WeChat was released in 2011 by Tencent Holdings Limited. The company responsible for the de-facto messaging program in China, QQ. WeChat is an app for mobile devices which allow the sending of voice short messages, video messages, picture messages and regular text messages via the internet protocol. It is mostly synonymous to the other giant messaging app, Whatsapp.
微信是腾讯公司于2011年初推出的一款通过网络快速发送语音短信、视频、图片和文字，支持多人群聊的手机聊天软件。类似于国外的whatsapp。
In this post, i'm going to discuss the vast improvements WeChat have made in the last 3 years contributing to their continued success. It goes without saying that updates and upgrades have been persistent and constant. Improvements have been made incrementally, and new features introduced gradually. Crucially, WeChat has sought to integrate life essentials directly into the app. Because WeChat identity is widespread, it's login to almost every e-commerce website has allowed it to integrate all these service platforms directly into the app. Their first and most important step was to integrate a payment system into their app. This allows for the wechat account holder to then pay for goods and services through their phone. Not only this, because WeChat is by far the most used messaging app in China, the payment integration means that users can now pay each other directly within the app. Of course, merchants can also accept payments from WeChat Pay and most of them do. This payment solution is essentially the Chinese Version of Paypal. To use it, you must verify your id and then bind a credit card to your WeChat account.
我想说微信这三年的进步是巨大的，不仅软件更新和升级的很速度，开发的功能也越来越多，让大家的生活越来越方便。微信通过联通了很多平台，并通过每个人的微信号进行认证，所以微信得到了各个平台信任。
微信的付款功能类似于国外的paypal，你必须认证你的ID，然后绑定你的银行卡，就可以马上用了。
For example, I bought these clothes from a WeChat merchant, directly on WeChat.
例如我的这件衣服就是从微信上的微店卖到的。
I also bought all these movie tickets directly through the WeChat Movies Web Portal. This is a feature that I am particularly fond of because the movie portal allows me to check what movies are available, their show-times, at every cinema located close to me. Not only that, it allows me to book the tickets and seats directly through the app. Never again will I turn up to the cinema not knowing the show-times and having to wait several hours for the next showing. This way I can arrange my time around watching a movie much better. Finally, there are always discounts available to people who book through WeChat Pay, an extra bonus!
还有这些电影票也都是我在微信的微票儿页面买到的，这个功能我很喜欢，因为可以让我今明两天的各大电影院的影讯和拍档时间，可以让我合理的安排自己的时间，就再也不会出现了到电影院才发现最近的电影还要再等2小时的情况。而去价格也比在电影院当场买的便宜一些。
Some hospitals have also partnered up with WeChat. You can now register to see a doctor directly through the WeChat app, making seeing the doctor a step more convenient. Infact, it's now developed to a point where I can see the availability of each doctor at the clinic, and make a booking or register to see a doctor through the app. Patients can make a registration through a variety of categories. Department，Date，Surname of Doctor. A patients national health card can also be binded to your WeChat account along with your real name. An individuals WeChat account then becomes your medical card. Once you've booked and seen the doctor, you can use the app to pay for your prescription as well as the cost of treatment. It really is incredibly useful.
一些医院也与微信合作，从预约挂号开始就提供给看病的人很多方便。我可以通过微信预约挂号，可以查看每个医生的就诊时间。可以通过选择科室挂号，通过日期挂号和通过输入医生姓名进行挂号。病患通过微信服务号上在线建卡，进行实名绑定。个人微信号等同于就诊卡，成为患者的唯一身份标识，另一方面，微信上还可以支付缴费，就诊和取药两个环节产生了化学反应。
WeChat have also made a feature that tracks every person's daily footsteps. The cool part about this feature is that it ranks you against your friends at the end of the day to see who has the most footsteps in a day. If you're number one, it means you've been the most active walker out of all your friends, and you'll often get many 'likes' for the achievement. Sadly, i've never achieved rank 1, but i'll keep persisting! If you end rank on the lower end, then expect to get some sarcastic likes from your friends too. Of course, it's all just a friendly way of giving everybody some extra incentive to keep active. I've seen with my own eyes, a friend of mine go out to run every midnight just to make sure she ranks somewhere near the top. For many others, this feature really impacted their lives.
微信也开发了测量人每天走路步数的功能，而这个功能的亮点在于，你可以每天接受到你和你全部好友的步数排行榜，如果你排在榜首，就证明今天你在好友中间是运动最多的人，会有很多人给你点赞。遗憾的是我从来没有得到过第一名，但是我一直在努力。当然如果你排在榜末，也会有不少你微信上的好友给你点赞，目的是提醒你多运动一些。这个功能改变了不少人的生活态度，让人们渐渐养成了运动习惯，我亲眼见过我的1一位朋友，为了当天在微信步数排行榜的名次不要太难看，半夜的时候出门跑步去了。
I've also used WeChat's carpark feature that allows me to pay for parking at most carparks directly through the app. This saves me from going to the parking payment computer or having to dig around for small change to pay at the exit gate. I can just pay for parking with a few clicks, then worry about driving away.
我也尝试通过微信缴纳停车费，非常便捷，再也不用在出口排队交或者特意跑去交停车费的电脑交了。
WeChat allows me to pay for goods at retail stores, pay my electricity, water, broadband and telephone bills. Once you have your credit card verified, it will just deduct directly from there. Some other things you can use WeChat Pay include booking flights, hotels and even taxi's. You can order take-out's, buy electronics, clothes and even cosmetics. Basically, WeChat has taken most of the main apps that people use, and combined them into one convenient lifestyle app.
微信可以帮助我在实体店付款，交纳生活的电费水费宽带和电话费，帮助我信用卡还款，预定机票酒店，随时随地叫车服务，在深夜的时候叫外卖，还有买各种电子产品衣服化妆品。总之微信把大量实用的手机app融合成了一个，简单又方便。
Of course, in western countries outside of China, there are also many lifestyle companion apps, whether its Yelp, Amazon, Uber, Booking or any of the other's, they could all be integrated into one app and save me from excessive segmentation as well as precious phone storage space! (I need space for my photos!)
当然我知道国外的手机软件也非常普遍，像yelp，amazon，uber，booking.com等等各种各样方便的软件，但是如果可以融合在一个软件里，大量的app就不会总是占满我们手机的容量啦！
The reasons, I suspect, that Wechat are able to achieve what they have today, is that in terms of messaging, they are an un-rivalled monopoly with a death grip in China. Nearly all commmunication is done via WeChat which means that Tencent can leverage the power of having the largest potential customer base in China when partnering with other e-commerce platforms. Naturally, who wouldn't want their store/services included in the app that is used by nearly 100% of the mobile phone users in China. The market is simply too large to ignore.
在中国微信是集聚有这些功能的软件，用手机的用户一定会用微信，所以一个公司和微信合作可以带给公司个更多的好处，因为他的市场将扩大到全中国。
In the west, we see more distribution in terms of users on each messaging app. Many users use WhatsApp, but many also use Facebook Messenger, and Line. It's not as clear cut. It will be the challenge for a region to fully integrate their lifestyle apps all into one. I suspect that this was only possible in China due to its unique political standing and model of governance. Heavy interference from government essentially removes healthy free-market competition. When this happens, all resources are delegated to the rapid progress of a single app.
在国外，简讯软件不是只有一个，例如Facebook, messaging, whatsapp还有line。所以任何一个公司都很难独占整个市场。在国内，微信几乎垄断了当今国内的通讯市场，因为中国的一党执政大概也给了微信不少的支持，让微信有机会得到更多的资源去发展进步。
For me, I am just happy to have such a convenient app such as WeChat, and I hope that the western countries will catch up and eventually have a similar app.
总之，我很开心这个时代国内有微信的存在，也希望西方国家将会有类似的app让大家的生活更便利。