Messaging / Chat Applications: How Many Mobile Users?

Whatsapp is the most international free chat app with over 350 million users (monthly active users representing more than half of this figure). This application was the first messaging application on Quarter 1 of year 2013. Half the countries of Europe like Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, and Chile, and Israel are using Whatsapp before any other chat applications.

We know now why Google didn’t purchase Whatsapp: the firm of Moutain View released a standalone application of Google Hangouts a few weeks ago.

WeChat gathers about 350 million users mainly in China and a few million mostly in Malaysia, India, and the Philippines. Growth is strong thanks to fast adoption among users and heavy marketing efforts with the use of image of stars and TV commercials.

Facebook Messenger is used in many countries among them the United States and Argentina.

Skype mobile app is very successful in Bulgaria, and Russia. This is quite surprising that American users don’t use so much this Microsoft service as Russian users do.

Viber app has the lead in Egypt, Greece, Ireland.

Line with about 160 million is spreading in a few countries of Asia: Japan, the Home country, Indonesia, Thailand, and Taiwan.

Nimbuzz is successful mainly in India, Kakao Talk in the Home country of South Korea but also Indonesia.

Since our last review, Libon added voice message and picture sharing; Google released a standalone application of Hangouts; China Mobile launched a new chat mobile application called Jego.

Messaging App: The War for Users on Mobile Goes On!

We explained the competitive environment of messaging applications: Line, Viber, Skype, Kakao Talk, Whatsapp, WeChat, Libon, Facebook Messenger

Below is the current trend, Whatsapp loosing dominance mainly due to WeChat. The Chinese application could take time away from Facebook as well.

 

We explained back in 2012 that Chinese expansion was a beginning. WeChat is first Chinese mobile application with international success.

 

More about the split China-the USA with e-commerce

Latest Data: WeChat to Reach 400 million users in June 2013 as forecasted

WeChat, the messaging and social app made by Tencent, is expanding strongly abroad. According to our latest data, this phenomenon will make the application to reach 400 million a dozen days before our forecast.

According to the feedback of users, the application is very easy to use and fun. Only 6% of our sample of international users where aware the application is Chinese. Telling them the Chinese origins, about half of the users are surprised and tell us it is hard to believe. It appears the application is changing the state of mind of people outside China. Yes, China is a country of innovation, more than ever!

May 19th: WeChat doing better than Facebook and Whatsapp in India, Malaysia, Mexico and Philippines

TV Commercial in India and Philippines have strong impact on downloads on Google Play Platform: on May 19th, WeChat was doing better than Facebook and Whatsapp in India, Malaysia, Mexico and Philippines.

Source: Appannie

Alibaba’s Push into Financial Services to Grow and Make Easier Global Business

The evolution of China’s e-commerce market is very fast. Some of the changes have the potential to be transformational.

Back in 2009, Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce company, introduced a service which provides loans to merchants who sell through the company’s web platform. The fundamental problem inspiring its creation was that some online merchants sufficient lack cash up front to buy the amount of inventory they hope sell on Alibaba.

As of September 2012, Alibaba, China’s most successful e-commerce company, had supported more than 15,000 of its merchants with an average of $7,400 distributed per loan. Alibaba’s lending is not restricted simply to its merchants. The company has also teamed up with major financial institutions, such as the China Construction Bank, to provide an array of loans to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) more generally. This operation, run through the Alibaba Group’s Alibaba Financial Company, is driven not simply by the e-commerce giant’s desire to increase transactions on its web platform, but rather by a general niche in the Chinese micro-finance market.

Internet Strategy: Google and Facebook Collecting Interests

In the same time, Google communicates on its new music service and Facebook communicates on organized rating going further than just liking what friends are sharing.

Facebook doing a step toward e-commerce

Google covering all the area of worldwide information

The Value is not on accumulating data but in qualifying data

We already explained several times that value creation for an Internet company is in data. In the open world of today, data is money but qualified data is gold.

We explained a year ago that the monetization of Facebook would be by expanding and using the data the firm collects pressing interests and preferences.

TV Commercial Aiming to Boost Interest for WeChat in India

Whatsapp and Facebook are very strong in India.

WeChat has already thousands of users. However, India is still less developed economically than China and many people cannot afford to buy a smartphone. Tencent would like to get more and the WeChat team developed a special version under Java for features phones.

Tencent decided to launch TV commercial to expand the user base there. Click below to see it:

Tencent is showing to the world the firm is able to market their products in international markets. The commercial is featuring Indian stars in Bollywood style singing while they are away from each other and keeping contact thanks to WeChat. We were impressed by how well it fits the majority of Indian people.

User Time on Chinese Social Media: Increase Benefits mainly to WeChat – SinaWeibo is very strong as well

WeChat and Sina Weibo are strong on mobile devices.

According to the data of iUserTracker, a user online behavior measurement system launched by iResearch, the monthly using duration of WeChat app attained 260 million hours and Weibo reached 130 million hours in February 2013.

WeChat and Weibo possessed absolute advantages than other mobile social apps because the both meet the users’ basic social demands of communicating, sharing and getting information.

Many other Chinese social apps exist but it is very difficult for them to take user time. We will see whether Jego, the new communication app from China Mobile could succeed or not…

Source: URL: http://www.iresearchchina.com/UpLoad/Pic/20135/1418212013514184721121.jpg

Where China’s future growth dynamic will be coming from: example of 1 division on 34

This is not an overnight phenomenon. In fact many companies have seen this coming for several years, and already have supply chains and stores across China.

Some American firms are doing well: their additional money year after year is coming from China. KFC for example, now operate over 3,000 stores in over 700 cities in China. McDonald’s has a similar pattern. Starbucks operates almost 1,000 stores.

European firms in the luxury business like Hermès and Louis Vuitton know that they cannot address all those markets because many cannot afford purchasing an item of their brand. However, they should be present to satisfy the new rich local Chinese.

Local consumers are upgrading their life styles such as switching from a glass of green tea to a Starbucks latte. Instead of wearing cheap bags, women are upgrading to a better brand, and men changing their pants for a new pair of Levis. This is the new level of Chinese consumerism, and this is where China’s future growth dynamic is coming from.

Growth is now coming from the 4th, 5th, and 6th Tier Cities

Sources:

Chris Devonshire-Ellis, “The Rebalancing of China, India, and ASEAN in the Global Supply Chain and the Rise of the New Asian Consumer”, Speech in Beijing

http://www.loxcel.com/sbux

QZone, Second Social Network in the World: Mostly Accessed from Mobile Now

Sources:

GMIC, URL: http://beijing.thegmic.com/

http://www.marbridgeconsulting.com/marbridgedaily/archive/article/65845/wechats_monthly_active_users_reach_190_mln#When:12:00:00Z