Laiwang already got the more than 10 million registered users. And their next challenge is to get more than 100 million users within the next year.

Recently the Alibaba group and the former CEO Jack Ma are strongly promoting their own IM tool 'Laiwang', but according to their announcement, the registered user of Laiwang already exceeded 10 million people now.

And Jack Ma said their next challenge will be getting more than 100 million users  within 2014. According to their announcement, its active users are rapidly increasing, and they said that its growth rate is over 500%.

And Jack Ma also said that they will be challenging toward to WeChat, and it may seem impossible, but they will make strenuous efforts the 'impossible' changing to 'possible'.

Now Laiwang is providing it Android and iOS client and Web browser version now, but its functions are almost similar to WeChat, and there is no definite difference with it.

So I think it's difficult that Laiwang will beat WeChat at this time, but Alibaba group 'Taobao' has more than 400 million users on their mobile client. So if Laiwang will focus to enhance the linkage function with such an EC solution, they will have a bright future that they can change current 'impossible' situation to 'possible'.


Source => TechWeb

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Yixin also started to provide its client for PC. But that function is restrictive at this time.

Their rival 'WeChat' have already provided its Web browser version as a PC client, but Yixin (EasyChat) also recently started to provide its PC client.

But this version is limited in the function as same as the Web browser version of WeChat now. For example, it supports only a part of the chatting function, and it doesn't support the function of using the social page, stamp, adding the new friend, voice chatting and so forth.

Its help page often uses the word of 'at this version', so we may be able to expect its upgrade. But basically, Yixin has focussed to the mobile solution, so I think that it will not bring the dramatic improvement.

So as same as the Web browser version of WeChat, it may be useful when we have to send a long message to the friend :)


Source => The official page of Yixin

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The number of WeChat monthly active users is 271.9 million people, and it increased 124.3% compared to the year-earlier period.

Because Tencent also published their performance reporting in the third quarter, so I would like to introduce some number that is related to social media.

At first, this report said that the monthly active users (MAU) of WeChat was 271.9 million people as of the third quarter.

It increased 124.3% compared to the year-earlier period, and increased 15.3% compared to the previous period.

Tencent haven't published the total number of WeChat registered users since the beginning of this year, so I don't know the actual ratio of active users. According to some source, the total number of WeChat registered users are about 500 million people, so it can be said that the ratio of monthly active users is about 54.3%.


And the other numbers that are related to social media are as follows:

- Monthly active users of IM (* It means 'QQ') were 815.6 million people.
(It decreased 0.4% compared to the previous period, and increased 4.0% compared to the year-earlier period.)

- The number of the peak simultaneous online IM was 178.2 million people.
(It increased 2.9% compared to the previous period, and increased 6.5% compared to the year-earlier period.)

- Monthly active users of Qzone were 623.3 million people.
(It decreased 0.5% compared to the previous period, and increased 5.1% compared to the year-earlier period.)


Tencent said that they will continuously strive to increase the MAU of WeChat, and they will also strive to get more WeChat users in overseas.

They published the latest version of Android client, but this adding function may be the small evidence of their effort to get more oversea users :)

Source => The performance reporting by Tencent (PDF)

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The ad sales revenue of Sina Weibo increased 125% compared with the year-earlier period. They will also publish ads API soon.

Sina recently published the performance reporting of Sina Weibo in the third quarter.

This report said that the total revenue of Sina Weibo in the third quarter was 53.4 million USD, and this breakdown is composed of 43.7 million USD ad revenue and 9.7 million USD services revenue.

Their ad revenue increased 125% compared with the year-earlier period, and their service revenue increased 121%, but at the point of comparison with the last quarter, it can be said their service revenue was slight increase.

This service revenue includes the revenue from Weibo Club and the sharing revenue from the apps or games developer, but as I said before, they have to enhance this area to industrialize more than now.

But on the other hand, of course, the ad revenue is the one of important business for Sina Weibo. So they recently announced that they will publish the ad API of Sina Weibo soon.

Their rival 'WeChat' already expressed that they would not like their user to use their platform as a marketing tool. So from this point of view, to become a social marketing platform may be a one of good method for the differentiation with them.


Source => Tencent IT, Lieyun Net

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Yixin expanded the campaign of providing the free data packet. All of Chinese mobile users have a chance to get 300MB data packets.

As I explained before, the own IM tool of Alibaba 'Laiwang' started to provide the free data packet to their users, but Yixin also expanded the similar campaign.

The target users of this campaign are not only included China Telecom users, but also is included China Mobile and China Unicom. But there are some different conditions between China Telecom users and other 2 careers to get this service.

China Telecom users only register Yixin, and then they can get 300MB free data packet. And if the user will post messages more than 5 times, then they can get 60MB free data packet every month. China Mobile and China Unicom users invite the 6 acquaintances to Yixin, and then they can get the 300MB free data packets. And they don't have the chance to get the 60MB gift every month.

It seems that there is not the limitation by area like the campaign of Alibaba.

Laiwang and Yixin started the similar campaign to get more users. Then how about WeChat is? It seems that the battle space of IM tool in China is not only the function field, but also was added the service field.

Let's keep watching their actions and the trend of this industry as ever.


Source => Official page of Yixin

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Alibaba accelerated to promote their own IM tool 'Laiwang' again. They will give 2GB mobile packet to a part of users to promote it.

As I explained before, Alibaba strengthened to promote their own IM tool 'Laiwang'.

And recently, it seems that they accelerated its promotion again, they announced that they will give 2GB mobile packet to a part of their users.

To take this gift, users have to access this site and apply for.
* There is a limitation in this at this time, and the user who can get this gift is only as follows:

- China Unicom users in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Hunan.
- China Mobile users in Guandong


And on the other hand, Jack Ma repeatedly mentioned about 'Laiwang', and he also said that he is looking forward to battle with WeChat.

Furthermore, they will publish the management tool of the official account for their platform as same as WeChat or Yixin. It seems that they have not published its web site, but they already prepared it on the client side.

I can hardly imagine that Laiwang will close with WeChat as a common IM tool at this time, but Alibaba is the king of the EC market in China. So if they will focus to collaborate IM function and EC, then there may be a way.


Source => Tech Sina, Netease News-1, Netease News-2, TechWeb

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The registered user of Yixin already exceeded 30 million people. Its main users are 16 to 25 years old.

Yixin (EasyChat)  got a good start, and they also continue to increase their users after that, but they officially reported their users already exceeded 30,000,000 people as of Oct. 28.

According to them, Yixin is mainly welcomed by young people, and actually 70 percent of their users are 16 to 25 years old (They are called post-85s or post-90s in China). And its daily active users are 28% of all, and over 32 million information is posted on there in a day.

The official said that they also continue to enhance its function, and at the same time they will also add the attractive new function. For example, they said that they will adopt the mobile payment function or games on their platform.

But I personally think this is an imitation of WeChat, so I think that they should choose the other way with WeChat, for example they recently adopted the international call function. Because they can utilize the infrastructure that China Telecom has.

In China, now Alibaba also strongly promotes their own IM tool 'Laiwang', and the largest electronics retail store in China 'Suning' also have a plan to provide their own IM tool 'Yunxin'. So we cannot take our eyes off of the future trend in this industry.


Source => Netease IT, CNFOL

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