Warning: Touchy Topic
Weixin (pronounced “way-shin”) is another case study I reviewed in my graduate courses. For those who have never heard of Weixin (like me), they are a social media platform in China that has taken over. The idea behind the creators of Weixin’s platform was to be a “one-stop shopping” experience. It was all about bringing the traditionally social part of social media together with the functionality of other platforms to create a place users could do everything they need within one interface.
In three years from its inception, Weixin grew to more than 300 million users. When I first read this statistic I thought, “How in the world did they do that?” I’m not the only one to ponder that same question. The case study stated they “are more than a combination of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and eBay.” The study was right. They forgot Uber. Weixin contracted with 350,000 taxi drivers in 30+ cities in China to allow their users to book and pay for the taxi ride through their interface.
The idea of having a platform with that kind of multi-functioning power makes me wonder why there isn’t such an interface here in America. The case study stated that some of those 300 million users were in America, which led me to a platform called “WeChat”. The parent company of Weixin, Tencent, created WeChat as an overseas alterative to Weixin.
At first glance, it doesn’t seem like a big deal for Tencent to have two different applications until you look at other platforms. Facebook doesn’t have two platforms, one domestic and the other for overseas use. Sure, there are different interfaces due to language differences. What works for English speakers does not work the same for those with right-to-left reading languages like Arabic, however, they use different interfaces not completely different applications. What is the difference?
The more I look into the question, the more I realize the answer is censorship. How could a platform created to be an all-in-one solution with an easy-to-use user interface create censorship? The answer lies in algorithms.
Tencent created Weixin for China, not for the rest of the world. According to an article featured on Chozan [https://chozan.co/wechat-vs-weixin/], marketers seeking to target mainland China must register for a specific account through Weixin. Those wishing to target anywhere else in the world must register for an account through WeChat. Why the difference? What makes China so different from the rest of the world? Again, the answer lies in the algorithms.
The algorithms for mainland China require different filtering that sorts through the information and only displays what the algorithms are designed to allow. That can be a wonderful thing in some cases. Take pornography for example. Facebook has very strict algorithms that does not allow pornography on the platform. YouTube, on the other hand, allows pornography as long as it is blocked as adult only content. The algorithms are clearly different.
The same thing applies to Weixin and WeChat. Some messages are allowed in the rest of the world, but not in China. Why? Who is holding the reins on the information allowed?
Perhaps I’m right. Perhaps I’m wrong. The question is up to you do decide because no matter how much I tell you about such a sensitive subject, you will never truly know until you research it yourself. Discover for yourself if what I’m saying is true. Then look at the information you are presented here in America. Is the information you are presented actually true just because it was reported on the news, or does different stations present different conclusions on the same events? Something to think about.
