has limitations. Some of the limitations may also open up opportunities as topics for exploration and adventure. Here are just few high potential examples of the topics.

Focus of the discussion above was on enablers of competitiveness mostly at ‘Firm level’ or ‘Industrial house level’ that can facilitate BO or CU for innovation platforms. In some contexts, select dimensions of competitiveness at ‘Industry level’ or ‘Cluster level’ or ‘ecosystem level’ (including supply chains, industry value systems {e.g. GVC}) may become important. Advanced countries such as Japan often have higher maturity of perspectives on industrial competitiveness. For instance, Li, Ishii and Kameoka (2001) proposed a conceptual framework of cooperation and competition (including foundations and indicator system). They mentioned that while technology could be emulated and overtaken, quality cooperation interwined in sophisticated relational networking of information, knowledge, materials and organizations can provide better knowledge-based sustainable advantage. Such perspectives may be difficult to implement in Indian contexts, but ‘Early Steps in relevant direction’ may be important to evolve “Cooperative Strategies” (e.g. Momaya, 2009 ) for sustainable enterprises, cities and clusters.

Break-out or catch-up on journey towards innovation platform (can be from products or transaction platforms) for EMNEs may benefit from concepts such as ‘platform overthrow’ (e.g. Thomas et al., 2021 ). Probability of platform overthrow seems better in transaction platforms. However, bigger opportunities for research may be in finding drivers of overthrow in innovation platforms, where gaps in capabilities of EMNEs and hence opportunities for improvement (OFIs) are bigger.

Founders, intrapreneurs capable of transforming self, teams and ventures are emerging as major driver of competitiveness of firms and industrial houses. For instance, Digital technologies have swept the world and some proponents of ‘Digital Transformation’ (e.g. Westerman et al., 2014 ) have highlighted that even large companies in traditional industries—from finance, manufacturing to pharmaceuticals—are trying to gain strategic advantage through digital. A critical success factor identified was “leaders capable of managing how of the transformation”. What can be early indicators of leaders with such capabilities?

Some Indian experts have highlighted the trinity of Jandhan-Aadhar-Mobile (popularly called JAM), as some of the most transformative digital platforms with massive impact on way payments can be processed. For instance, many believe that Unified Payments Interface (UPI) created by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) as the most disruptive payments platform in the world (Balakrishnan, 2022 ). While it certainly disrupted growing businesses such as international card companies, there is a need to think about next levels of transformative digital payments systems and ecosystems that can be world class and contribute significantly to competitiveness of MSMEs and other firms and organisations. What cooperative strategies can help evolve such systems and competitiveness can provide some exciting topics for studies?

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Momaya, K.S. Breakthrough innovation and platform leadership: a case of super app from India. JGBC 17 , 229–238 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42943-022-00059-7

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  • Platform strategy
  • Innovation platforms
  • Digital transformation (DX)
  • International competitiveness (अंतरराष्ट्रीय स्पर्धात्मकता)
  • Sustainable entrepreneurship
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Man on a phone in China using a QR scanner

WeChat: Inside a Super App

Wechat is china’s biggest social network with over 900 million users. when it added a wallet in 2014 it caused huge changes in chinese commerce and society..

From outside China, it’s hard to understand how WeChat works and how it is used. We conducted an ethnographic study to find out more. What we learned is not only a fascinating look at the way modern China is changing, but it also gives us clues about how social platforms and e-commerce are likely to change in Western economies in the years ahead.

WeChat being used for payment

How it all began

The beginning

We sent a team to Shanghai to run a rapid ethnographic study with both consumer and business-owning WeChat users. We conducted both guerrilla research and in-depth interviews with a range of people from baby boomers to millennials to get a clear picture of WeChat e-commerce from all sides.

days in Shaghai

depth interviews

guerrilla interviews

Seamless integration

In the West, we still see apps as islands of functionality. For instance, when arranging a night out with friends we might open and close a variety of apps before, during and after the event: WhatsApp to chat and make a plan; Google to find places to eat; Urbanspoon and Instagram to check them out; OpenTable to make a booking; Uber to get us all there; PayPal to split the bill and TripAdvisor to review the experience.

In China, that entire exercise can be completed within WeChat. All of the key features and functionality from the Chinese equivalent branded services are integrated into WeChat using APIs and microsites. You never have to leave the app and it’s stitched together with WeChat’s own wallet, making paying for that cab or sending money to a friend a seamless experience.

All this raises questions about the way we think about and use apps in the West. Why are our phones full of apps which we rarely use? Why can’t the services and functionality of these apps be rolled up into other social or payments apps? In China, this is exactly what’s happening. Some of our respondents described opening WeChat in the morning and never leaving it until they went to bed at night.

As well as integration into the customer’s world, WeChat has also integrated into the business world with another app, Wei Dian. This allows businesses to manage their WeChat presence and run businesses off the back of it. Wei Dian has a suite of tools to run businesses pointed at WeChat including CMS, stock and order management, and payments.

The combination of these apps allows for businesses, big and small, to easily integrate themselves into the WeChat world. Through WeChat, anyone can setup and run an entire business.

WeChat allows you to do things from ordering a take-away to booking a doctor’s appointment without having to leave the app while a mobile services shop owner we spoke to had no physical inventory or premises; he made his living and ran his business completely within WeChat – from a fold-up seat near a cafe.

QR codes unlocks on bicycles in China

Super simple

WeChat intentionally constrains its UI to ensure a consistent experience for its users. WeChat has two core interaction models: messaging, where you chat to friends and brands; and content browsing, with APIs which take you to a web-browsing and micro-app mode. The layout palette is also quite narrow.

At its core is the chat interface. User-to-user it looks similar to western messaging apps, but when chatting to brands, a strict 3-button menu appears at the foot of the interface. Brands are free to name and assign functionality to these 3-buttons as they please.

There is also a Moments interface, similar to Facebook’s newsfeed, where brands can post content and establish a distinctive tone-of-voice.

QR codes are vital to the integration between the physical and digital world. We saw QR codes everywhere in Shanghai. They support a number of features in WeChat:

  • Your identity:   everyone has a personal QR code that represents you and can be used to find you on WeChat.
  • Your wallet:   your WeChat wallet is represented by another QR code that facilitates transactions with you.
  • Ad hoc codes:   WeChat allows users to generate ad hoc codes to represent everything from boarding passes to concert tickets as well as actual cash.

Super versatile

You can set up an entire business.

Why are QR codes so popular? They are simple to use, easy to generate and don’t rely on phone manufacturers creating any native ability or any device outside of the phone. Their versatility has been a huge driver for WeChat's success.

WeChat’s QR reader technology is very advanced. It’s capable of reading at distance and takes less than a second to focus and read. Scanning codes is a natural part of everyday life in China. It’s a powerful way of connecting the digital and physical worlds, turning attention into intention and action.

A quick scan and the payment is done. Many stores are reluctant to take cash as it slows down service.

A market stall tapes two QR code printouts to their counter and they are setup for e-commerce.

QR codes being scanned on mobile by a payments device

Super human

The speed, simplicity and mass adoption of mobile payments has turned China from a cash-only society into an increasingly cash-free society in less than a decade. But WeChat’s success is more than just this. It empowers people to live, socialise and use money in new ways.

It’s acutely attuned to Chinese culture; WeChat has digitised Chinese traditions like taking a year’s wages back to your family’s home village or sharing hong bao red packets at New Year. The people we spoke to seemed entirely comfortable spending and moving money using what is still a relatively new service. For a token sum, your WeChat balance is insured.

I forgot my wallet, but I didn’t even need it because I could pay with my phone. Going back to Singapore felt really backwards

- Male Gen X, Shanghai, expat for 10 years

Shanghai skyline over the water

The perfect time

WeChat’s growth has been stunning: just 1 year to reach 100M MAUs, 4 years to 500M, 6 years to 900M.

When the Chinese government banned huge US internet giants like Facebook, Google and Instagram in 2010, it was happy to allow local players to fill the market gap. So, when WeChat first launched in 2011 it had space to grow and develop as a social network.

Its biggest growth happened after the introduction of WeChat Pay in 2014. Integrating a wallet and payments into an already popular social messaging app, it took only 3 years to capture 40% of China’s mobile payments market.

Loose regulation also helped. If you had WeChat, but no WeChat wallet it would be automatically created for you as soon as a friend sent you some money – no registration, no verification, no credit checks.

That lack of regulation made it really easy for WeChat to quickly convert its user base and make them all WeChat Pay users.

If you paint that against a growing landscape of mobile internet usage, you can see how there was a massive opportunity at that time. Subsequent tightening of financial regulations now makes it hard for new players to enter the market.

The power of two

The story of WeChat isn’t the whole story. Alibaba’s Alipay (launched way back in 2004) has also been a dominant player in the payments landscape throughout the last decade.

But if you look at it from a societal impact point of view, Alipay on its own hadn’t made much headway. China had always traditionally been a cash-first society. And all the way until WeChat Pay launched in 2014, cash was the preferred way of payment.

Then WeChat Pay arrived in 2014, and by 2017 Chinese newspapers were reporting that 70% of China’s internet users no longer carry cash. It’s only taken three years for China to become a largely cashless economy.

Our reflection is that the “Power of Two” accelerated the uptake of digital payment. It takes two big players to create the kind of competitive pressure needed for real societal impact. In China, it was WeChat and Alipay.

So, what will happen in the West?

WeChat in use in a market

The West’s first super app?

In the last two years Facebook has been developing a number of features and services which echo what WeChat has been doing in China.

Facebook has integrated a QR code system and reader, opened up APIs for brands to integrate with Messenger, launched Facebook Payments and looks set to further extend its interest into wallet and payments in the months ahead.

Our view is that if another major player were to enter the ring, for example, if Paypal were to create a social platform with integrated payments like Alipay did in China, then the “Power of Two” effect could quickly change the social and ecommerce landscape in Western economies.

The main characteristic of this will be that western super apps start eating up branded apps that litter the landscape. Why would Aviva, or East Midlands Trains, or hungryhouse rely on their own apps when they could integrate them into payments-enabled social platforms?

6 opportunities

Over the next few years we expect to see a shift towards brands integrating their content and services into social apps. And the story of WeChat in China suggests it could all happen very quickly. Early movers can carve out a significant advantage in this new landscape. Here are some things to think about:

Be ready for fragmentation

  • Can you break up parts of your apps and services and put them into other apps via their APIs?
  • Do you know how this works, and do you have technical teams in place that can experiment in this space?

Which fragments should you deploy?

  • Which of your features and functionality would be useful or valuable to deploy in a payments-enabled social platform?
  • Hint : It’s probably not all of them. It’s the high value features, and those that are socially connected.

Social as more than a marketing comms channel

  • Social platforms will become a frontline channel for all aspects of a brand’s customer experience.
  • It won’t just be used for marcoms and customer dialogue, but as a channel for service delivery and ecommerce.

Learn to love QR codes

  • Even with Apple (finally) allowing NFC interaction, QR codes still represent the easiest way to deploy links between the digital and physical worlds, their best days are probably still ahead of them.
  • Explore how QR codes can close the loop between awareness and action whilst decreasing time-to-wallet.

Start talking to your legal, compliance and security people

  • There will be a wealth of new interactions in different places, apps, and user contexts.
  • Start thinking about the security, privacy and regulatory implications of services which are going to become popular in the age of superapps.

Less control over branding; more control over brand

  • Conducting more of your brand’s business on someone else’s app will mean a shift away from traditional, rigid styles of brand management.
  • Make ready for a less formal, more conversational presence in the market.

Our fieldwork in China helped us understand the impact WeChat has had on society in such a short time: WeChat is everywhere.

What struck us most was how the Super App phenomenon could arrive in the West quickly and easily. With Facebook already primed for major change, it is not much of a stretch to imagine a rapid emergence of such services in the West. 

Our trip to Shanghai showed us that it is high time we started paying close attention to what WeChat has achieved. While WeChat itself is unlikely to become a major force in the West, it is nevertheless going to change the face of the app landscape and mobile services all over the world.

This study and report was put together by Amy Shore, Darren Ng, Ziqq Rafit, Sam Yuen and Tom Wood and published in November 2017. If you’d like to know more about the research, please contact them at  [email protected] .

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Are Super-Apps Coming to the U.S. Market?

  • Dan Prud'homme,
  • Guoli Chen,
  • Tony W. Tong

wechat super app case study

Something super-ish is more likely than a true WeChat equivalent.

Over the last decade, super-apps like WeChat, Alipay, and LINE have taken Asian markets by storm. Could similar platforms soon be coming to the U.S.? Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and other Western tech leaders have vocally shared aspirations of creating a “WeChat equivalent” — but while it’s possible that the U.S. will develop some form of super-app, it’ll likely be more super-ish than truly super. In this piece, the authors outline several key factors that have kept super-apps from taking off in the U.S., as well as recent trends that may lead some form of super-app (or rather, a super-ish app) to emerge in the American market.

For more than a decade, the Asian tech ecosystem has been dominated by “super-apps:” platforms such as WeChat, Alipay, and Meituan that offer an enormous network of services all in one integrated app. In contrast, analogous services in the U.S. have remained largely distributed, with a larger array of apps and websites each offering users a smaller subset of functionalities.

wechat super app case study

  • DP Dan Prud’homme is an assistant professor at Florida International University (FIU)’s College of Business and a research associate at Duke University’s China campus. He studies firm strategy, innovation and intellectual property management, institutions, and international business. His research is informed by more than a decade of consulting and managerial experience in these fields in China and the U.S.
  • GC Guoli Chen is a Professor of Strategy and Mubadala Chair in Corporate Governance and Strategy at INSEAD. He studies strategic leadership and corporate governance to understand organizational growth, renewal, and sustainability. He has published widely in top academic journals and multiple bestseller case studies in Harvard Business Publishing . His recent book “ Seeing the Unseen: Behind Chinese Tech Giants’ Global Venturing ” studies how Chinese internet firms innovate and grow, what are the challenges they face in overseas markets, and how to solve the problems by analyzing POP-Leadership (People, Organization and Product) issues.
  • TT Tony W. Tong is a Professor of Strategy & Entrepreneurship and currently the Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Research in the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado. He studies firm strategy, innovation management, and international business. He has published numerous top journal papers in these areas as well as multiple bestseller case studies in Harvard Business Publishing .

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super-app

What Is A Super App And Why It Matters To Understand Mobile-Based Business Models

Super Apps first formed on the digital native mobile-first Chinese market. In short, these apps comprised a whole range of services, spanning from entertainment, messaging, mobile payments, and e-commerce. Indeed, super apps like WeChat became a universe for mobile users to perform anything from messaging to payments. Therefore, the super app is an enhanced version of an app that doesn’t have just a vertical application but a horizontal array of use cases, almost like a swiss-knife for mobile apps.

Table of Contents

The Chinese Mobile-First Internet Ecosystem

The Internet ecosystem in China really scaled around the years 2000s, and most of the population started to join in around the 2010s.

This has made the Chinese market extremely well versed for mobile-based applications. Therefore, in a western market, that evolved and scaled primarily through desktop computing, and where the transition to mobile is still going on. China was a native mobile digital player. That made it much easier for the Chinese market to become the hotbed to various mobile-based business models.

In the FourWeekMBA interview, professor Jeffrey Towson , author of The 1-Hour China book highlighted:

Mobile apps take off like crazy and they spend more time online than other consumers in other countries.  They contribute more. They post more. They add content more. So it just turns out they are some of the world’s most enthusiastic netizens are Chinese. That wasn’t necessarily predictable but it’s true.

The Chinese digital market then is so different from the Western counterpart, which is hard to imagine. Indeed, as Jeffrey Towson highlighted in the same interview:

One of the things that were different early on was  people don’t use email. I mean you send an email to someone in China, you better wait a week because they’re probably not going to check their email. It was all about messaging. So it started out with messaging with QQ  (an instant messaging software part of Tencent)  and that led to WeChat.

Therefore, instant messaging, like WeChat really started early own as powerful commercial use cases for the consumer Chinese market. From there, as those apps quickly scaled up, more and more features got added. From, mobile payments, to e-commerce, these apps really became a Universe of possibilities for people.

Thus, the name Super App.

Horizontal vs. Vertical Apps

Another key difference to appreciate why in the Western world we didn’t see before Super Apps are also, and again peculiar to the Chinese market. Indeed, where US companies, like Facebook had to move very fast in conquering their vertical markets (in Facebook and its other products like Instangram and WhatsApp these were social media and instant messaging), thus they remained constrained to a fewer, more restricted markets.

Thus, Facebook and Google perhaps took respectively a decade and two to move to other markets. For Chinese companies, as outside competition was reduced by the Government intervention, and massive tech monopolies were incentivised, it was possible to move the expansion of these application horizontally.

Therefore, not just entertainment but also shoppiong and payments.

Indeed, in the US, as the same companies that just a few years ago managed to monopolize their markets only there they started to use the “Super App” strategy . In fact, as a monopolist it was now possible to scale horizontally.

That is why Western tech companies took notice and started to emulate this model , as Towson highlighted:

Facebook is basically copying WeChat right now. They’re consolidating their messengers, which is WhatsApp, Instagram , and Facebook Messenger first, and then they’re going to try and add mobile payment, which is Calibra, and then they’re going to try and add E-commerce. They’re basically trying to copy WeChat, but I doubt it will work.

What’s the next Super App? WhatsApp vs. WeChat case study

As we say, the features of the Chinese digital market (the Internet really scaled to the Chinese population in the 2010s, so the Chinese people were native mobile users) and given the features of the Chinese economy (discouraging outside competition and favoring the rise of a few tech monopolies in a shorter span of time) Super Apps really were something that could easily form as a result of this context.

A great example of that is WeChat , part of Taobao , within the tech conglomerate Tencent .

Taobao Business Model

how-does-taobao-make-money

WeChat Business Model

how-does-wechat-make-money

Tencent Business Model

what-does-tencent-own

In the western world, tech companies like Facebook are trying to emulate this strategy . Facebook perhaps is trying to transform WhatsApp into a Super App:

WhatsApp Business Model

how-does-whatsapp-make-money

Read Next:  Alibaba Business Model , What Does Tencent Own ,  WeChat Business Model , WhatsApp Business Model , Facebook Business model .

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AgileTech Vietnam

5 Examples of Super Apps Successful Case [2022 Edition]

Imagine booking plane flights, finding hotel rooms, reserving dinner tables and pay for everything in ONE app? Well, super apps can do all of that plus more, and they’re here to stay. As the name suggests, super apps provide a fulfilling experience without having to jump through different apps. They are convenient, smart and give you more than expectation.

But what exactly is an super app, what are their functionalities and trends for the future?

Find out more below where we give you an overview of the super app market and our analysis of top 5 successful super app cases.

Table of contents

  • What is Super App?
  • How Super App helps businesses
  • Successful Super App Cases – Updated for 2022
  • Global trends
  • AgileTech – Super App Development Services

A super app is essentially a gateway to many services at once. A super app can include seemingly unrelated services, but under a super app “umbrella”, they create deep connections with each other, making users’ lives much more easier. That is also why smartphone users are hooked to super apps.

Successful super apps can cover many aspects of a person’s life.

Companies with super apps are gaining more revenue than ever. As mentioned, this is because customers prefer having everything they want in one app, and businesses can take advantage of this. Some of the biggest pros include:

  • Higher growth rate and revenue
  • Higher customer retention rate
  • Innovative ways to connect with existing customers
  • Encourage customers’ willingness to try new services
  • Huge opportunities for investment

how super apps help businesses

Due to these reasons, super apps are the most attractive projects at the moment. So, take a look at our compilation below. Here are top 5 successful super app cases for you to learn from!

Read more: Super app: Top 7+ Asia’s leading quality super apps [2022 edition]

WeChat – The Chinese Messaging App

Established in China 10 years ago, WeChat is originally a text messaging platform. With the appearance of newer messaging apps, WeChat had to expand and successfully became one of the biggest super apps on Earth.

Beside the common use of texting, WeChat is now a commercial super app. WeChat has dozens of mini-services within itself. An average WeChat user can chat, livestream, buy meals and groceries, book a ride,… all in one app. Statistically, Chinese people spend over 4 hours a day on this single app.

As of 2022, this app has an incredible amount of 1 billion active users. WeChat is now a lifestyle, and we can expect its expansion to short-video sharing, TV broadcasting and online meetings in the next few years.

>>>Read more: WECHAT: The Super App Exceed 1 Billion Daily Active Users

WeChat super app

Similar to WeChat, this Vietnamese-based messaging app started small. The app caught on quickly because of its messaging speed and supportive features.

Now, the app has nearly 70 million active users in Vietnam, beating Facebook Messenger. HD image sharing and video calls are among its top features. But Zalo became a super app thanks to ZaloPay – where users can pay bills and transfer money. Recently ZaloPay allows users to transfer money right on the chat bar, and this is especially useful in occasions like Lunar New Year where people send virtual lucky money.

Zalo doesn’t only include an e-wallet. During the last two years, people can use it as a social media platform, play games, buy groceries and even request community aid during COVID-19 through ZaloConnect.

Zalo is one of super app cases in Vietnam

>>>Read also: ZaloPay And The Battle In Super App Platform In Vietnam

Shopee – Asia’s biggest e-commerce site

Launched in 2015, Shopee is the leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan. It offers a wide product list, supported by integrated payments and seamless fulfilment. 

Shopee’s parent company (SEA) bought a leading food delivery provider and changed its name to Shopeefood in 2017, further its ambition to become a super app. Shopeefood was officially launched in several Southeast Asia countries in 2021, and has become the top 3 food delivery app in Vietnam.

In addition, we can see Shopee expand to e-wallet services with ShopeePay. Users can now pay for Shopee purchases and transfer money without switching to other e-wallet apps. All of this makes Shopee one of the leading super app cases in Southeast Asia.

Shopee super app cases

Momo E-wallet

Momo is considered Vietnam’s most successful e-wallet startup. It offers nationwide cash transfers, bill & personal loans payment, and various purchase services.

MoMo is the e-wallet that has the most active users (over 25 million), according to a report released by Appota . With growing customer data, this super app partners with big brands in Vietnam like Lotte Mart, Circle K, CGV Cinemas, The Coffee House,… MoMo has created a super app that meets all of daily necessities!

We can expect MoMo e-wallet to gain ~10 million new registered customers and thousands of businesses joining the ecosystem, bringing the total number of users of this wallet to 35 million in 2022.

>>>Related: Momo E-Wallet | The Rise of Super App Platform in Viet Nam

MoMo super app cases

Snapchat – Top app for quick communication

Snapchat is famous for auto-disappearing photos and quick communication through images. Now with 229 million users, especially young people, the app is ambitious to become one of the first Western super apps. It has integrated mini-apps like Headspace, Flashcards, etc, and the number will be growing.

In 2022, users can at least expect a surge in Snapchat mini-services. This can include e-commerce services that let Snapchatters buy clothes, mobile top-ups and even concert tickets. Big brands are definitely interested and they are actively testing Snapchat’s efficiency.

Snapchat super app cases

Originated in China, super apps quickly spread to other Asian nations and especially SEA countries. Other famous apps are also integrating more services in a competition to gain market share.

Western companies do not want to lose the super app development race.

Because most super app cases are in Asia, U.S and Europe enterprises are trying to be regional pioneers. Other than Snapchat, many companies are also expanding.

Spotify, well-known for music streaming services, had integrated podcasts into its only app instead of developing a separate platform. Uber recently poured more money into UberEats, determined to become the leading food delivery provider on top of ride-sharing services. Surely, we can expect a swarm of Western super apps in the future.

AgileTech could help you build your own Super Apps platform with:

  • High performance and security together with different types of payment gateways.
  • We have more than 10 available service mini-apps related to entertainment, hotel – travel – flight services, etc.. which are ready to integrate with your Super App to enrich your Super App services.
  • Strong commitment through the warranty period.

Moreover, AgileTech is building 02 Super Apps with huge customer ecosystems about Travel and Young adults (under 30). Promoting your mobile app will help you:

  • Accessing to millions of potential users in our Super App ecosystems.
  • Tracking user’s behaviors in each mini-app – Measuring marketing statistics.
  • The portal mini-center interface will manage all mini-app versions of each developer.

Our dedicated software development team is ready for your custom requirements. You can contact us at  [email protected]  or via (+84) 936 281 059 for more information. Get in touch if you want to learn more!

Related articles:

  • Super App Strategy: How To Make A Profit From Super Apps
  • Tata’s Super App: The Rise Of Super Apps In India

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    We develop an analysis framework for measuring such secret leakage, and primarily analyze 110,993 WeChat mini-apps, and 10,000 Baidu mini-apps (two of the most prominent super-app platforms ...

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    We develop an analysis framework for measuring such secret leakage, and primarily analyze 110,993 WeChat mini-apps, and 10,000 Baidu mini-apps (two of the most prominent super-app platforms), along with a few more datasets to test the evolution of developer practices and platform security enforcement over time.

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    Download PDF Abstract: We conduct a large-scale measurement of developers' insecure practices leading to mini-app to super-app authentication bypass, among which hard-coding developer secrets for such authentication is a major contributor. We also analyze the exploitability and security consequences of developer secret leakage in mini-apps by examining individual super-app server-side APIs.

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