WeChat to strengthen China-Russia ties

Reporters from Chinese and Russian media outlets visit the headquarters of WeChat in Tianhe district, Guangzhou, Guangdong province, on Oct 28, 2016. [Photo by Zhu Xingxin/chinadaily.com.cn]

WeChat, the social media application developed by China's tech giant Tencent, has also clicked with expats.

Anna Nikulina, attaché at the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in Guangzhou told China Daily during a press tour to the headquarters of WeChat in Tianhe district, Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong province that the app impressed her very much by providing services such as taxi hailing or mobile payments in not only domestic scenarios but also overseas countries.

"I currently live in China, and thanks to WeChat's Quick Pay feature, I'm able to pay bills through my phone without using any cash in my wallet," said Nikulina. "Russians are only using WeChat mainly as a social application as only limited functions are available in the country at the moment."

She suggested that WeChat should collaborate more with Russian enterprises to further strengthen its services in the market.

The tour, marked as the teaser of the " China-Russia Internet Media Forum" that will be held in Tianhe district on Saturday, included visits to some of the leading internet and innovative companies in the district. More than twenty Russian press savvies and media entrepreneurs with their Chinese counterparts attended the tour.

Reporters from Chinese and Russian media outlets visit the headquarters of WeChat in Tianhe district, Guangzhou, Guangdong province, on Oct 28, 2016. [Photo by Zhu Xingxin/chinadaily.com.cn]

Andrey Kirillov, bureau chief of Russian News Agency - Tass' Beijing subsidiary, said that the visit to WeChat's headquarters is a new journey for him to explore China's development trends on high-tech industries. He suggested that more collaborations and communications in IT and media sectors should be undertaken by the two countries.

WeChat, launched in early 2011, is a short message service (SMS) application that enables users to communicate with each other by sharing texts, pictures, voices and videos on their smartphones.

In November 2013, the number of WeChat's registered users exceeded 600 million, the largest mobile user group in Asia.

As the most popular mobile social platform, WeChat is changing people's way of communication and lifestyle.

Statistics from the company show that, as of February , there are 700 million monthly active users on the platform, among whom 200 million users have linked WeChat with their credit cards for mobile payment.

The app started to step into overseas market in 2012. "It has unveiled a total of 21 languages versions and registered users are from more than 200 courtiers and regions", people familiar with the matter said in an interview.

Some of the world's leading social media apps, such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Line and KaKaoTalk, have also seen updated new features similar to WeChat.

With the assistance of Sputnik News Agency and Radio, the forum will be hosted by China Daily website under the guidance of the organizing committee of Sino-Russian Media Exchange Year and the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation.

The forum, whose theme is "development and cooperation between Chinese and Russian internet new media organizations", aims to enhance people-to-people exchanges between the two countries, create an information platform for the Belt and Road countries, enable relevant enterprises to hold dialogues and further promote development in the cultural, creative and information industries of the two nations.