Monthly Archives: December 2013

2014: the Year of Monetization for WeChat

The VALUE2020 predicts that year 2014 will be the Year of Monetization for Chinese mobile application WeChat.

In addition to exclusive sales on WeChat like the operation for Xiaomi smartphones, WeChat added in 2013 a store to buy stickers, and above a payment system which open the door to mobile commerce as expected by VALUE2020 back in 2011.

Last year, we predicted the introduction of mobile payment and continuous growth. Almost all the predictions are reality today and next year will be fascinating as well.

What to expect in 2014:

  • Development of micro-payments, Tencent great strength
  • Additional applications within the WeChat app
  • Partnerships with big names (We cannot talk today ;-))

EXCLUSIVE MAP – The Successful Wine Mobile App Vivino, a Hit in the World but not in China

Released on iOS in January 2011, Vivino is a Wine App offering an easy way to remember wines you tasted as well as to discover new favorites.

To find the wine in the database, you use the app to scan the label. It’s backed by a database of more than a million wines, so you can expect to get a match after scanning a wine label to add to your virtual cellar.

The Vivino app includes the following features:

  • Get personalized wine recommendations based on your taste (the more ratings the better suggestions)
  • Follow the featured users: chosen to provide you with inspiration, knowledge and better wines
  • Find more friends via address book, Gmail, Twitter or Facebook
  • Drinking window: know when to drink your wines
  • Add wines to your Wish List, for next occasion
  • Organize your wines: filter your wine list by date, price or ratings
  • Add your Bio and let others know who you are

The free app offers a $4.99 Pro in-app upgrade that unlocks several premium features. With Vivino Pro, you can keep track of your wine collection, find wines using text search, and get in the fast track for manual matching.

The mobile app experiments a growing traffic with an estimated 6 million scans for December 2013.  Denmark, Belgium, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland, the Netherlands love the application but not China. There is no version in Mandarin Chinese therefore it explains the very low number of downloads and usage in Mainland China. In addition, content cannot be shared with Weibo followers or WeChat contacts.

Below is an EXCLUSIVE MAP:

Vivino in the World