Goodbye WeChat! My WeChat chat history is not worth 180 yuan

Saving and migrating WeChat chat history has always been a pain point for both users and WeChat. Now this pain point seems to have a solution.

It is reported that WeChat plans to launch a paid cloud storage service for chat records, which will enable cloud backup and recovery of WeChat chat records after payment.

1. 11% of users are willing to pay

A leaked information shows that the WeChat chat history cloud storage service may adopt an annual payment model, with Apple users paying around 180 yuan/year and Android users paying around 130 yuan/year.

A poll on Weibo regarding this incident showed that 38,000 out of 137,000 people said that cloud storage of WeChat chat history is necessary. Based on this calculation, the proportion of potential paying users of this service is 28%.

In another poll on willingness to pay, 11% of users said they were willing to pay.

Tencent's revenue in the second quarter of 2021 was 138.3 billion yuan, with a net profit of 42.6 billion yuan. WeChat and WeChat have 1.25 billion monthly active users. It is obvious that charging for chat record cloud storage services is an invisible gold mine.

2. My chat history is not worth 180

Of course, any small step taken by WeChat will cause heated discussions. After the news came out, many netizens "argued" about the topic and made it a hot search.

Netizens who support payment believe that the cost of migrating WeChat chat records is too high and there is a risk of losing data during the migration process. Some netizens said that in order to preserve chat records, their main mobile phones have not been replaced for a long time, so cloud storage services are particularly important.

However, it can be seen from the voting ratio that a considerable number of users are not satisfied with this service.

Some netizens said that their WeChat accounts are full of emoticon packs, picture battles, and spam messages from group chats, with occasional important information mixed in, which they also record and process separately. There is really no need to pay to save these chats.

It can be seen that for some users, cloud storage of WeChat chat records is an unavoidable need.

For most users, WeChat chat records represent a kind of commemorative significance. Their existence is important, but paying for them is another matter.

Some users said that my chat records are not worth 180 yuan a year, which points to the rationality of the pricing.

3. Whether chat records are uploaded to the cloud is related to security

The most radical social product for cloud storage of chat records is the wealthy Telegram. Almost all files transferred by users can be synchronized in Telegram, and some users directly use it as a network disk.

Previously, WeChat did not launch cloud synchronization due to privacy and security reasons. WeChat was worried that once the account was lost, all the user's chats would be exposed.

This concern is not without reason. Telegram's user base is relatively young and has a certain ability to manage risks.

Telegram also provides many protection measures, such as the self-destructing function, and if the user does not log in to Telegram for a period of time, the account will be automatically logged out. Therefore, users do not rely on Telegram to store and disseminate the most important and sensitive information.

WeChat users vary greatly in age, and many users have no awareness of information protection. However, as an online life platform for people, WeChat retains almost everyone’s bank card number, ID number and other information.

Through the paid model, storing chat records in the cloud actually selects a group of users who have both "urgent needs" and risk management capabilities. This is also in line with WeChat's consistent style of not disturbing users.

4. Payment is becoming a bottom-up demand on the Internet

If WeChat really launches a paid cloud storage service for chat records, it may represent more significance. This will be WeChat's first project that charges users, and it may also mean that the opportunity for WeChat to provide value-added services to the C-end is ripe.

Given the size of WeChat, any new feature is unlikely to win the approval of all users, and there is no feature that can balance the interests of all users while ensuring security to the greatest extent possible. While WeChat has become a digital life platform for the entire society, it has also shouldered the burden of history.

Today, it is almost hard to imagine that in the most developed mobile Internet market, a social product with 1.25 billion monthly active users does not have a cloud storage synchronization function. While WeChat serves the vast majority of people, it also sacrifices more possibilities.

This means that from the user's perspective, if you want WeChat to be more useful, you can't just rely on WeChat. Paying for "customized" functions may be a solution. Rather than seeing this as a strategic operation for WeChat's commercialization, it is better to see it as a bottom-up demand.

Therefore, my WeChat chat history may not be worth 180 yuan/130 yuan, but a better-used WeChat is worth it.