In 2011, Tencent Holdings Limited, one of the world’s largest technology and investment corporations, developed a multi-purpose app which they originally named Weixin, until its rebranding into WeChat in 2012 to become international. From messaging, social media, and mobile payment, this app has a variety of functions and options for the user to interact with and utilize in their busy everyday. Chan describes it well as she lists the plethora of opportunities the app provides to “hail a taxi, order food delivery, buy movie tickets, play casual games, check in for a flight, send money to friends, access fitness tracker data, book a doctor appointment, get banking statements, pay the water bill, find geo-targeted coupons, recognize music, search for a book at the local library, meet strangers around you, follow celebrity news, read magazine articles, and even donate to charity … all in a single, integrated app.” (Chan 2015) Most popularly, however, is its social feature, allowing the collectivist country of China to have a uniform app where they can all communicate and connect on a parallel level. WeChat had 1.083 billion monthly active users this past September, which is “one in every seven people on the planet”, Culpan reports (2018). With the addition of 100 million new users just in the past year (Culpan 2018), the app has made a substantial impression on the country as a whole and only continues to grow. It assists users with virtually any tasks in our busy world, and removes the complexities of using multiple digital media by converting it into a singular space. However, WeChat is now so deeply ingrained into the daily life of Chinese people that how they interact or go about performing certain cultural customs will largely be altered by how the app is organized. There are various benefits one could discuss about this remarkable app in its aim to simplify daily life, but I want to research what is at risk when one’s social and political relations, and their cultural beliefs and values, are developed from the influence of one outlet. In other words, what happens when a crucial part of how China perceives and understands their world is being dominated by one company, one worldview, and one perspective? The use of one social network app for a wide range of functions and platforms is dangerous because of corporate control and influence, a large potential for errors, and a lack of stimulation for the economy. My cousin Quentin Gigon has lived in China for two years now as a student and a young worker, and is very familiar with the operations of WeChat; I will be using his insider experiences and testimony as a member of the community integrated with the app, along with outside scholarly research, as evidence to support my claims.
Corporate bias and influence is a very important factor to consider when one company owns a large digital medium and therefore, owns power. Censorship by the Chinese government is an on-going controversy known internationally, as they continue to silence specific digital content which they deem inappropriate or disrespectful to avoid potential undermining of their authority. (King, Pan, & Roberts, 2013) Keyword filtering, blocking messages, and the limitations of website access are all forms of censorship present in WeChat, put into place by Tencent and monitored by the government, clearly exposing the political party’s intention. With this being the dominant communicative media in the society, Tencent holds great control over the country’s population and it is evident that their restrictions and allowances on the app inhibits the interactivity of the Chinese. A few of these constraints include sending politically sensitive messages or images, topics of discussion critical of the government, changing your username to certain terms, and sending a certain amount of money at specific times of the year. (Huang 2017) Yes, as WeChat operates from China under Chinese law, they must abide by the strong censorship measures and message interception policies. Yet, as any circulation of rumours, information, and other content that disrupts the social order can result in up to seven years in jail (Huang 2017), Tencent has a great deal of power in determining what should be categorized as “disruptive” and what is not. The corporate influence of governing the way citizens communicate is dangerous in limiting the exchange of ideas and even in terms of privacy. Holmes, Balnaves, and Wang explores the WeChat activity during the 2014 Chinese Lunar New Year festival; even how users talk about and interact in regards to this momentous event is controlled by the language restrictions on the app, and simply the vocabulary we use to discuss any topic can alter our own perception of it. All media in China is censored, but with the amount of users active on this app, Tencent has the opportunity to sway a conversation in favour of a particular bias or political agenda, and shape an entire population. In addition to the control on language, another feature on WeChat, called Heat Maps, monitors where and when crowds are forming by showing population density based on the user’s location. It is being used by the Chinese government to track irregular assemblies of people to measure foot traffic in a particular location. “If Chongqing residents, for example, flooded the Jiefangbei shopping area to form a demonstration, then Tencent or the government could issue a message through WeChat telling users to avoid it”, Horwitz writes (2015), “or, if police or other security forces noticed an unusual uptake in foot traffic in a quiet part of town, they’d have an indicator that something could be awry”, illustrating the surveillance applications of this location-tracking function. Given that about two-thirds of all smartphone owners in China have WeChat (Horwitz 2015), Heat Maps would be quite accurate and can keep a watchful eye on the Chinese like never before. After talking more about it with my cousin, he described the app as being the “result of government policy bans on other services and digital media such as WhatsApp”. The authoritarian country can strictly monitor Tencent’s activity via individuals from their party sitting on advisory boards to ensure all actions stay within party guidelines. Therefore, the intense integration of one app into the lives of the large Chinese population is dangerous because of corporate control and influence, and only strengthens the tight reins the government has on political relations, cultural beliefs, and citizen’s overall identities.
Besides the social media aspect of WeChat, the mobile payment feature is becoming increasingly popular amongst its users and may even be starting to make physical cards and currency obsolete. Cheng (2017) looks at the rapid growth of this monopoly of payment, even stating that “cash is already pretty much dead in China” as “mobile payment volume in the country more than doubled to $5 trillion in 2016”. However, if 800 million users use WeChat as a substitute for cash (Smith 2018), there is a large potential for problems if the app were to crash. There have already been multiple reports of Android users receiving an error message stating “unfortunately, WeChat has stopped”, meaning that the app has failed and the reason is unknown for many. (Hisona 2018) With so many individuals now reliant on this app for assistance with multiple activities in everyday life, any issues with its functioning will result in frustration and an inability to go about life as they normally would. My cousin has personally experienced this sort of dependence as, although he enjoys the ability of not having to switch between loads of apps to perform various tasks like we currently do in the Western world, he would struggle with paying for items, arranging a taxi, or ordering food without WeChat. It is a known human trait that we do not like change and as Copeland (n.d.) explains, “it is a heavier cognitive load to learn something new and explore new environments, because it requires the brain to make new neural connections”, proving the difficulty in breaking rigid habits. Aside from mobile payment, WeChat also offers Mini Programs, where small or large business owners can create mini apps in the WeChat system and can be installed by users inside the WeChat app. As of recently, one million mini programs have been developed and are now running, which is half the size of Apple’s App Store; this huge resource and information database is being held within this one app. Life services and e-commerces make up the second largest percent of mini program structures (Liao 2018), increasing the emphasis on individuals who depend on WeChat’s smooth operations to tackle all of life’s obstacles, but now also on business owners who’s livelihoods or success are contingent. Ultimately, WeChat is just another form of technology and, although it could be well developed and maintained, it is not immune to possible problems. Therefore, the use of one social network app for a wide range of functions and platforms is foolish because it make users much more vulnerable to disappointment and how we perceive and understand the world could be suddenly changed as technology can easily become faulty.
Small businesses make up 97.9% of all firms in Canada (Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, 2016), and are an important element of the economy as they stimulate the market and provide creativity and innovation. However, large organization and favoured products, such as WeChat, often steal the spotlight and, in turn, business away from smaller firms. WeChat’s multi-purpose aspect means that there are a plethora of options to interact and entertain oneself with on this app, and combines many media platforms into one. Enterprise WeChat is a feature of the app for business purposes, allowing organizations to communicate with their employees through the the usual chat function, and also track schedules, hours worked, and days-off. There are many downloadable software which have similar objectives, yet will not receive as much notice because of the large audience WeChat holds. Similarly, this app has a news search property which acts as a direct competitor to other search engines, such as the Chinese Baidu and Alibaba (Atluri, Dietz, & Henke, 2017), and has also significantly impacted the success of China’s mobile service providers (Wu & Wan, 2014). Therefore, the public’s favourable response in choosing to use this platform for its numerous purposes removes attention from multiple other organizations who strive to do one of the many functions the app can perform. Furthermore, my cousin voiced his concerns of the price control Tencent has, since they are essentially a monopoly and lack competition in their industry. This is unfortunate, not only because smaller (possibly more innovative) organizations are not getting an opportunity to thrive, but small businesses also play a large role in job creation. “Between 2005 and 2015, 1.2 million jobs was 87.7% attributable to small businesses. Medium-sized and large businesses, which account for 1.8% and 0.3% of all firms, respectively, created just 7.7% and 4.6% of net new jobs over the same period” (Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, 2016), proving the significant requirement of less prominent businesses for decreasing unemployment rates. Therefore, condensing multiple ventures into a single app takes prosperity away from other businesses, and therefore decreases the jobs available. It can also hinder the Chinese’s understanding of the world as the app operates from the ideas of one company; other organizations who may not get exposure, may exercise in a drastically different way which could reveal new perspectives and ways of thinking. Once again, it is evident that WeChat’s operations and the way they organize their various functions could inhibit the worldview of the Chinese.
In conclusion, WeChat is currently shaping the identities of the Chinese in a very significant way. Their social and political relations, and cultural beliefs and values, are very much influenced by the digital media around them, and this multi-purpose app is dominating across various industries, providing Tencent with an abundance of power. However, there are various issues with having the means to how they perceive and understand the world being controlled by one company, one worldview, and one perspective. There is a large probability for societal disorientation if the app crashes, as there is a heavy reliance and dependence on the app functioning smoothly to navigate daily life. Secondly, its various functions take business away from other, smaller organization, and this reduces competition and stimulation for the economy and job market. Cats are similar in anatomy to the other felids, with a strong flexible body, quick reflexes, sharp teeth and retractable claws adapted to killing small prey.
Finally, Tencent’s massive influence on the population is worrisome because they could cause biases to come through in their media. Permitting one company to control an extensive amount of media has its consequences as they have access to influence a large audience. Due to the country’s heavy support and favouritism, WeChat can easily alter people’s opinions, views, and discourse used within their personal lives and external environments. The social and cultural implications which the app holds on shaping its community and individual perspectives is why the use of one social network app for a wide range of functions and platforms is dangerous.