Archives: November 2015

South Africa Launches the WeChat Wallet, Your Mobile Payment Solution

November 25, 2015NewsSouth Africa, WeChat Pay, WeChat WalletWeChat

WeChat has extended its features in South Africa with the introduction of the WeChat Wallet, a digital wallet service. Like a physical wallet, you can securely store your bank cards and make instant cash payments within WeChat with the new feature.

With WeChat Wallet, users can electronically send cash to friends and family, just like handing cash to a friend to get you lunch or pay for coffee or a drinks at the bar. You can now use up to three chip and PIN debit or credit cards in the WeChat Wallet. Transactions through the cards are verified by Visa and MasterCard security systems, can be saved in the WeChat Wallet.

Cards linked to the wallet can also be used to Cash In and increase your wallet’s cash balance, pay for services on WeChat such as airtime, data, electricity, food or pay SnapScan merchants. People can Cash In and Cash Out at Standard Bank ATMs, participating retailers, including SPAR, SPAR Tops and Cambridge Food Stores.

In addition, cash can be sent to friends via WeChat – even without the need for a bank account. When registering for the WeChat Wallet, users automatically become Standard Bank Instant Money users, which allows those without bank accounts to enjoy the benefits of the platform. Instant Money vouchers make up the cash balance, which can be topped up via Standard Bank self-service channels.

People can also Cash In and Cash Out via Instant Money Vouchers at Standard Bank ATMs and participating retailers, including SPAR, Cambridge, Rhino and Choppies Stores.

Western Union Offers New Global Money Transfer Service on WeChat

November 19, 2015Inside WeChat, NewsO2O, Official Accounts, USAWeChat

WeChat has partnered with Western Union, a leader in global payment services, to offer WeChat users in the United States the ability to send and receive money cross-border to 200 countries and territories via the company’s WU Connect platform.

The partnership marks WeChat as the first social communication application to provide a technology platform to support person-to-person cross-border money transfer capabilities to more than 200 countries and territories. The capability is now available to WeChat users in the United States, with planned rollouts to additional countries in the future.

Get in the Game with A.S. Roma on WeChat

November 17, 2015Inside WeChatItaly, Official Accounts, South AfricaWeChat

Soccer season is heating up and we know you’re sitting at the edge of your seats. So we’ve partnered with A.S. Roma to create an Official Account that keeps you up to date on the latest from the club.

By following either the English/Italian or Chinese Official Account, you’ll be able to receive daily club news, watch exclusive videos, share photos, and listen to Roma Radio. The highlight of the Official Account is a new fan prediction game.

Prediction Game

Before each A.S. Roma game, fans are able to predict the outcome of 15 individual events. They are then awarded between 100-1,000 points for each correct prediction with the highest point earners making it to the top of the leaderboard. The 15 predictions, which range from guessing the half-time score to how many penalties may occur in a game, are split between pre-game, in-game and at half-time.

We Chat About WeChat #3: An Inside Look at How and Why We Build WeChat

November 6, 2015Inside WeChatProduct Development, We Chat About WeChat, WeChat LifestyleWeChat

If you’ve ever wondered why your favorite WeChat features were created and others were purposefully left out, this is the podcast for you.

WeChat product managers, Stephen Wang and Dan Grover, both entrepreneurs by heart, discuss the values and philosophies the team use to makes product decisions every day and have led to WeChat’s 600 million monthly active users worldwide.

Hear how the founding product leaders took risks, betting on the rise of smartphone adoption even before iPhones made it to the China market. Wang and Grover also reveal key challenges and learnings the team has gathered over the years in an effort to reduce people’s stress through the platform. Listen to all this and more below.

If you or someone you know wants to join our team, building the WeChat Lifestyle for millions, we are hiring talented product managers. Click here to apply now: http://www.wechat.com/en/careers.html

New Data Revealed – What Does it Mean to Live the WeChat Lifestyle?

November 3, 2015NewsWeChat LifestyleWeChat

Curious who the average WeChat user is and what their day looks like? We recently revealed new data giving an inside look at what the WeChat Lifestyle means for our users around the world.

An average of 570 million users log in to WeChat each day (September 2015). Additionally WeChat’s daily active users (users who interact with another account) has grown by 64 percent in a single year. Whether it be to purchase goods, track exercise activity, catch up on news or stay connected to friends, users are utilizing WeChat for so much more than just messaging.

WeChat users are not only young, but also social, with 60 percent of users between the ages of 15-29 years old and having an average of 128 friends in the app.

A Day in the Life of a Typical User

With the sophisticated features launched on Weixin, WeChat’s sister product in China, a typical day for a user looks like this.

During their day, they use key features of WeChat and Weixin to make their lives easier:

WeChat Blog: Chatterbox

The Official WeChat Blog