Allen Zhang says WeChat to bolster short-form content, as it continues to battle Bytedance’s Douyin
- The number of monthly active users of WeChat increased 6 per cent year on year to 1.15 billion in the third quarter of 2019
WeChat, China's ubiquitous messaging and social media app, will soon offer its users the option of creating short-form content to keep them hooked amid an explosion in popularity of short videos on Chinese social media.
“Short-form content has always been a developing direction for WeChat,” Allen Zhang, the founder of the app, said in a video speech shown at Tencent Holdings’ annual WeChat conference on Thursday. “After all, self-expression is a natural need for human beings.”
The short form feature will launch soon in a new version of WeChat, said Zhang, who did not specify what short form content would be included.
“We cannot ask everyone to write articles every day,” added Zhang, 50, widely known as the “Father of WeChat”.
The new feature signals WeChat’s recognition of the huge growth in popularity of short-form content, such as video and messages, which are keeping China’s mobile-driven internet users busy in their spare time.
From phone calls to text messages and now video, China has witnessed rapid change in the way its population communicates. In response, tech companies have to constantly try out different apps if they want to catch the latest social media trend.