new functions have been launched. wechat has been very active this year. what signal does this send?
2024-09-01
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chao news client reporter lu jia
recently, many netizens have found that wechat is becoming more and more comprehensive, with new features such as "wechat encyclopedia" and "search discovery". storage space optimization, a new "listen" entry for wechat, wechat files can be withdrawn within 3 hours, and taobao gradually opens wechat payment. since the beginning of this year, wechat's every move has become a hot topic.
among them, the most eye-catching is that wechat's video account has become tencent's entry point for short video and live e-commerce. in the second quarter earnings call, tencent president martin lau revealed that tencent has adjusted its positioning of live e-commerce to make it more like wechat e-commerce.
from the outside, the ecosystem that tencent wants to build is not only based on video accounts and live broadcast channels, but also to establish an e-commerce ecosystem within wechat and connect it with the entire wechat ecosystem.
new search related features are launched
wechat fills in search results
the new feature recently launched on wechat quickly received comments from netizens, saying, "this feature is quite practical."
for example, the "wechat encyclopedia" function, when searching for "west lake" in wechat search, the encyclopedia content of "west lake" will appear in the search results. wechat has also added a new "encyclopedia" channel in the category channel of search results. in this channel, all encyclopedia content related to the search keyword is presented.
wechat encyclopedia has also launched an independent web version, which supports mobile phones and computers. like other search engines, search records will be displayed at the bottom. at the bottom of the page, it is marked "content comes from sogou encyclopedia".
the "search discovery" function is to click "discover" - "search" in wechat, and you can see the "search discovery" function below the search box, which displays the most relevant and popular content in the form of topics. click to jump to the official account or video account to view related content. the default topic in "search discovery" is intelligently displayed by wechat based on the user's search history, interest preferences, etc., and it will be automatically pushed when there is an update to the topic.
in addition, "search discovery" also provides personalized customization services, allowing users to set personalized tags according to their personal preferences and needs.
it is understood that wechat first launched the "search" function that supports finding chats in 2014. later, the "search" function gradually supported public account articles, moments, city services, and mini-programs. in january 2019, wechat officially launched "wechat search".
regarding the positioning of souyiso, the wechat team once said that wechat is not a purely independent search engine, but as a part of the wechat ecosystem, it allows better and more appropriate content and services to create more accurate connections with users. therefore, the search results provided by wechat souyiso are based on the content of the wechat ecosystem, mainly including three types of information, services, and brands. the wechat encyclopedia launched this time is also an important addition to wechat's search content.
at the 2023 wechat open class, the wechat team disclosed that in 2022, the monthly active users of wechat search reached 800 million, and the search volume increased by 54% year-on-year. among them, the search demand for travel and real estate increased by more than 200%, the search demand for news, medical, food, government affairs, and automobiles increased by more than 100%, and the search demand for content information and education increased by more than 40%.
industry insiders analyzed that platforms such as douyin and xiaohongshu initially distributed information through recommendation engines to accumulate users, and then introduced search engines to enrich and improve the content distribution method. search is a basic form of information distribution, but recommendation engines are information looking for people, while search engines are people looking for information. for content platforms, recommendation engines can stimulate search interest, and content ecology will help improve search content.
taobao opens wechat payment
wechat builds e-commerce ecosystem
recently, some users have discovered that the taobao special edition app has quietly added a wechat payment column in the payment method. after adding the desired products to the shopping cart in the taobao special edition app, "alipay payment" will appear first when checking out, but you only need to click "change" to see the newly added wechat payment and ask friends to help pay. after selecting wechat payment, you don't need to copy the link, just click it to jump to the payment operation.
in fact, as early as 2021, alibaba's taote, xianyu, hema and other apps have applied for access to wechat pay and are waiting for wechat's review. in the past two years, a small number of users have shared their experience of choosing wechat pay after placing an order on taobao on social platforms. in february this year, "taobao orders can be paid directly with wechat" became a hot search. however, the above are basically small-scale internal tests, only open to some users, and only support the purchase of some products.
in the industry's view, this move is of great symbolic significance, meaning that the previously closed system between giants is gradually opening up to payment channels of other institutions, and it is only a matter of time before the payment interconnection among the major giants.
in addition, wechat is also building its own e-commerce ecosystem, and video accounts are accelerating the "sales of goods".
the latest second quarter financial report shows that the combined monthly active accounts of wechat and wechat have further increased to 1.371 billion. wechat has connected a large number of creators, developers and physical merchants through various innovative products, achieving prosperity in both content ecology and business ecology. the creator ecology of wechat video account has become more active. at the same time, wechat encourages creators to realize commercialization and continuously improves the product and technical service capabilities related to bringing goods. these have also driven the continued significant growth in the usage time of video account users.
regarding the e-commerce development strategy of video account, at tencent's 2024 second quarter earnings conference call held on the evening of august 14, tencent president martin lau said that tencent wants to build an ecosystem in a more patient and systematic way, not only based on video account live broadcast, but also linked to various components of the wechat ecosystem, including official accounts, mini-programs, corporate wechat, etc., including all social activities taking place within wechat. in this way, it will be distinguished from simple live e-commerce and more valuable to both merchants and users.
since the beginning of this year, video account has made frequent moves in e-commerce. in may this year, the video account live e-commerce team was merged into the wechat open platform team. on august 12, tencent issued the "announcement on the upgrade of video account stores to wechat stores", planning to officially upgrade video account stores to wechat stores from august 25. wechat stores will simplify the merchant entry process, upgrade brand certification and store naming systems, and reduce the entry threshold and deposit to reduce the burden on merchants.
during the conference call, liu chih-ping still had expectations. compared with its competitors, the e-commerce gmv of video account was very small and there was still a lot of room for growth.
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