WeChat first: a new frontier in China beyond Android and iOS

Android or iOS first? It’s a choice every mobile developer must make when embarking on a new project. But in China these days, a third option is emerging: WeChat.

With nearly 400 million active users, Tencent’s flagship messaging app offers an exciting new avenue for developers taking aim at the Chinese market. Breaking into that ecosystem, however, might not be as simple as it first seems.

In the latest batch of nine startups that graduated from the country’s premier accelerator program, Chinaccelerator, two companies operate as service accounts inside WeChat: Chishen.ma and GiftPass. The former is a “story driven” restaurant recommendation app, and the latter allows users to gift vouchers within the chat app that can be exchanged for real life goods.

GiftPass co-founder Vincent Mah say he chose WeChat because “we wanted to lower the barrier of entry as much as possible” for users.

“If we compare to native apps, then Wechat puts a lot of restrictions on what can be done on their platform. But they do it to ensure WeChat users get a good experience,” Ma says. “With 400 million active WeChat users, getting access to them outweighs any cons.”

Compared to other social networks, Mah agrees that Tencent has a relatively ‘closed’ ecosystem, “but they are open just enough for us to find creative ways to make it useful,” he says. “It is their platform. They can do whatever they want.”

Chishen.ma founder Ryan Shuken says, “Users are increasingly spending more time within WeChat, time that’s taken away from other native apps. We are positioning ourselves in front of this trend.”

“Instead of reinventing the wheel and creating yet another social platform, we’re leveraging the tools made available by what’s already China’s hottest social network,” Shuken explains. “WeChat’s API is very new, so while its initial launch was relatively limited in functionality compared to some of the other social platforms, it’s been constantly opening up new features in the past few months.”

Mah says GiftPass plans to release its own native apps in the future, but Shuken didn’t mention any such plans for the time being for Chishen.ma. Startups like these are more and more eager to engage the WeChat audience. That gives Tencent the privilege of being picky with who it lets in or out, and is a far cry from competing social networks like Renren and Sina Weibo.

More particular than its peers

Renren and Weibo, often considered China’s equivalents to Facebook and Twitter, have both been on a gradual decline as WeChat surges in popularity. Still, many foreign startups use these domestic social networks as stepping stones when entering the Chinese market.

Beggars can’t be choosers, and the two companies seem ready and willing to partner with whomever they can get to integrate their products. News reader app Flipboard brought them both on board in 2012. Photo gallery app Cooliris integrated Sina Weibo in December last year and Renren a year before that. Personal QR code generator Visualead sealed a deal with Renren to allow any user to link to his or her account using a picture transformed into a QR code last May.

And while each of these companies expressed strong interest in WeChat as a future potential platform, none of them have managed to get on board. Integrating existing apps like these seems to be a much less viable option as opposed to building an app in the form of a WeChat service account. “We’re in talks with Tencent,” or “We’re working on it and it’s on the way,” were common responses when Tech in Asia pressed the issue.

“I wish we had it today,” said Flipboard head of business development Eric Alexander at a press event in Beijing. “It’s at the top of our priority list.”

Cooliris has even integrated with Tencent Weibo and QQ Zone, both under Tencent’s social wing, but WeChat remains elusive. Cooliris CEO Soujanya Bhumkar argues other social networks aren’t apt comparisons, and WeChat should instead be compared to other chat apps like Line and WhatsApp.

“For a fairer comparison, I would compare WeChat with other messaging apps, and the Tencent/WeChat ecosystem is just as open or closed as the other messaging apps around the world,” he says.

Risks and rewards

Open for business

The WeChat-of-things