We are well aware of the tremendous ability of Chinese people to attract, adopt and copy products and services that mainly come from the United States and Europe.

For them, “Internet” is more of an “Intranet,” covered by an immense firewall in which the citizen does not have the freedom to navigate to any web page in the rest of the world.

However, they have the same platforms and services as the rest, for them, Google is called Baidu, Youtube is called Youku, Twitter is Weibo and WhatsApp is called WeChat.

I can attest to that since I bought my current mobile phone at Taipei airport, and for a few weeks I had installed these applications, given the difficulty of finding the Chinese language change in the Chinese menu, I ended up uninstalling them.

WeChat App – more than a software tool

Among all the ecosystem, WeChat stands out as the jewel in the crown, here the Chinese have evolved towards an “App Killer,” adding a multitude of services in a single aggregate and conversational assistant. A good Swiss army knife.

Imagine gathering in a single assistant all the functional ones that you have on Facebook, Skype, Uber, Amazon, Instagram, Venmo, Tinder, and Paypal.

You also have social services such as booking a medical appointment or other recreational activities such as buying a movie ticket, paying at any store or population heat maps on concurrent sites in your city.

Great, all in one App! But… what happens if you use it entirely for any action or need?

What can I do with WeChat app?

Imagine that you are at home with your dog, you think that you need a shower and in a couple of clicks, you hire a cleaning service, in three hours a man with a bottle of shampoo and a vaccine appears.

When your pet is impeccable you take a picture, tag with the link of the company that has done the service and you share it with your friends, from work one of them decides that his “bobby” also needs a shower.

Click the service tag and send the order of the order. In a few hours the Lord of the company of “Shiny Pet” receives the service charge via Wechat.

The same friend, to return the favor, recommends the best noodles site in the city, launches and pays the order of the anticipated meal and he, while, asks for a taxi – in the same period – the man of the vaccine he invests his earnings in a risky banking product.

They arrive at the restaurant, and on a big screen, their profile picture of WeChat appears that associates the table assigned to them for the meal, they receive the order in a couple of minutes and it turns out that the noodles are too cooked.

Make a photo and comment on a review of the place, then remember that you have not paid for your friend’s food and make a transfer via mobile.

Look up around the restaurant and realize that there are no menus, no waiters, and no ATMs … all the actions you have taken since the Lord of “Shiny Pet” came to your house, have passed within WeChat.

At no time, in any of the actions that I have told you, we have left the WeChat cycle, during all the time, any participant has remained within a single feedback circle, in which a large concentration of data are available. Of a few hands.

WeChat business model canvas

If you want to know more about WeChat business strategy click the image to check the canvas.

Goods and services exchanges using Wechat.

We tend to think that the Virals happen with images or videos within a context of a sense of humor or branding, but WeChat is used by more than 700 million people connected to the same network of exchange of goods and services.

There has never been a more juicy data trail for marketers; it’s a real miracle, you know what you talk about, how you communicate, who you interact with, what you read, where you’re going, why do you go to a place? With whom you have stayed and how you spend your money both online and offline.

In short, the new gold of the contextualized consumption data adapted and customized to each of your actions.

The Chinese government, in turn, forces WeChat to share all this information that comes from the aggregate service, the first mass monitoring dreamed of in any authoritarian system.

To achieve what is perhaps the best-personalized marketing product in history, the rights and fundamental freedoms of any citizen are violated, giant steps towards an Orwellian World.

As you will understand, with minimal functional developments within an aggregated software app, you can create macro circular economies, apart from offering the key to an unprecedented government monitoring process, a clear example of technological impact in the society we are living.

We tend to think that any technological revolution of scale comes directly or indirectly from Silicon Valley, but something so simple and trivial how to communicate and write a “text within a context of services” can change an international economics course.
This is how China is leading the world of the Internet, since its international closing of doors.

The future of textual applications into the society

This is just beginning; all the large American technology companies are developing very similar aggregate services, an inverse copy effect is taking place, in which Viv from the creator of Siri and former Apple employee Dag Kittlaus is putting on the table the artificial intelligence assistant for everything.

From the evolution of the text, we will pass to the commands by voice and assistants like Google Now or Cortana will migrate towards this kind of multiservice Whatsapp, or maybe Whatsapp or Facebook Messenger.
Due to the market share they have they can win the chance, just as I commented on the trends article for 2016, this is where the next battle of the technology giants will be fought.

The question is, how will Google Adwords react? Will you contextualize it within Now?

Is it time to monetize the 17,000 million euros that it cost to Mark Zuckerberg Whatsapp?

Who will win the market share?

And you? Where do you spend more time? In conversational communication applications or launching queries in the Google search bar?