Description WeChat is a messaging and calling app that allows you to easily connect with family & friends across countries. It's the all-in-one communications app for text (SMS/MMS), voice and video calls, and files. MULTIMEDIA MESSAGING: Send video, image, text, and file messages. WeChat for PC is a Messaging and Chat application like Mailspring, X-Lite, and Twitch from Tencent, Inc. It has a simple and basic user interface, and most importantly, it is free to download. WeChat for PC is an efficient software that is recommended by many Windows PC users.
Today we're going to introduce an innovative new service called Flash Class (闪课 ShanKe) which allows teachers to quickly make mobile mini lessons and share them with students through WeChat. Online learning platforms such as Udemy have become huge globally, with many instructors able to make decent returns for sharing their expertise. Flash Class takes this broad concept and tailors it to mobile. Through Flash Class, Chinese students can study English easily via WeChat on the subway or in a 10 minute break at work.
Benefits for teachers
- ('Available for all kinds of platforms; enjoy group chat; support voice,photo,video and text messages.'
- Finally, wait for the text to be translated and understand the text in English. Currently, WeChat Translate only supports Chinese and English, it works similarly to the Waygo App, which was designed to help non-Chinese speakers translate food menus and signs. An indication that WeChat wants to appeal to foreign users and tourists living in China.
- You can quickly create good looking interactive multimedia mini-lessons for your students with audio, pictures, text and multiple choice exercises.
- Your mini-lessons are easy for your students to share on their moments or send to friends.
- You can gain new students through the Flash Class WeChat account.
- The mini-lessons you create can be used to replace the textbooks or word files you use when doing 1 to 1 teaching over Skype or WeChat.
- Best of all: Flash Class has plans to introduce micro payments. So by building a following on Flash Class you can potentially earn more from your students across China (and globally) paying 1 or 2 dollars for 1 of your mini-lessons than from traditional teaching over Skype/WeChat.
Benefits for students
- No need to download a separate APP. Flash Class allows students to learn and share directly through WeChat.
- This style of mobile learning is convenient, fast and relatively stress free.
- The account allows students to discover new teachers, especially those who have built up large followings through interesting lesson content.
- Currently all the lesson content is free, (paid content will be introduced later).
How does it work for students?
To check out the Flash Class official account. Go to ‘contacts' then ‘official accounts'. Tap the + button in the top right corner and enter ‘ekaola_shine' into the search field.
As always with WeChat, upon adding the account we have a plain grey screen. There will be 3 buttons at the bottom.
Selecting ‘popular teachers' (热门老师) will bring up a screen like this below:
Flash Class features a lot of test taking tips from experienced examiners for high stakes tests such as IELTS. This content is highly attractive to students taking these exams. Below is a typical teacher:
Select a lesson and the Flash Class loading screen will come up.
The actual lesson is very simply composed of a background with text and audio recorded by the teacher.
Students scroll from one page to another by swiping up at the bottom of the screen. Most lessons are around 5 pages long (so about 5-10 mintues to study). Simple exercises can be added also, as below:
If a student likes your lesson they can easily forward it to their friends or classmates.
Or post the lesson to their moments. You as a teacher can also promote your lessons in the same way.
Wechat English Pc
How does it work for teachers?
Making a mini lesson as a teacher through Flash Class is quite straightforward. Go to their website and login.
The lesson creation process is all in English. You can create pages using templates.
You can also post your lesson to Facebook, twitter or other mobile platforms if you wish. Every course has a unique QR code and web address for you to promote your finished work.
Conclusion
With WeChat leading the world in what's possible for integrating mobile into our lives, it's unsurprising that such a service would pop up in China first. Services like this are well placed to have a big impact on learning in China in the next few years. Registration as an individual teacher is not currently available on their website. However if you interested in creating lessons with Flash Class then contact us through the official account or drop us a line at info@chinachannel.co (not .com), we will put you in touch with them to set you up with an account.
WeChat is a way of life. – WeChat founder Allen Zhang
It's hard to imagine life in modern China without WeChat.
The app is a trailblazing poster child for the new internet messaging era. China is considered to be years ahead of the rest of the world in social messaging. Hail a taxi, split the bill in a restaurant, purchase a cinema ticket, invest in financial products, read the news, follow their favourite brands, transfer money to their friends, go shopping online, meet new friends nearby, ALL THIS and more can be done by Chinese within 1 app: WeChat.
There is simply nothing quite like WeChat outside China and it's fair to say that few people wanting to do businesses in China can afford to ignore the platform.
Here in this short WeChat introduction we hope to answer the following questions for you:
- What is WeChat?
- Why is it by far China's most important online platform?
- How can businesses reach Chinese consumers through WeChat?
- What opportunities lie on WeChat for foreign brands?
The WeChat chat timeline
What is WeChat?
WeChat began life in January 2011 as a simple chat app with features and functionality similar to WhatsApp. It was created by a small team of just 8 developers within Tencent's R&D team offices in Guangzhou. Over the following 5 years WeChat grew beyond anyone's wildest dreams to become by far the most important app in China.
WeChat is often described as a Swiss army knife super app that seemingly does everything. It allows us to order cabs, buy film tickets, play games, check in for flights, pay bills, listen to music, read news, shop for clothes or meet random people nearby. Yet despite having an amazing variety of features, the core of WeChat is still messaging. Its primary function is for communication with friends and family.
WeChat Introduction: Key Statistics
The traffic on WeChat is immense:
- 846 million monthly active users (Tencent Q3 Results Nov 2016).
- 570 million daily active users (Tencent Life Report Sept 2015).
- Valuation: $83.6 billion (HSBC Aug 2015).
- 10+ million official accounts opened for businesses (Tencent 2015).
- The average WeChat user reads 7 articles (equivalent to 1 novel) per day on WeChat (Tencent Life Report Sept 2015).
- WeChat accounts for 35% of all time spent on mobile in China (Mary Meeker Internet Trends Report June 2016).
- 31% of WeChat users make e-commerce purchases through WeChat. Up from 15% in the previous year. (McKinsey's 2016 China Digital Consumer Report Survey).
- Estimated monthly payment transactions per WeChat user is 53. In comparison, the estimated number for American Debit and Credit Card holders is 24 and 10 respectively (Mary Meeker Internet Trends Report June 2016).
- 36% of users open WeChat for more than 30 times per day (WeChat Impact Report March 2016).
Key Reasons for WeChat's Success
1. The Official Accounts Platform
An open platform through which businesses can access WeChat's huge user base (more on this later).
2. Payments
WeChat Pay has grown extremely rapidly in the past two years. 300+ million Chinese have their bank cards linked with WeChat. WeChat pay is taken in stores all across in China. In particular, peer to peer micro-payments became extremely popular on WeChat in 2015. Chinese consumers are now comfortable using WeChat for payments. It is now commonly accepted in most stores across China. WeChat Pay sits alongside fierce rival Alipay (Alibaba Group) and China's default debit & credit card system Union Pay as one of the big 3 payment options for Chinese consumers. Other players such as Apple Pay, QQ Wallet (also owned by Tencent) and Baidu Wallet hold margin market shares.
3. Protecting users
WeChat is a closed and private network which places a high priority on protecting users' information. The app carefully limits the number of unsolicited messages that businesses can send to their followers. It also does not allow businesses to directly gain access to personal information such as email address or phone number.
4. WeChat wallet
WeChat has strategically partnered with several businesses (e.g. JingDong for E-commerce, Didi Chuxing for ride hailing) to provide an entire range of online stores and services baked directly into the app.
5. QR codes
WeChat popularized the use of QR codes in China which are now ubiquitous across print media, stores and billboards. Scanning QR codes provides a convenient gateway between the online and offline worlds.
6. WeChat Moments
An immensely popular feature used to share pictures and short videos with friends. Users will scroll through this stream of content in a similar way to the Facebook news feed. The addictive combination of switching between checking moments and chatting with friends provides the core loop. This engages users and keeps them returning to the app.
WeChat Introduction: WeChat for Business
Businesses interact with users on WeChat through WeChat official accounts.
For a WeChat user, adding an official account is practically the same as adding a friend. Users can also send messages to official accounts in the same way as their friends. This creates interesting opportunities to use WeChat as a customer service platform.
Within China it's now fair to say that most companies, especially SME's will pay more attention to their WeChat official account than their own website. Many small businesses may not even bother with a formal website. Many Chinese users have skipped the desktop era are far more comfortable and familiar with using mobile social platforms and in particular WeChat. They are more likely to find out about services or brands through their social circles or scanning a QR code than through a search engine such as Baidu (China's equivalent to Google).
Wechat English Apk
WeChat provides an open platform for businesses to build their own apps on top of WeChat basically ‘apps within an app' model. Developing for WeChat is much cheaper and easier than native app development for both Android and iOS. The cost of user acquisition is also far lower than with native apps; adding an official account can be done with one click.
Possibilities on WeChat
Most businesses are using the platform for pushing promotional branded content and setting up an E-commerce store to capitalise on socially driven commerce. However the possibilities for organisations go far beyond this. Interesting case studies include the LINQ hotel in Las Vegaswhich enabled their hotel rooms' equipment (lights, doors, air con etc.) to be controlled via their WeChat official account.
(Left: The WeChat Interface Right: The hotel room door being unlocked using WeChat)
The actual lesson is very simply composed of a background with text and audio recorded by the teacher.
Students scroll from one page to another by swiping up at the bottom of the screen. Most lessons are around 5 pages long (so about 5-10 mintues to study). Simple exercises can be added also, as below:
If a student likes your lesson they can easily forward it to their friends or classmates.
Or post the lesson to their moments. You as a teacher can also promote your lessons in the same way.
Wechat English Pc
How does it work for teachers?
Making a mini lesson as a teacher through Flash Class is quite straightforward. Go to their website and login.
The lesson creation process is all in English. You can create pages using templates.
You can also post your lesson to Facebook, twitter or other mobile platforms if you wish. Every course has a unique QR code and web address for you to promote your finished work.
Conclusion
With WeChat leading the world in what's possible for integrating mobile into our lives, it's unsurprising that such a service would pop up in China first. Services like this are well placed to have a big impact on learning in China in the next few years. Registration as an individual teacher is not currently available on their website. However if you interested in creating lessons with Flash Class then contact us through the official account or drop us a line at info@chinachannel.co (not .com), we will put you in touch with them to set you up with an account.
WeChat is a way of life. – WeChat founder Allen Zhang
It's hard to imagine life in modern China without WeChat.
The app is a trailblazing poster child for the new internet messaging era. China is considered to be years ahead of the rest of the world in social messaging. Hail a taxi, split the bill in a restaurant, purchase a cinema ticket, invest in financial products, read the news, follow their favourite brands, transfer money to their friends, go shopping online, meet new friends nearby, ALL THIS and more can be done by Chinese within 1 app: WeChat.
There is simply nothing quite like WeChat outside China and it's fair to say that few people wanting to do businesses in China can afford to ignore the platform.
Here in this short WeChat introduction we hope to answer the following questions for you:
- What is WeChat?
- Why is it by far China's most important online platform?
- How can businesses reach Chinese consumers through WeChat?
- What opportunities lie on WeChat for foreign brands?
The WeChat chat timeline
What is WeChat?
WeChat began life in January 2011 as a simple chat app with features and functionality similar to WhatsApp. It was created by a small team of just 8 developers within Tencent's R&D team offices in Guangzhou. Over the following 5 years WeChat grew beyond anyone's wildest dreams to become by far the most important app in China.
WeChat is often described as a Swiss army knife super app that seemingly does everything. It allows us to order cabs, buy film tickets, play games, check in for flights, pay bills, listen to music, read news, shop for clothes or meet random people nearby. Yet despite having an amazing variety of features, the core of WeChat is still messaging. Its primary function is for communication with friends and family.
WeChat Introduction: Key Statistics
The traffic on WeChat is immense:
- 846 million monthly active users (Tencent Q3 Results Nov 2016).
- 570 million daily active users (Tencent Life Report Sept 2015).
- Valuation: $83.6 billion (HSBC Aug 2015).
- 10+ million official accounts opened for businesses (Tencent 2015).
- The average WeChat user reads 7 articles (equivalent to 1 novel) per day on WeChat (Tencent Life Report Sept 2015).
- WeChat accounts for 35% of all time spent on mobile in China (Mary Meeker Internet Trends Report June 2016).
- 31% of WeChat users make e-commerce purchases through WeChat. Up from 15% in the previous year. (McKinsey's 2016 China Digital Consumer Report Survey).
- Estimated monthly payment transactions per WeChat user is 53. In comparison, the estimated number for American Debit and Credit Card holders is 24 and 10 respectively (Mary Meeker Internet Trends Report June 2016).
- 36% of users open WeChat for more than 30 times per day (WeChat Impact Report March 2016).
Key Reasons for WeChat's Success
1. The Official Accounts Platform
An open platform through which businesses can access WeChat's huge user base (more on this later).
2. Payments
WeChat Pay has grown extremely rapidly in the past two years. 300+ million Chinese have their bank cards linked with WeChat. WeChat pay is taken in stores all across in China. In particular, peer to peer micro-payments became extremely popular on WeChat in 2015. Chinese consumers are now comfortable using WeChat for payments. It is now commonly accepted in most stores across China. WeChat Pay sits alongside fierce rival Alipay (Alibaba Group) and China's default debit & credit card system Union Pay as one of the big 3 payment options for Chinese consumers. Other players such as Apple Pay, QQ Wallet (also owned by Tencent) and Baidu Wallet hold margin market shares.
3. Protecting users
WeChat is a closed and private network which places a high priority on protecting users' information. The app carefully limits the number of unsolicited messages that businesses can send to their followers. It also does not allow businesses to directly gain access to personal information such as email address or phone number.
4. WeChat wallet
WeChat has strategically partnered with several businesses (e.g. JingDong for E-commerce, Didi Chuxing for ride hailing) to provide an entire range of online stores and services baked directly into the app.
5. QR codes
WeChat popularized the use of QR codes in China which are now ubiquitous across print media, stores and billboards. Scanning QR codes provides a convenient gateway between the online and offline worlds.
6. WeChat Moments
An immensely popular feature used to share pictures and short videos with friends. Users will scroll through this stream of content in a similar way to the Facebook news feed. The addictive combination of switching between checking moments and chatting with friends provides the core loop. This engages users and keeps them returning to the app.
WeChat Introduction: WeChat for Business
Businesses interact with users on WeChat through WeChat official accounts.
For a WeChat user, adding an official account is practically the same as adding a friend. Users can also send messages to official accounts in the same way as their friends. This creates interesting opportunities to use WeChat as a customer service platform.
Within China it's now fair to say that most companies, especially SME's will pay more attention to their WeChat official account than their own website. Many small businesses may not even bother with a formal website. Many Chinese users have skipped the desktop era are far more comfortable and familiar with using mobile social platforms and in particular WeChat. They are more likely to find out about services or brands through their social circles or scanning a QR code than through a search engine such as Baidu (China's equivalent to Google).
Wechat English Apk
WeChat provides an open platform for businesses to build their own apps on top of WeChat basically ‘apps within an app' model. Developing for WeChat is much cheaper and easier than native app development for both Android and iOS. The cost of user acquisition is also far lower than with native apps; adding an official account can be done with one click.
Possibilities on WeChat
Most businesses are using the platform for pushing promotional branded content and setting up an E-commerce store to capitalise on socially driven commerce. However the possibilities for organisations go far beyond this. Interesting case studies include the LINQ hotel in Las Vegaswhich enabled their hotel rooms' equipment (lights, doors, air con etc.) to be controlled via their WeChat official account.
(Left: The WeChat Interface Right: The hotel room door being unlocked using WeChat)
Even traditionally conservative luxury industry brands have been embracing WeChat E-commerce campaigns. In August 2016 Dior launched a limited edition run of 200 customizable handbags each priced at 28,000 RMB ($4,210) exclusively on WeChat. They sold out within 1 day.
Wechat English Version Download For Pc
Many businesses have chosen to link theirin-store Wifi, their CRM and loyalty systems directly with their WeChat accounts.
Wechat English Download
As the WeChat official accounts platform is open to being linked with other websites or services across the web the possibilities are wide open as to what can be achieved. Hope you enjoyed our brief WeChat introduction. China Channel provides consulting, training, workshops and key note presentationsabout WeChat across the world. Get in touch with us at info@chinachannel.co and let's help you and your organization understand and leverage WeChat.
