WeChat 5.4: Tencent’s ambitions are clear

On August 14, WeChat iOS version 5.4 was officially released. After the upgrade, WeChat added new features including a new search function, automatic QR code recognition, money transfer to others, face-to-face payment, etc., and will also be adapted to the iPad interface.

The opening of the search function has made WeChat a mobile portal

In fact, there have been long-standing calls for WeChat to provide and open a search function. However, Tencent seems to have been slow to respond in this regard, and has only provided WeChat users with extremely limited functions such as simple searches for WeChat friends. Other users, various accounts, articles, information, etc. on the entire WeChat platform cannot be searched.

In other words, Tencent has always adopted a closed strategy for information content on the WeChat platform.

However, this time WeChat version 5.4 has finally made significant changes to the search function. Not only does it place a very obvious search box at the top of the WeChat default interface like a traditional search engine, but the search results also cover a wide range of search results. In addition to retaining the search for friends and contacts, it also includes various chat records between WeChat users and friends and in WeChat groups, as well as favorite content, related public accounts, related articles, etc., basically covering all the content currently included in the WeChat platform for ordinary text searches.

The search categories are sorted as follows: 1. Contacts; 2. Chat records with friends or friends; 3. Related content you have collected; 4. Related public accounts; 5. Various related articles. In each category, the sorting is based on the principle of reverse chronological order, that is, the content closer to the current one is at the top.

At the same time, the new version of WeChat search supports full-text search. However, in terms of sorting, in addition to the reverse chronological principle mentioned above, the title (including names of friends, groups, public accounts, etc.) should have a higher weight.

It can be speculated that WeChat’s search function will be further upgraded in the future, including image search, product search (which is crucial to Tencent’s WeChat mobile e-commerce platform strategy!), etc.

Tencent's opening of the search function is crucial for WeChat, and has at least the following three major significances:

First, this is a sign that WeChat has been upgraded from a pure mobile communication social product to a mobile portal and mobile information platform. Obviously, this has important symbolic significance for the title of "the first ticket to the mobile Internet era".

Second, it adds more room for imagination for the expansion of WeChat’s future business model. WeChat started as a mobile communication and social platform, expanded to a mobile e-commerce platform, and later became a mobile media information platform. The emergence of the search function has given wings to the integration of these three and the emergence of more new business models!

Third, the opening of the search function has made WeChat a mobile media information platform. This means that the tens of millions of pieces of content published by millions of public accounts every day will have the opportunity to be seen by all of WeChat's more than 600 million users. This is not only a blow to traditional media, but also an impact on traditional network portals such as Sina, and will also cause competition for eyeballs for Sina Weibo and others.

Face-to-face payment makes WeChat Pay more powerful in challenging Alipay

In addition to the launch of the open search function, WeChat version 5.4 also has a major new feature, which is the launch and upgrade of face-to-face payment and transfer to friends. This new feature directly targets Alibaba's Alipay wallet. This is also the escalation of the war between Alipay and Tenpay in the mobile Internet third-party payment field after years of fighting in the PC Internet field.

In the PC Internet field, Alipay is the only dominant player and Tenpay has been suppressed for a long time. However, in the mobile Internet era, although Alipay Wallet has taken the lead with the residual power of the PC Internet era, WeChat Pay is fully capable of catching up with WeChat, the first mobile Internet product and platform.

As WeChat has a huge mobile phone user base, with the latest monthly active users reaching 438 million, the launch of face-to-face payment and transfer to friends functions similar to those of Alipay Wallet will inevitably greatly increase the number of WeChat Pay users and frequency of use.

In addition, these two functions will obviously help boost the WeChat e-commerce that WeChat has been promoting for the past year. In addition to opening a service account to conduct more formal WeChat e-commerce operations, using convenient functions such as transferring money to friends may allow some WeChat users who run online stores to better utilize the WeChat platform to conduct business.

As for the automatic recognition of QR codes and iPad adaptation interface, please read the relevant usage introduction.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.