有些事物我们总是要亲身遭遇，才能体会其力量所在；中国的实时通移动应用程序“微信(WeChat)”就是一个最好的例子。
提起微信并不是因为我觉得它比才刚被 Facebook 以190亿美元收购的 WhatsApp 更好用，它引起我注意的原因是其快速崛起的程度就像是中国的缩影。一年前，中国的微型博客网站新浪微博(Sina Weibo)在当地风靡一时，而今年我在中国的所有朋友以及见过的人都在用微信；微博迅速退烧的状况是显而易见(而且几乎可说很惊人)的。
我在一年前见到中兴(ZTE)旗下手机品牌努比亚(Nubia)CEO倪飞，谈的都是他在微博上有数百万粉丝的话题；他致力于透过互联网销售该品牌的智能手机，因此需要在微博上拥有高能见度。而最近我们再次见面，倪飞在被问到关于微博的问题时，他淡淡地笑着说：“最近没有人会上微博了。”
倪飞解释，现在微信在中国是亲朋好友间联系与维持关系的主要工具，人们喜欢它。那微信是否有能让努比亚宣传的空间呢？他说：“我们还没真正搞清楚，人们似乎比较喜欢看到微信上没有广告或是商业消息。”
微信是中国互联网业者腾讯(Tencent)旗下的产品，在2012年10月17日开始服务，提供免费文字短信、语音短信以及视频通话功能；基本上微信是 SMS的一种，结合类似Skype的服务，并将Twitter、LinkedIn、Facebook、Foursquare与Instagram等各种社 交网站的功能结合再一起，此外它还支持在线支付，使用者能进行购物、付费游戏甚至金融活动。
我来中国不过四天，但几乎每一场采访所遇到的产业高层，无论是来自新创公司、老公司或是芯片业者、系统业者，都不可避免地提到了阿里巴巴(Alibaba)或腾讯。
中国的科技业者似乎相信，他们最优先要做的就是取得如阿里巴巴或是腾讯等中国最活跃网络业者的支持；他们试图说服网络业者将新服务搭配他们的新技术，认为只要那些网络服务受欢迎，他们的芯片或系统产品就会跟着受欢迎。
让 微信几乎在中国无所不在──近6亿使用者──的原因之一，是它在今年农历春节推出了一个“新年红包”的应用程序。中国在农历春节有发红包的传统，微信就让用户能上传装着数字现金的虚拟红包，这种策略成功让微信用户的亲友也跟着加入微信，因为只要按钮就能随机抽到不同金额的数字现金。
微信的新年红包应用程序
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在 今年长达九天的中国农历新年假期中，就有超过800位新用户加入微信，而且有大约400个数字红包被发送出去。这个微信的新年红包活动有点类似彩券，有些 人得到的奖金不到1美元，有些人则拿到20美元以上；不过我的一位中国朋友说，金额大小没什么关系：“主要是好玩，每个人抢红包的动作要很快。”
本文下一页：舆论指责中国互联网公司模仿西方业者，但是…
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微 信还能帮忙用户叫出租车；只要轻触屏幕上的功能按键，就能在手机上看到附近有多少出租车经过，以及有多少台可以响应叫车需求。当出租车有响应，用户能透过 微信发出一个叫车消息，也不用告诉司机该怎么走，因为乘客所在位置已透过GPS显示；在等车期间，用户也能从手机上看到出租车还有多远。
微信的叫出租车服务
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而 除了方便，有些中国朋友喜欢微信的原因是它的“私密性”──不同于多数社交网络的设计是用户“一对多”的消息传播，微信能让用户保有更多私密性，只将消息 传给一小群特定朋友；在一对一的通讯之外，微信也支持消息群发，用户能建立自己的群组，那些只是朋友的朋友、不是真正朋友的人，无法看到使用者在群组中的留言。
微信的功能还包括“永远保持上线，不注销”，因此用户不用担心会漏掉消息；用户不必一直不定期开启PC或是智能手机检查应用程序，也不必像用Facebook那样，花几个小时在个人消息涂鸦墙上一则一则看那些其实很多来自陌生人或无用的消息。
此外现在中国还有2亿人口将自己的银行 卡与微信绑定，根据一篇来自Quartz.com的报导引述Nomura International分析师Chao Wang的研究，微信现在是最会从用户身上赚钱的实时通讯服务；不同于WhatsApp主要营收来源是用户免费使用一年之后需缴交1美元年费，微信则是藉 由销售游戏以及整合在线支付功能，鼓励用户透过该应用程序在线购物。
舆论很容易指责中国互联网公司模仿西方业者如 Google、Facebook与Twitter的创意，然后又刻意限制竞争对手在中国市场的活动；这些指责有一些是真实的，但许多中国产业高层指出，中国网络服务业者的创新速度更快、更有新意，因为他们深知什么是最好的，也能根据本地市场需求调整服务；微信的新年红包就是一个最佳例证。
在此同时，中国科技业者──包括芯片与系统供货商──也决心将自己定位在这个食物链的更上层，好更接近中国的网络业者。
举 例来说，放眼全球的中国应用程序处理器大厂全志(Allwinner)，在去年第三季搭上了中国OTT (over-the-top)在线视频市场热潮；中国OTT在线视频市场是因为阿里巴巴开发了视频应用程序、推广OTT机顶盒，并推出免费的互联网随选 视频而蓬勃发展，全志的双核心应用处理器就成功进驻了阿里巴巴的机顶盒以及热销的“小米盒子”。
此外联发科(MediaTek)为了推广其近距离无线通信技术Hotknot，也优先考虑将支持Hotknot的手机在中国市场普及；该公司的计划就是让阿里巴巴或腾讯的在线商务服务，能在支持Hotknot的手机上使用。
本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载
编译：Judith Cheng
参考英文原文：Yoshida in China: Why 'WeChat'，by Junko Yoshida
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• 如能搞定制约因素，移动支付“钱景”可期5Qqesmc
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Yoshida in China: Why 'WeChat'
Junko Yoshida, Chief International Correspondent
SHENZHEN, China — Sometimes, the significance of an event happening outside your own personal universe doesn't really hit you 'til you travel, hear what locals are saying, and encounter it firsthand.
WeChat in China is a good example.
I bring up WeChat here, not because I think China's WeChat is so much more wonderful than WhatsApp, which was recently acquired by Facebook for $19 billion. WeChat tickled my fancy because, due to its astonishingly quick rise, it is a microcosm of China. People here, and Internet companies, jump on a social phenomenon en masse, as soon as they sense it's starting to catch fire.
A year ago, Sina Weibo, China's micro-blogging site, was all the rage in China. This year, every friend I have in China and the people I'm meeting for interviews are on WeChat. It's palpable (and almost scary) how quickly Weibo seems to be cooling off.
During our meeting a year ago, Ni Fei, CEO of Nubia, ZTE's sub-brand for high-end smartphones, was all about the million followers he has in Weibo.
The Nubia CEO, committed to selling its smartphones through the Internet, needed to be highly visible on Weibo. In our interview this week, when Ni was asked about his micro-blogging on Weibo, he laughed dismissively: "Nobody goes to Weibo these days."
Ni explained that WeChat is all about communications and relationships among friends and family. People like it. Asked if there is room to promote Nubia on WeChat, he said, "We haven't really figured it out. People seem to like having no advertising or commercial things on WeChat."
Owned by China's Internet company Tencent, WeChat, whose services only began on Oct. 17, 2012, offers free texting, voice messaging, and video calls. Essentially, it's SMS on steroids -- combined with services similar to Skype calls. It functions as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Foursquare, and Instagram all melded into one. Plus, it's tied to users' credit cards. WeChat lets you shop, game, and even bank.
I've been in China for only four days. But in every interview so far, the executives at startups and established chips/system companies in China inevitably mention Alibaba or Tencent.
The technology companies here seem to believe their highest priority is to get China's dynamic Internet players -- chiefly, Alibaba and Tencent -- on their side, talking them into pairing new services with their new technologies. As the services get popular, so will their chips and boxes, they think.
Red envelopes
What pushed WeChat into near-ubiquity -- close to 600 million users -- is the creation of a "red envelope" app on WeChat for this year's spring festival in China.
Red Envelope app on WeChat.
Taking advantage of the tradition in China of handing out red envelopes, containing cash gifts, for the Lunar New year, WeChat invited users to upload virtual red envelopes full of digital cash. This tactic neatly inveigled friends and family members to join WeChat, where they could then hit a button and receive a randomly selected amount of digital cash.
Within nine days of the spring festival, more than 8 million people joined WeChat and some 4 million red envelops were distributed -- digitally.
The lottery-style gimmick in WeChat's red envelope promotion meant that some family members got less than a dollar, while others got $20 or much more. The amount, however, didn't really matter, according to my Chinese friends. "It was fun, and everyone had to act quickly" in order to get his or her share of the cash from a red envelope.
Hail a cab
WeChat also eases the chore of hailing cabs. Hit the cab button on WeChat, and you see on your mobile screen how many taxis are driving around nearby, and how many are receiving your request. When one responds, you seal the deal on WeChat. The driver needs no directions, because you're both on GPS. While waiting, you follow the taxi's approach on your handset.
Hail a Cab app. (Source: EE Times/Junko Yoshida)
Compare this to hailing a taxi at midnight in Manhattan, and you can really appreciate WeChat.
Besides its convenience, some of my Chinese friends like WeChat because it's "intimate."
Intimate and relevant
Unlike most social networks designed for one-to-many broadcast, WeChat is ideal for more intimate and relevant messages to a specific circle of friends. Beyond one-on-one contacts, WeChat offers group messaging. You make your own groups. Those who are simply friends of your friend, but not your own friends, cannot see comments you post to your group.
WeChat's features also include "always on, no logouts." That means you never have to miss a message. No need to occasionally open up this or that app on your PC or smartphone to check on favorite social networks. No need to spend hours scrolling through the inevitable drivel posted on your Facebook wall by strangers and weirdos.
Today, 200 million bank-card users are tied to WeChat.
A story on Quartz.com reported:
In terms of making money from its users, WeChat comes out on top, according to Chao Wang, an analyst with Nomura International in Hong Kong. In contrast to WhatsApp -- whose main revenue source is an annual subscription fee of $1 after one free year of use -- WeChat makes money by selling games and integrating online payment functions that encourage shopping through the app.
It's easy to criticize China's Internet companies for piggybacking on innovations by Western companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter, while limiting their Western rivals' services and activities in China. There's some truth to this complaint, but many local executives point out that the speed of innovation by Chinese Internet service companies is lightning fast and exceptionally creative because they know the territory best and they tailor their offerings to the local market. The red envelope app is a great example.
Meanwhile, China's technology companies -- suppliers of chips and boxes -- are also determined to position themselves further up the food chain, much closer to China's Internet companies.
For example, Allwinner, China's leading apps processor supplier for the global tablet market, caught the explosive growth of China's over-the-top (OTT) market in the third quarter of 2013.
China's OTT market flourished when Alibaba developed video apps, promoted OTT boxes, and rolled out free video-on-demand services to consumers via the Internet. Allwinner's dual-core apps processor drives both Alibaba's boxes and Xiaomi's boxes.
In its strategy to promote Hotknot, the company's proprietary proximity technology, MediaTek sees its priority as spreading Hotknot-enabled handsets as far and wide as possible in the Chinese market. The grand plan? MediaTek wants to enable Alibaba and/or Tencent to conduct their e-commerce through Hotknot-enabled handsets.
责编：Quentin
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