1 Between 19, the corporation made some key decisions, which were driven by political motives, economic profitability, technical visions and user pressures these shaped the company’s business mentality and way of seeing itself. Following Paul Starr (2004), we argue that Tencent has developed and managed WeChat by following a few constitutive choices made during the years that preceded its launch. Tencent was founded in 1998 during the late 1990s and early 2000s (long before WeChat), it developed popular digital platforms in China, including OICQ and QQ, which anticipated WeChat’s main distinguishing characteristics. Specifically, this article focuses on WeChat’s prehistory, identifying recurring trends in the history of Tencent, the mother company that launched WeChat in January 2011. This article contributes to this scientific literature using history, a discipline rarely applied to the study of WeChat or, more in general, digital media ( Balbi and Magaudda, 2018). Various studies have explored WeChat’s success from a comparative perspective, arguing that the famous microblog platform, Sina Weibo, began to decline (in user numbers) as WeChat emerged and grew ( Benney and Xu, 2017 Gan and Wang, 2015 Negro, 2017). Other scholars have focused on the interactions among WeChat users ( Cui, 2016) as well as on personal gratification and the potential reinforcement of social boundaries ( Gan, 2017). (2018) provide a comprehensive overview of the app in Super-Sticky WeChat and Chinese Society. Plantin and De Seta (2019) have argued that WeChat made a contribution by acting as a new infrastructure within Chinese society. For example, Eric Harwit (2017) analysed the strategies developed by the Chinese government to monitor and control WeChat Fangjing Tu (2016) has provided an alternative point of view, arguing that ‘WeChat can be used to facilitate civil society as well as to constitute obstacles for it’ (p. WeChat has 3.5 million mini programs on its platform, which transacted 2.All subjects Allied Health Cardiology & Cardiovascular Medicine Dentistry Emergency Medicine & Critical Care Endocrinology & Metabolism Environmental Science General Medicine Geriatrics Infectious Diseases Medico-legal Neurology Nursing Nutrition Obstetrics & Gynecology Oncology Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine Otolaryngology Palliative Medicine & Chronic Care Pediatrics Pharmacology & Toxicology Psychiatry & Psychology Public Health Pulmonary & Respiratory Medicine Radiology Research Methods & Evaluation Rheumatology Surgery Tropical Medicine Veterinary Medicine Cell Biology Clinical Biochemistry Environmental Science Life Sciences Neuroscience Pharmacology & Toxicology Biomedical Engineering Engineering & Computing Environmental Engineering Materials Science Anthropology & Archaeology Communication & Media Studies Criminology & Criminal Justice Cultural Studies Economics & Development Education Environmental Studies Ethnic Studies Family Studies Gender Studies Geography Gerontology & Aging Group Studies History Information Science Interpersonal Violence Language & Linguistics Law Management & Organization Studies Marketing & Hospitality Music Peace Studies & Conflict Resolution Philosophy Politics & International Relations Psychoanalysis Psychology & Counseling Public Administration Regional Studies Religion Research Methods & Evaluation Science & Society Studies Social Work & Social Policy Sociology Special Education Urban Studies & Planning BROWSE JOURNALSĪs a consequence of this success, academic interest in WeChat continues to increase ( Tang, 2019).

In Q1 2022, WeChat had 1.26 billion active users.Tencent’s social network revenue was $17.4 billion in 2021, which accounts for 19% of the company’s total revenue.We have collected data and statistics on WeChat. It is popular in Hong Kong and some South-east Asian territories, but has failed to interest Western audiences. Tencent has attempted to launch WeChat outside of China, but most of these attempts have failed. WeChat Pay, which was built using the framework of Tenpay, has over 900 million users and has supplanted AliPay as the most popular payment service in the country. WeChat is the only app in China to have over one billion active users and is one of only five apps in the world which have surpassed that milestone. It has become one of the largest investors in China, second only to Sequoia China, and alongside hundreds of stakes in Chinese startups it also has shares in Snapchat, Fortnite and Tesla Motors. Tencent takes a small slice of revenue from each of these mini programs, and also provides the payments platform.Īs the platform operator, Tencent is able to see which programs are the most popular. Some of the most popular applications in China, including Pinduoduo, JD.com, DiDi and Meituan, all have mini programs on WeChat.

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