How Do You Engage 438 Million Users, At The Same Time?
And I was 1 of the 438 million users. If you are thinking about Facebook or WhatsApp, you are WRONG. This is WeChat. Honestly, I can't live a minute without it.
Logo of WeChat
WeChat is a text and voice communication App developed by Tencent in China. As reported by Business Insider, WeChat is the second largest messaging app in terms of Monthly Active Users (MAU), with 438 million (as of Q3, 2014). The primary target of users is Chinese both within the country and overseas. Like many of my friends, I use it on a daily basis. While it's superior functionality as a messenger app is important, I feel there is more to messaging that people love about WeChat.
Graph from Bussiness Insider Intelligence
On Feb 19th, Chinese across the globe celebrated the Lunar New Year. I, of course, celebrated the year of Goat/Sheep/Ram (Together with Starbucks, Reebok, Adidas and tons of others brands out there). The Lunar New Year is all about traditions. One of the traditions is for children to receive money from parents and relatives in a red envelope during the New Year. This gesture symbolizes blessing to the younger generation for the new year ahead. I can tell you, it's the best part of the Chinese New Year for me since 3.
Image of Red Envelope
Another tradition is for the family after the Chinese New Year dinner is to watch the CCTV's Spring Festival Gala. The Spring Festival Gala is the most watched show on earth. For my American friends who are thinking about the Superbowl, this is probably the "Megabowl". It drew more than 700 million viewers in 2014, compared to 114.4 million viewers for Superbowl 2015. While a 30-sec Superbowl spot costs average of USD$ 4.5 million in 2015, an equivalent spot on the Spring Festival Gala would cost USD$24 million. (The sponsorship for the TV show works differently in China) If you are a savvy marketeer, you would know better what this means.
Screenshot of Spring Festival Gala from Chinanews.com
Opportunites. And plenty of them.
Tencent was one of the largest sponsors of the Spring Festival Gala. In the 2015 Gala, they have taken digital media into a new height with the "Shake It" campaign. Throughout the show, whenever you see the logo on the live TV, users of WeChat can log into the app, and shake for a chance to obtain red envelope from the company. A total of CNY￥500 million (USD$ 80million approximately) of these red envelopes. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get one from them despite shaking my phone to the point when it almost flew out.
v.s.
Screenshots of "Shake It" Campaign on TV v.s. on WeChat App
Nevertheless, Tencent has showed us a miracle. 438 million of users engaged extensively at the same time. The marriage of traditional and digital media is possible. In total, 1.1 billion shakes are accumulated across 185 countries (Link in Chinese). And there's more. You can also receive red envelope to your friends and family. In order to claim those money from the red envelope, users need to link their WeChat with a bank account. I have willingly given up my account information without any hesitation. Who wouldn't? If you are getting free cash from a trusted source.
Armed with all these active users with account information, it would be interesting to see what's next for WeChat. At least for me, it has become part of digital life.
He's definitely happy to receive his red envelope! (Full of treats!)
Photo of Yuwan with Red Envelope
Thank you for taking another bite!
James