Since ramping up TV and social marketing in the Philippines last month, China-made messaging app WeChat has been holding onto the top position in the country’s free app rankings for both iOS and Android.
As we’ve seen in other countries, there is a WeChat television advertisement being aired in the Philippines, which of course helps boost the app’s popularity there. In the country, WeChat’s chosen brand ambassadors are Iya Villania and Drew Arellano.
Looking over the app charts, WeChat’s closest rivals look to be Japan-based Line and Viber. The latter two are currently placed in the top seven free overall apps on Google Play. Viber though, is not as popular on iOS, it is ranked at 34th while Line occupies the fourth spot there. Of course, downloads don’t equate to active user numbers.
Just last week, we saw WeChat attempt to bring its battle with Line to the Nokia Asha platform, which will help in emerging markets like the Philippines. The Tencent-run app records a staggering 195 monthly active users right now, with the latest number of users outside China being 50 million.
Tencent is pushing WeChat particularly hard in Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East, and Mexico, where it already seems to be taking off.
Will the app prevail in its battle for the Filipino market against the other chat apps? And let’s not forget Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp. There are still a lot of users to be won over.
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