Chinanews Client Beijing, January 26 (Zhang Xu) On January 21, 2021, WeChat will celebrate its tenth anniversary.

In the WeChat Open Class event held in the previous two days, WeChat released the latest data:

　　WeChat’s daily active users have reached 1.09 billion; 780 million people look at Moments every day, and 120 million of them will post something in Moments; 360 million people browse the official account every day to gain knowledge of the outside world.

　　Coincidentally, at about the same time, another social software-Mi Chat, a subsidiary of Xiaomi, announced that it would stop its service on February 19.

After the same ten years, with the same backing of giants, even Michao is more than a month ahead of WeChat. Why did the two usher in such a different ending?

Mi Talk announced the suspension of service.

Mi Talk, Millet's 100 billion opportunity

　　In October 2010, a team of students from the University of Waterloo in Canada developed a software called Kik Message.

Based on the mobile phone address book, KikMessager realizes free SMS chat and adds real-time texting function to provide users with face-to-face communication scenarios.

Once KikMessager was launched, it posed a threat to the prevailing status of WhatsApp. Within two weeks of its release, the number of registered users exceeded 1 million.

　　The success of this APP gave Xiaomi a taste of business opportunities. In less than two months, Xiaomi launched the first generation Michat.

　　Mi Talk was originally positioned as a cross-platform, cross-operator mobile phone text messaging tool. It is a free instant messaging tool. As long as the user's mobile phone can access the Internet, it can use it to perform free intercom functions.

In addition to supporting voice, Mi Talk also supports multiple functions such as pictures, videos, text, red envelopes, broadcasting, video calls, remote assistance, and screen sharing.

Screenshot of Michao official website.

　　Mi Talk, together with Xiaomi mobile phone and MIUI system, formed the troika of early Xiaomi business, and Lei Jun had high hopes.

Lei Jun once said publicly in a talk show: "Xiaomi was fortunate enough to have encountered two hundred billion dollars in opportunities, one is the mobile Internet, the other is Mi Talk."

　　But at that time Lei Jun was not particularly happy, or even anxious, because the social empire Tencent was pressing hard behind him.

For the future of Mi Talk, Lei Jun had three ideas at the time, which are described in Xiaomi's biography "A Going Forward":

　　If Tencent uses QQ as a product to compete with Michat, Xiaomi still has a chance, because QQ does not meet the short and fast user experience of mobile Internet on mobile phones;

　　If Tencent does not make any strategic mistakes and chooses to use exactly the same product form to face Mi Talk, only if it can give Mi Talk a year of running time, Xiaomi will have a 50% chance of winning;

　　If Tencent comes up with exactly the same product within a year, then Tencent’s comprehensive resources are 10,000 times that of Xiaomi, and Xiaomi will be completely at a disadvantage. At that time, Tencent will pounce on all engineering resources and promotion resources, and Xiaomi will win The probability will be zero.

Data map: Tencent billboard.

Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhang Bin

WeChat surprise attack, 1 billion users in 7 years

　　It turns out that Tencent did not give Xiaomi this opportunity.

Just 40 days after Mi Talk was launched, WeChat suddenly arrived.

　　Compared with MiChat, which adds friends through the address book, WeChat users can register through QQ account or email account.

In addition, WeChat can read the information of QQ friends and add them to the friend list by replying to the message.

　　At that time, Tencent's QQ registered users had exceeded 600 million, and the social ecology was flourishing, making Tencent an unbreakable moat in this field.

　　In less than half a year, Michao had more than 4 million users.

Although this growth rate is fast, it is faster than WeChat, which has grown up relying on the QQ social system.

In March 2012, Ma Huateng stated on Tencent Weibo that WeChat users exceeded 100 million.

From zero to one hundred million, it took 433 days.

Ma Huateng announced in March 2012 that WeChat users exceeded 100 million.

　　On April 19 of that year, WeChat Moments 4.0 was officially launched in WeChat Moments. Users can post pictures and post status in Moments, and use social relationships to retain users.

This also marks the transition of WeChat from a mobile communication tool to a social platform.

Since then, Michat and WeChat have gradually separated themselves.

　　When your friends are using a social software, you can only follow the transfer.

A user who switched from Michat to WeChat reluctantly said, "Everyone uses WeChat now. I can't change them, I can only change myself."

　　In May 2018, Tencent announced its first quarter financial report and announced that its WeChat users exceeded 1 billion.

From scratch, from zero to one billion, Micro Credit has been around for eight years.

WeChat has left everyone behind and has become a giant in this field.

"Encircle and suppress" WeChat, return without success

　　In the social field, there were countless giants who wanted to get a share of the pie, but they all came back.

　　January 15, 2019 was a dramatic day in the history of Chinese social software.

At 10:30 in the morning, Kuaibo Wang Xin launched the toilet MT; at 2:30 in the afternoon, Bytedance Zhang Yiming released Multi-Flash; at 7:30 in the evening, Hammer Technology Luo Yonghao released the chat treasure.

Screenshot of the official website of Duoshan.

　　All three social apps were released on this day. They all positioned social networks and wanted to challenge WeChat. However, a social war ended before it even started: all three apps were blocked by WeChat.

　　In response to this, Wang Xin posted three Weibo: "I don't know what you are afraid of?" "Tencent King Card SMS also blocked the toilet!" "What to do???"

　　Luo Yonghao was more calm. He backed up the three products of toilet MT, multi-flash and chat treasure on his website for everyone to download, and said: "My chat treasure will never block any legal links from friends."

　　It is worth noting that Luo Yonghao's chat treasure is actually a renamed version of Bullet SMS.

On August 20, 2018, Bullet SMS was launched. Under Luo Yonghao’s unswerving promotion, Bullet SMS’s debut was the pinnacle, and quickly reached the top of the App Store free list and social list. Within 7 days of launch, the company completed the A round of 150 million yuan in financing. Daily downloads are as high as 440,000.

　　Luo Yonghao said at the chat treasure press conference that the name of the previous bullet message was too sloppy: first, bullet is a sensitive word, and many search engines have blocked it, and second, the word text message is charged in everyone’s impression, so the name was changed to chat treasure.

Luo Yonghao data map.

Photo by Jin Shuo, reporter from China News Service

　　Chat treasure reproduced the fun headline "read the news and get the money" gameplay in an attempt to retain users with rewards.

Official introduction: Chatbao is a chat software that can get rewards. There are reward mechanisms everywhere. You can get rewards for chatting, watching news, inviting friends, and shopping.

　　Although you don't need to spend money like texting, Chatbao still loses in the flaw of the poor experience of the product itself.

According to the data from the third-party platform "Push", Chatbao ushered in an explosive growth of users during the first two days of its release from January 15th to 16th. The new increase on the 16th once reached 281% month-on-month, but it appeared on the 17th. After a cliff-like decline, the growth rate afterwards almost stagnated.

　　Luo Yonghao's social dream lasted only half a year. On March 5, 2019, the chat treasure team disbanded.

The other two apps launched on the same day also gradually lost their voices. The declaration of war did not touch the status of WeChat in the slightest.

　　In fact, in the mobile social field, it is not just these three who want to challenge the dominance of WeChat.

　　In 2007, China Mobile launched the instant messaging software Fetion. In its heyday, its registered users exceeded 500 million, second only to QQ, and it has now disappeared.

Baidu Hi, launched by Baidu, has also been transformed. On April 27, 2020, it was officially renamed "Ruliu".

Officials said that after the name change, Ruliu will continue to be open nationwide for free and support corporate customization.

Screenshot of Baidu Hi program interface.

　　In 2013, China Telecom and NetEase jointly launched Yixin, and the response was mediocre.

However, operators are not reconciled to be channel providers of social software. On April 8, 2020, China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom jointly launched 5G messaging services.

According to reports, 5G Messaging is a communication service software that supports sending text, pictures, audio, and video messages.

　　At the beginning of May 2020, 5G news was launched on the App Store.

But it was hurriedly removed on May 11.

After more than half a year, on January 8, 2021, China Telecom and China Unicom's 2020 5G messaging platform (RCS) construction project joint centralized procurement project was officially launched.

At the same time, 5G message commercials are being applied in a small scale in areas such as Shenzhen Nanshan.

In other words, 5G news has just started.

Screenshot of Zhang Xiaolong's 2021 WeChat Open Class.

　　WeChat has gone through ten years, and its former opponents have either died down, transformed, or are still growing.

Where is the next APP to challenge WeChat is still up in the air.

I wonder if there is invincible loneliness in the heart of "Father of WeChat" Zhang Xiaolong?

(Finish)