Application “WeChat Voice”, Version 1.6

The new version includes new types of voices and sharing to other social networks like Twitter and SinaWeibo. We already talked about Version 1.2 of WeChat Voice a few months ago.

 

 

Marketing Strategy: 10 Ways To Convert Your Facebook Fans Into WeChat Followers – Part 3

5/ Offer customized coupons on WeChat and tell your Facebook fans

6/ Tell your Facebook fans WeChat is more private than Facebook

Part 2 here
Part 1 here

Google First and Baidu Second in the World of Search (Dec. 2012)

According to ComScore and The Wall Street Journal, Google is still the leader of Search in the world: no threat for Google as of today. With 65.2% of market share, Google dominates the market.

In the second position of the ranking, you have Baidu still number two since a couple of years. According to ComScore, the market share of Baidu in December 2012 was 8.2%.

Yahoo was second in search in 2007 (1) but was overtaken by Baidu. The firm had a market share of 4.9% the last month of year 2012.

The Russian firm Yandex is now doing better than Microsoft! 2.8% for Yandex Search Engine against 2.5% for Bing.

The competitive advantage will be in Mobile Search. All the search engines are working hard on that to make search pleasant  convenient, and fast on every type of device. For instance, Baidu signed a partnership with Orange to expand its presence in Africa and Middle East.

Sources:
ComScore
Wall Street Journal
(1) ComScore, January 24, 2008, URL:  http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Press_Releases/2008/01/Baidu_Ranked_Third_Largest_World_Wide_Search_Engine

WeChat: New Version 4.5 Offering Live Chat, Search, & Backup Features!

The new version of WeChat offers improvements on the usage of chat.

1/ 2/ Live Chat & Invite to Group Chat via QR Code.
3/ Search through chat history.
4/ Backup of data: this is now possible and makes easier the transfer of data to a new smartphone.

Strategy of Monetization: LinkedIn and WeChat

Monetization could be defined as a process of converting something into legal value like a currency. In the Internet industry, the value is mostly in data.

LinkedIn found a great business model:
1/ A Response to a need : to get a good job and earn money, people are ready to pay for services aiming of managing a career.
2/ A Never Ending Business Basis: the target of working people is huge and the user base changing year after year.
3/ A Strong Field Salesforce Selling Best Asset: thanks to the database and access to many potential candidates, Talent Solutions are appreciated by firms to distribute open positions and find the best candidates.
4/ A Recurrent Revenue: to get access to different level of services, there is a monthly fee to pay. For the user, the amount of Premium Subscription is small. For the firm, the number of users subscribing makes the business impressive.

WeChat can have an interesting business model as well:
1/ A Response to a need : to communicate with other people including friends, people need mobile services.
2/ A Never Ending Business Basis: the target of all the owners of smartphones is huge and the user base still growing year after year.
3/ A Strong Field Salesforce Selling New Marketing Solutions: thanks to Tencent experience with QQ, QZone, and QQGames, brands can trust the service and see the ROI.
4/ A Recurrent Revenue: to get access to users, brands will pay for campaigns, official accounts, access to statistics. Tencent is likely to offer as well Premium Subscription giving access to users to additional services (the business model of Libon is based on those services).

American Infrastructure Ready to Compete with China

Today American firms don’t have to compete with China. They are already well implemented all over the world. Even in China, Google Search is used and online retail store, Amazon, is quite successful.

However, in case the American companies should compete with Chinese companies, they are more than ready.  Huge database of users, History of interests, and heavy infrastructure are strong advantages to keep doing well and monetize. We explained how knowledge of interests is a way for Facebook to monetize.

Another competitive advantage of American firms in the near future is the management of carbon emissions. Facebook and Google have energy efficient data centers. Both companies are managing Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 emissions. It is not the case of Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu.

Happy New Year of the Snake!

 

Year of the Snake 

Water Element 

WeChat, Over 300 M – SinaWeibo and WeChat (Weixin) Growths While American Internet Services Blocked

WeChat crossed the line of 300 million users faster than SinaWeibo thanks to its international users (mainly India and a few millions in other countries).

.gl Greenland & Chinese Internet

Contrary to strong believes that Greenland is totally isolated from the other parts of the world, the Internet has a high penetration rate in Greenland. With about 60,000 inhabitants, between 90% and 95% of the population is connected to the Internet according to the website called “Internet World Stats”(1).

What is the user experience? We don’t have so many information on that. What we know today is the agreement back in 2011 between Telecom Call and Huawei to provide a smartphone in Greenlandic language (2).

Does any Greenlandic Internet user use SinaWeibo or WeChat? We don’t know yet.

One of the issues of Greenland is to find a balance between economic development (tourism, technology, oil production) and preservation of their land. Carbon emissions increase there while the population is also concerned about their impact and the impact of other countries.

Sources:

1/http://www.internetworldstats.com/am/gl.htm
2/http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/stories/article/65674greenlandic_smartphone_debuts_in_november/
3/ images from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland