WeChat threatened by Chinese Smartphone Makers

Chinese Smartphone makers have joined hands to promote free-of-download, fast apps. This move is backed by the Chinese government and it will threaten the Tencent Holdings’ position in the mobile world with its highly famous app, WeChat.

WeChat has over 1 billion users. In 2017 it launched “mini-programmes” within its app.  It can be compared to Apple Inc’s iOS and Google’s Android operating systems. As per Tencent WeChat will not challenge the current mobile platforms but as per some experts, its new business can be a hindrance for iOS and Android app business. Many customers have left these dominant app stores after WeChat’s mini-programmes launched.

Read also: Chinese smartphone makers can beat Apple and Samsung

The “fast apps” can be compared to the HTML-based lite apps that can launch without any procedure of downloading.  This new system is being introduced by 10 Chinese smartphone companies and backed by a government agency. The 10 smartphone vendors are Xiaomi Technology Co, ZTE Corp, Huawei Technologies [HWT.UL], Gionee, Lenovo Group, Meizu, Nubia, OPPO, Vivo, OnePlus, along with the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology working under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

App developers will just have to design a single “fast app” rather than 10 “fast apps”. That one fast app will have a standard format and each vendor can do tweaking in it as per their liking.

This new system will create a new mobile traffic system and bring ease, efficiency, and convenience in the lives of the smartphone users. But this system will threaten the WeChat ‘mini programmes’ feature.

As per Xiaomi, no particular company is being targeted, the fast apps system is just a step to improve the user experience.

There are “Fast app” versions found in a few famous apps in China including news aggregator Toutiao and Ctrip the travel booking site. These apps can be instantly launched via the Mi app store in China.