By Peter Hoskins & Fan Wang
NewsPlus 24
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Elon Musk changed Twitter's name to X earlier this week as part of his strategy to imitate Chinese social media giant WeChat.
Mr. Musk has long stated his desire to expand his social media network, which he purchased last year for $44 billion (£34.4 billion).
He has already complimented WeChat, the so-called "everything app," which includes social media, dating, payments, and chat. He has also stated that it would be a huge success if Twitter could develop something even remotely similar.
Mr. Musk wrote this week on X that "we will add comprehensive communications and the ability to conduct your entire financial world" over the coming months.
As the firm has lost over half of its advertising revenue since Mr. Musk purchased it and is struggling under a mountain of debt, he will be hoping that expanding X will result in an increase in revenue.
So what is WeChat - and why does Mr. Musk want to emulate it?
WeChat, which was introduced in 2011 by internet giant Tencent, is now utilized by practically all 1.4 billion people in China.
A super-app would be an understatement.
Mobile payments, social media, food delivery, texting, voice and video calling, gaming, news, and even dating are among its features.
It resembles a combination of WhatsApp, Facebook, Apple Pay, Uber, Amazon, Tinder, and a lot more.
It is practically difficult to exist in Chinese society without it because it is so deeply ingrained in the culture.
The photos below show how distinctive the interfaces are for each of its various components.
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| WeChat's shopping service (L), its food deliveries, hotel bookings, and cinema bookings (center), and its investment page (R) |
It began as a messaging service akin to WhatsApp or iMessage, and its two most popular features are "Chats," which are similar to WhatsApp, and "Moments," which are comparable to Facebook.
Most stores and online businesses in China accept WeChat payments, and customers can pay by scanning QR codes using the app's widely used "Wallet" feature, which can be linked to debit and credit cards. On WeChat, users can also make investments, pay their bills, and even apply for loans.
WeChat users can verify their social security numbers, settle traffic tickets, and schedule appointments at hospitals.
And during the epidemic, it turned into a necessity because, even though the entire nation was subject to tight zero-Covid regulations, moving around required a "health code" produced by the app.
But having so many functionality in one app has several drawbacks.
Practically speaking, WeChat consumes a significant portion of a phone's memory, generally tens of gigabytes of data storage.
More seriously, worries about government censorship, spying, and other privacy issues have been sparked by WeChat's extensive penetration of Chinese society.
Many international websites are blocked in China, including news websites like the BBC and social media sites like Facebook and, ironically, Elon Musk's X.
People speaking out against the government on WeChat is quite perilous because of the extent of state control over the internet.
Dissenting voices frequently experience account suspensions for days or weeks due to comments they made in Chats or on Moments.
Even those disseminating ostensibly uncontroversial information have run afoul of government censors, leading to the closure of their accounts and chat groups.
Super-apps like WeChat, according to Kitsch Liao, assistant director of the Atlantic Council's Global China Hub, support Beijing's efforts to organize all facets of life in order to maintain control of the nation.
The main goal is to "prevent political risk," or anything that might eventually pose a threat to the CCP's [Chinese Communist Party] authority.
Will it work in the West?
According to Kecheng Fang of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, there are two key reasons for WeChat's enormous success in China, as reported by the BBC.
Due to China's relatively late development of the internet, the majority of users access WeChat via cell phones rather than desktop computers.
This means that rather than using the open web, people reside in the walled gardens of applications. On smartphones rather than PCs, it is far simpler to create an "everything app," he claims.
According to Mr. Fang, WeChat and other competing platforms like the commerce portal Taobao and the video app, Douyin can be effectively blocked by China because there are no competition laws there, in contrast to most Western nations.
Could Mr. Musk create an app that functions outside of China? Experts predict that we will soon find out, and they think it may all hinge on digital payments.
WeChat has become "critical to daily life" in China due to a number of factors, including the integration of social media and digital payments, according to Kendra Schaefer of the policy research firm Trivium China? She claims that Mr. Musk has previously acknowledged some of these factors.
According to her, that might be the "secret sauce of the super-app".
According to Edith Yeung of the investment firm Race Capital, the extensive use of digital payment technologies in China as opposed to the West is a key distinction.
Although it is required by law for businesses to accept cash, in reality, digital payments are much more frequent.
She claims that this distinction might stand in the way of Mr. Musk's inspirations. "It will take the Western world longer to implement a truly cashless or credit-card-free society," she asserts.
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