Why is WeChat advertising so aggressively?

[Nicci]

Never even heard of it until now. Thanks for advertising it

 

[upup]

Owned by tencent, biggest internet provider in china. Naspers big shareholder of tencent.

This is why, as with olx.

Some people want to control us and the world.

 

[tRoN]

If tencent is behind it then the answer is "they don't". They're big enough to run losses non-stop in order to gain market share.

"Gain market share..." For what exactly? Sale of emoticons?

 

[HavocXphere]

"Gain market share..." For what exactly? Sale of emoticons?

No market share as in many people using your communication network.

Having a plan to monetize it isn't really necessary. Take facebook - they had millions of users and billions of company value without anyone having any clue how to profit...beyond maybe a vague "sell advertising" plan. Even now its a bit sketchy on that front. e.g. Their Beacon program was an attempt to monetize it. That tanked. Now they're looking at video ads.

Just gaining lots of users is seen as a valid goal in itself, esp when you've got deep pockets. Hell maybe the plan is to *not* monetize it all. Maybe its an attempt to just gain an audience for Tencent's remaining businesses.

 

[w1z4rd]

How do they make money? There is no advertising on the app.
Whatsapp doesn't advertise.

China wants your messages.

 

[Creag]

If its Chinese owned or backed, I ain't touching it. Ever.

 

[jambai]

How does watsapp make money and who owns it?

 

[Chevron]

How does watsapp make money and who owns it?

Whatsapp has a subscription fee.

 

[Suspect99]

Whatsapp has a subscription fee.

Which I don't think anyone pays. I certainly don't know anyone. It just keeps on extending the deadline

 

[BlackMamba]

WeChat aggressive advertising now is boring, they sure spend cause I wonder how much they paid Messi to b on one of their ads

 

[kingrob]

Which I don't think anyone pays. I certainly don't know anyone. It just keeps on extending the deadline

Its not free in the Apple app store.

 

[SauRoNZA]

Its not free in the Apple app store.

It is free these days.

 

[d7e7r7]

I walked by a concert at Greenmarket Square the other day and there was WeChat advertising there so I asked the people at the entrance what the concert is about, long story short, they said that if I install WeChat on my phone I get free entrance. Otherwise the tickets were like R80 or something...

 

[NomNom]

Wechat is Chinese, so like the Chinese it's trying to take over.

 

[genetic]

WeChat is Naspers and most of the media we consume is owned by them.

Naspers have their fingers in many pies. Very wary of them.

It's owned by the Chinese company Tencent. Not Naspers.

 

[d7e7r7]

It's owned by the Chinese company Tencent. Not Naspers.

No but they have a 34% stake in the company and the WeChat SA managing director, Brett Loubser, is a Naspers employee...
http://businesstech.co.za/news/mobile/41038/tencents-wechat-in-big-push-for-africa/

 

[cpu.]

Word of mouth is still the best marketing. That's where Whatsapp have the advantage. I automatically filter out ads, but when someone suggested I install Wechat, I did. Tried it a bit, but prefer WA.

 

[Gulio]

I think we chat will take over from whatsapp, multichoice id already driving it.
It's also more feature rich than whatsapp.
Anyone seen the survivor and big brother channels built into wechat?

 

[Arthur]

Anyone seen the survivor and big brother channels built into wechat?

Didn't see that. Powerful reason to steer well clear.

 

[Park@82]

I just wish whatsapp would release a windows desktop client.