For example, the complete lack of interaction with waiters in restaurants, other than the need to bring and remove plates, was a new experience, since ordering and payment took place via WeChat. Dive into the world of WeChat took some getting used to. WeChat has simplified my digital life by reducing it to almost a single app, from automatically opening a restaurant menu after the app has determined my geographic location, to offering all possible travel options from point A to point B on one screen. Getting to know WeChat as something more than just a messenger and social network helped me understand what true digital convenience can look like. In 2018, I had the opportunity to travel to China for the first time through my studies at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
WECHAT CHINA CODE
Paying in offline stores is just as easy – you can scan the QR code at the cashier or provide the barcode of your WeChat account to be scanned by the seller. These include (but are not limited to) food delivery, bike rental, train tickets, utility bills, medical certificates, car purchases, investments, charity, and thousands of mini-apps that extend WeChat’s capabilities to almost every service you can. By directly integrating all of this information into WeChat features, the app’s capabilities extend to just about every imaginable service. Since most companies and apps are based in China, big brands such as Airbnb, Lego, Yves Saint Laurent, Aldi, Air New Zealand and thousands of other foreign companies use these mini-programs to connect directly with their Chinese customers, eliminating the need for website, browsing the range or placing an order.Īnd the true power of WeChat lies in the Me tab inside the wallet, which combines the user’s bank accounts, ID cards, and, more recently, health information. The Discover section includes a social media feed, verified business and individual accounts, and thousands of mini-programs that act as apps on WeChat, ranging from bike rentals and online shopping to travel and package delivery. The rest of WeChat’s many features can be found in the Discover and Me sections. For users outside of China, WeChat can simply serve as a messenger to connect with friends living in China.
As I learned more about the language and delved deeper into local Chinese student life, WeChat became a portal to an alternate world where thousands of Chinese in Southern Indiana create their own social communities and interact economically exclusively through WeChat channels.Īt its core, WeChat is a messenger and social networking app, and it has the features of just about any app you currently have on your phone. The only non-Chinese who use it are usually those with some connection to China. Was it the same app?įor most non-Chinese students, WeChat is almost unfamiliar. I already knew that WeChat is the cornerstone of Chinese online life-perhaps the most powerful app in the world. Even the basic navigation was illogical and confusing. The pictures in the news feed were of poor quality for reasons I didn’t understand. The design seemed outdated, the hue of the overflowing green disgusting. When I first opened WeChat, I was amazed at how chaotic it all looked. “For an app with over a billion users, WeChat doesn’t make a strong first impression. The Verge author Aaron Corbett, who recently graduated from Indiana University and now lives in Munich, shared his impressions of using the WeChat application, which is the basis of digital life in China – and, it turns out, not only in China.
0 kommentar(er)
