STRIVING FOR GLOBAL EXPANSION

　　The Chinese-made messenger app WeChat has big designs to expand in foreignmarkets， including the United States， but will it succeed？

　　Lisa Tseretzoulias， a 51-year-old of-fice administrator living in Montreal，Canada， came across WeChat a yearago and instantly fell in love. “I like ita lot and have recommended it tofamily and friends.”

　　WeChat， known as weixin in Chinese， is thecountry’s most popular messaging and socialmedia app developed by Tencent， China’s big-gest Internet firm. WeChat is often likened toWhatsApp， developed by a U.S. frm， and Japan’sLine.

　　But WeChat is more than a messengerapp and packs a host of other features， includ-ing a hold-to-talk function that allows users tosend audio messages to other WeChat users，much like a walky-talky. It’s also a social mediaplatform to post photos and make comments，much like Facebook. Companies and celebri-ties can open a special account to interact withfans and build a following. NBA basketball playerLeBron James has an account.

　　Founded in 1998 in the southern city ofShenzhen， Guangdong Province and north ofHong Kong， Tencent has over the past decadeproven itself to be China’s undisputed king ofmessaging， with its banner instant messagingservice called QQ， China’s largest instant mes-saging service with over 800 million users. Witha shift in Internet usage from personal com-puters to smartphones and tablets， Tencentlaunched WeChat in 2011.

　　By the end of the first half of 2013， thenumber of WeChat users in China had ex-ceeded 400 million， driving revenue growthfrom mobile traffc up by 56.8 percent， accord-ing to the Ministry of Industry and InformationTechnology.

　　Just like the impact Skype has had onlandlines， the heavy use of WeChat in Chinanow poses a challenge for telecom operators，whose revenues for text messaging—its mostprofitable business—fell markedly， leading toa debate over whether or not to charge a userfee for the application. The attempt by telecomoperators to pressure WeChat to charge for theservice was roundly condemned by Chinesenetizens and others who called on the phonecompanies to leave WeChat alone and develop their own products to compete. So far， Tencenthas no plans to charge users for the popularapp but says it will cooperate with China’s bigtelecom players in other ways.WeChat is already a huge domestic successand is used by everyone from teenagers to theirparents to their grandparents. But Tencent isnot satisfed with success in the home marketand is branching out globally tooth-and-nail.Roadblocks， however， remain.

　　One world， one chat

　　With an eye on the international market， WeChatis now available in 18 languages， includingEnglish， Indonesian， Spanish， Portuguese， Thai，Vietnamese and Russian. The app can be usedon almost all mainstream mobile phone systemsthanks to a first-class research and developmentteam at Tencent. WeChat is growing quickly inoverseas markets. Tencent announced on July 3that WeChat has accrued over 70 million regis-tered overseas users， a sharp jump from the 40million users it claimed it had back in April.

　　“The software has been especially suc-cessful in Indonesia， India， Malaysia， Mexico，Singapore and the Philippines，” said Martin Lau，President of Tencent， at a developer confer-ence held in Beijing on July 3.

　　To further expand its user coverage，Tencent has unveiled an advertising campaignfeaturing internationally famed soccer starLionel Messi to run in 15 countries， includingArgentina， Brazil， India， Italy， Mexico， SouthAfrica， Spain and Turkey.

　　WeChat has adopted a localization strat-egy when branching out by hiring celebritiesas part of its marketing efforts. A much-lovedfeature of WeChat is a wide range of cartoonemoticons that users can send to each other，called emoji. With overseas markets in mind，WeChat has designed emoticons featuring lo-cal big names. For instance， in India， Tencentroped in popular Bollywood actors ParineetiChopra and Varun Dhawan as brand ambas-sadors. Emotes featuring the two Bollywoodstars caused a sensation in the country.WeChat is also working closely with business-es overseas and is cooperating with Chang， a well-known beverage company in Thailand.

　　WeChat’s fun features coupled with Tencent’sstrong marketing skills have made the app popularacross different markets and helped the app’spopularity soar. User growth is one encouragingsign for the tech company， one of several ChineseInternet companies that have ambitions to expandtheir businesses abroad. “Successful or not， thisis an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Tencent，”said Ma Huateng， co-founder and Board Chairmanof Tencent， speaking about Tencent’s globallayout.

　　Not easy

　　While boosting popularity among users outsideChina， WeChat is faced with competition in the global mobile-chat app market from WhatsApp，Line and Kakao from South Korea.

　　WhatsApp announced in June it has rackedup over 250 million active monthly users world-wide. Line announced on July 23 that it hasamassed 200 million global users， and Kakaosaid in July that the number of its users hastopped 95 million. The four are bound to duke itout in the global market.

　　WeChat has made a splash in emerging na-tions， especially in Southeast Asia， and has yet togain a foothold in a large developed economylike the United States， a highly coveted market.By the end of September 2012， there were100，000 registered WeChat users in the UnitedStates， a distant cry from the numbers WeChat will need to make an impact beyond the limitedpopulation of Chinese-Americans and Chinesestudents studying there. To that end， Tencentopened an offce in February to study the U.S.market and form partnerships with U.S. frms toboost the app’s popularity.

　　In comparison with the boom in SoutheastAsia， WeChat is in its nascent stages of devel-opment in the United States. WeChat facesstiff competition from Line and the Japanesecompany also has designs on the U.S. market.For now， it’s unclear exactly how WeChat stacksup against its rivals in the battle for the UnitedStates.

　　“The U.S. market is a diffcult and importantone for any Internet company. Many frst-classInternet products and companies were bornthere. The U.S. market is highly sought out bymany foreign companies and products， andWeChat is no exception，” reads a recent state-ment from Tencent in February.

　　“The United States is the most difficultmarket to tap in our global campaign，” saidMa. “China’s Internet companies lag far behindtheir globally successful peers and have neverbeen a global success. But now mobile phoneand Internet use is developing faster in Asiathan in the West. This has given China’s Internetcompanies a precious opportunity to surpassWestern ones，” said Ma， who touts that WeChatis more innovative and user-friendly than itsrivals.

　　But one major concern has Tencent wor-ried： If its popularity grows， could other nationserect the same kind of roadblocks to expansionthat have plagued Chinese telecommunica-tions companies like Huawei and ZTE？ Bothcompanies have seen their efforts to expandinto the United States halted over “national se-curity” concerns.

　　WeChat has already run into such re-sistance. India’s intelligence bureau has reportedly proposed a ban on WeChat， say-ing that the app has already possessed toomuch personal information on Indians. TheUnited States and other Western nationsmay suggest the same， fearing that toomuch citizen data could easily fall into thehands of the Chinese Government.

　　In response， a spokeswoman for Tencentsaid， “We have taken user data protection seri-ously in our product development and dailyoperations， and like other international peers，we comply with relevant laws in the countrieswhere we have operations.”

　　Given the recent revelations that the U.S.National Security Agency has been snoopingon the e-mails of Americans， users may havefew nagging doubts about downloading theChinese app.

　　Another issue is whether China’s globalimage will hold back WeChat in internationalmarkets since China is often associatedwith producing cheap， low-quality products.Persistent food scandals and toxic toys havecreated a lack of trust of Chinese-made goodsin developed countries and beyond.

　　Duncan Clark， Chairman of BDA China，a consulting firm that specializes in China’stechnology and Internet sectors， told The NewYork Times that WeChat has the potential toovercome any lingering doubts in the West overthe made-in-China label， saying potential us-ers would have no idea the product is Chinesewhen visiting， for example， an app store， therebyleveling the playing field for mobile-chat appdevelopers.

　　Robin Pinsto， a 54-year-old WeChat userin Canada， said she was surprised the app isChinese.

　　“I started using WeChat six months agoand I use it every day now. I think WeChat iseven better than WhatsApp， with its wide rangeof cartoon images and other functions，” said Pinsto. “I think WeChat has a shot at being aglobal success.”

　　Tseretzoulias， the office administratorin Montreal， has no qualms about WeChat’sorigins.

　　“It doesn’t concern me which country de-veloped it， as long as it’s good to use.”

　　By Zhou Xiaoyan

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