Name: Eco Student Number: 20130207013
WeChat, also called Weixin in Chinese, is a social mobile application with voice and text messaging communication services. It was first created and put into market by Recent Tecent Technology (Shenzhen) Company limited on January 21st, 2011. The app of WeChat is available on Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, Windows Phone and Synbian phones, etc, covering people from more than 100 countries. WeChat has become increasingly popular among people of all ages, especially in China, because of its instant messaging and users friendly multifunctions.
Users can register on WeChat with a Facebook account or sign up with a phone number. Recently Wechat can support phone numbers of over 100 countries to register. Registration cannot be done directly through Tecent QQ, but users can login in their WeChat account with Tecent QQ account after registering through phone number. Additionally, users can also use WeChat by personal computer after installing the Micro letter app and scanning the two-dimension code by mobile phone.
WeChat provides some basic functions, including various ways of instant messaging, such as text messages, voice messages, walkie talkies and free stickers. Stickers are pictures that express the specified emotions in the very moment. Users can hold-to-talk voice message, pictures, videos, namecards, coupons, lucky money packages or positions to anyone in the contact lists. Besides, WeChat also supports group chat, free call, video call, moments sharing, favorites messages and so on. Meanwhile, users can add some friends by the functions of friend radar, shake (if shake the mobile phone when on WeChat, the other ones who shake the mobile phones at the same time will be listed on the screen), people nearby (click the People Nearby sign, then the ones using WeChat can be found) and scan QR code rather than just by the exact accounts compared by Tecent QQ. A report of the number of and the age group of WeChat users held by Tecent Company by the Internet shows that most users are senior high school students and college students, but the number of users over 38 has been dramatically increasing since 2014. Since WeChat supports wifi and 3G network, users can make some free calls or video calls easily by pressing the specified button, which just costs a little. Besides the Chinese language version, WeChat also has an English language edition.
Besides the basic functions, WeChat holds many other attractive functions. One of them is QQ mail as well as QQ message notifications, which can alert you of new messages. Wechat supports users to register as a public accounts, which enables them to push feeds to subscribers, interact with subscribes, and provide them with services. Public accounts of organizations can apply for a verified public accounts and they can
submit their routines or expertise to the public. In China, WeChat public accounts have become a common service or promotion platform for the government, news media and companies. Specific public account subscribers use the platforms for different aspects, like hospital preregistration, visa renewal or credit card service. The version of WeChat is regularly updated and more and more particular functions are gradually added to satisfy the users’ expectation s.
Combining convenient multifuctions and low cost, WeChat seems to seize the chance to get great popularity throughout the world. As it keeps the ability of creativity and updates the functions periodically, more and more people are likely to become WeChat users, and that makes the earth becomes a much smaller world.
Bibliography
[1]Tencent Inc. "WeChat". App Store. Apple. Retrieved June 25, 2014 .May 12,2015
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