Reborn in 08, a heretical cultivator starting a business

Chapter 152 WeChat's Major Upgrade, Weibo Outlook! (Third Update, Bonus Chapter for Monthly Tickets)

"What? Are you jealous?" Wang Junshan teased.

"Jealous of you? Absolutely not!" Shen Huaijin's expression was incredibly exaggerated.
"What you can do is none of my business. I'm just a little secretary!"

"You've missed dinner!"

"Humph!"

Shen Huaijin snorted coldly and left angrily.

"Sigh, being too charming isn't always a good thing!"

Wang Junshan shook his head and headed straight for the research and development department.

During this period, Future Technology's Beijing branch has been established.

As per Wang Junshan's request, Tang Jinghe recruited eight top-tier Java engineers and eight C++ engineers.

What's different is that these sixteen engineers not only have experience in developing mobile apps, but some even have experience in developing social software!
This will be one of Wang Junshan's next big moves!

The number of WeChat users has now exceeded 60 million, and the growth rate is still terrifying.

There's no way around it; WeChat Farm's user growth potential is just too strong.

In its previous life, Kaixin.com was a platform that had only been established for half a year and originally had only a few million users. However, thanks to Kaixin Farm, its user base exploded to 70 million in just one year, with daily active users exceeding 10 million!
Renren.com is even more impressive. It also relied on farm games to increase its user base from around 20 million to over 100 million in just one year!

Even QQ Space, which originally had very low activity levels, didn't get many users no matter how much Tencent promoted it.

QQ Farm has seen a surge of hundreds of millions of new active users!

This is despite the existence of multiple similar games and multiple platforms sharing the market.

It's easy to imagine that if there were only one game and one platform, the user growth rate would be even faster and more terrifying.

All I can say is that the value of stealing vegetables in the farm game and the speed of user growth are terrifying!
Furthermore, competitors' counterfeit products were trapped in Wang Junshan's pig-butchering scam and were unable to launch and seize the market in a short period of time.

The user growth of "WeChat Farm" is even more terrifying.

Adding 1500 million new users to WeChat every month is no problem at all.

With the added boost from celebrity endorsements and advertising, WeChat's monthly new user growth could easily exceed 20 million!

There's hope that by the end of December, WeChat will have over 12 million users!
The problem is that currently, WeChat users are all using the computer client, not the mobile client.

This is not a good thing.

In comparison, QQ has a total of 8 million users, which is 3.5 million after deduplication.

The number of active users on mobile devices alone reached a staggering 7600 million!
It has significantly more users than WeChat on PC.

Of these 7600 million users, over 5000 million are Nokia QQ clients.

Another part consists of WAP clients and knock-off versions.

If WeChat wants to continue its rapid growth and compete with QQ in the future, it must make early moves in the mobile internet market and develop a mobile version of WeChat.

To this end, Wang Junshan specifically asked Tang Jinghe to recruit 16 top development engineers.

"What are everyone's thoughts on the WeChat mobile app?" Wang Junshan asked.

He wanted to assess his subordinates' thinking, logic, abilities, and knowledge in order to select outstanding individuals who could take on important responsibilities and further promote and cultivate them!

If these kinds of talents prove themselves, they can become project managers and be entrusted with important responsibilities.

If one performs exceptionally well, becoming a research and development supervisor or director in various departments is entirely within reach.

Everyone chimed in, "Chairman, although there are many systems available, we have limited manpower. There's no need for us to do everything."

"I suggest we start with the Symbian system, as it has the largest user base and can be rolled out quickly."

"That's right. Although Symbian's future potential and prospects are not as good as iOS, it is still the most popular operating system at present."

"Of course, the Symbian system also has multiple versions."

"The S40 system, a feature phone with a keyboard, has hundreds of millions of users worldwide, but it's outdated. It can only run Java ME light applications, so I feel there's not much point in developing it. Why not skip S40 and directly develop for the Symbian S60 V3 system!"

"Strongly support! S60 V3 is currently the Nokia smartphone operating system with the largest user base, with approximately 2.2 million users worldwide and about 5000 million users in China."

“像是这三年发布的N73、N78、N81、N82、N95、N96、E71、E66、6120c……都是这一版本！妥妥的绝对王者！”

"As for S60 V5, although it is more powerful, it was just released and has very few sales and users. It would be pointless for us to develop it now."

Wang Junshan nodded; these people's thinking was correct.

The most correct approach would indeed be to directly target the Symbian S60 V3 version, which has 2.2 million users globally and over 5000 million in China.

In contrast, iOS currently has only around 1000 million users worldwide, and there are only a small number of grey market versions available in China, totaling only a few hundred thousand. There's no rush to develop it.

Android was just released a little over a month ago, and its user base is even smaller, only a few hundred thousand worldwide, so agreeing with it is meaningless.

It can be said that, right now and for the next two years, Symbian S60 V3's 2.2 million users are number one!

Even for iPhone users, it will take time to surpass Symbian.

This was especially true for Android, which was still in its early stages.

Wang Junshan nodded: "Developing WeChat directly for the S60 V3 system is indeed the best method. Let's continue."

After a moment's hesitation, the group continued:

"Now that the platform is decided, the next step is to choose development tools."

"Our competitor, QQ Mobile, has two versions."

"One type is the Java ME version, which can run on all S40 keyboard feature phones and S60 V3 smartphones. The advantage is that it is compatible with all models, even feature phones, and has the most users. The disadvantage is that the user experience is average and the functionality is limited. It can only send simple text messages, and even message sending and receiving are not timely, and it cannot be expanded with other functions."

"Another Native QQ version, based on the Symbian S60 V3 system, is a native APP developed in C++. It is only supported on a few high-end models such as N73/N95/E71. It supports the Symbian C++ version, can utilize the GPU, has stronger performance and a better experience, and can develop more functions."

"I suggest using C++ to develop the WeChat app. It can have better performance."

"I agree, but even if it's developed in C++, it's impossible to achieve a five-in-one application like the WeChat client on PC, which combines basic social networking, Moments, WeChat Pay, WeChat Farm, and YouTuan.com. Don't even think about it; the functions must be broken down."

"Yes, I suggest that the WeChat app should only retain social networking, Moments, and payment functions. As for YouTuan.com shopping, keep an icon and make it a WAP webpage, so that clicking it will directly redirect to the browser page. This will reduce the burden to the greatest extent."

"Similarly, WeChat Farm could also include an icon that, when clicked, leads to the standalone WeChat Farm game app; if the app is not installed, it will redirect to a download link."

"Support. Splitting it into three parts, two independent apps, and a WAP webpage hyperlink, is entirely feasible."

Wang Junshan watched as everyone brainstormed and smiled, "Are you sure this is the final solution? Completely feasible?"

The people who had been talking earlier nodded in agreement, indicating that there was no problem.

But Zhang Qing, the other programmer who had remained silent, shook his head:
"Not feasible."

“这样的功能，对于N95、N82等高端的S60 V3手机，绝对流畅。中端的E71、6120C=积极适配，也问题不大。但低端的诺基亚5700 Xpress、6290，再适配都带不动。”

"That makes sense. The 5700 and 6290 only have 64MB and 32MB of memory respectively, which puts a lot of pressure on them."

"The 5700 with 64MB of RAM might be able to run it, but the 6290 with 32MB of RAM will definitely crash." "There's no other way but to make it a JAVA Me version. But the JAVA Me version will have to cut out a lot of features."

"Actually, the WeChat app can have two versions!"

"High-end models with C++, social networking + friends circle + payment."

"Low-end Java ME models only have simple text chat functions, no payment, and cannot integrate Moments. We can leave a Moments icon, and we can also develop a WAP web-based Moments feature that directly redirects to the webpage."

"As for the standalone 'WeChat Farm,' it will be developed directly in C++ to meet the needs of high-end models. For low-end models, a 'WeChat Farm' WAP web version will be developed and mounted, thus achieving all of these features."

Wang Junshan laughed: "Since we've already categorized things into high-end and low-end, why not implement a comprehensive categorization?"

"A high-end device with powerful enough performance. Develop a WeChat app using C++, integrating basic chat, Moments, WeChat Pay, and a virtual farming game into one app. Then leave the YouTuan.com icon so users can access YouTuan.com via WAP webpage."

"For low-end devices, develop a WeChat app using Java ME that can only send text messages. Include icons for Moments, payments, FarmVille, and YouTuan.com, all accessible via WAP web pages. Implement comprehensive performance limitations: phones with slightly better performance can load images; those with very poor performance will only display the text version. Text-based FarmVille, text-based Moments..."

Upon hearing this, everyone's eyes lit up:
"That's a good idea. High-end models have 70% of the performance of an iPhone, so even a standalone app can handle it. Technically, we can implement priority grading and dynamically exit inactive modules to prevent all modules from running simultaneously, then there won't be any problems."

"Low-end phones only have a text chat app, which even counterfeit phones can run. All other functions are mounted on WAP browser web pages, which is even easier, especially the text version. Once you develop one, it can be accessed by S40 feature phones, S60 low-end smartphones, and even MTK counterfeit feature phones."

"Yes, it's like stealing vegetables. The animated version requires a high-end device, but a text-based version of stealing vegetables can be done on a webpage even on a cheap phone."

"In this way, we only need to develop two systems to cover high-end smartphones, as well as mid-to-low-end smartphones, counterfeit phones, and feature phones, providing comprehensive coverage."

"Okay, let's develop it this way."

Wang Junshan used brainstorming to identify the personalities and abilities of these individuals, and then quickly made arrangements based on the information available.

C++ version, developed by 8 people.

Java version, developed by 8 people.

At the same time, 10 more people will be drawn from other departments to assist the two teams.

In addition, the computer version is already prepared and can be used as a reference, so it should be completed in about two months.

Perfect timing, it will be launched in January next year.

At that time, WeChat mobile will be fully launched.

The target users are not just the 5000 million smartphone users.

There are also hundreds of millions of MTK counterfeit phones and feature phone users!
High-end users can steal crops within the WeChat app, while other users can steal crops via text in a WAP browser.

The methods are different, but they all involve stealing vegetables.

The number of WeChat's mobile users will also explode rapidly.

If it reaches tens of millions, it will have the strength to compete with QQ. Even if it is not a match for QQ for the time being, it doesn't matter.

When mobile internet is fully launched, that will be the time for WeChat to explode and catch up.

With the future OS system and future mobile phones gaining momentum in the next year or two, there is a real chance of achieving a leapfrog development!
After all, there are still other amazing offers like "People Nearby" and WeChat red envelopes to come!

As for WeChat official accounts, their traffic-generating effect is not significant.

But what if we merged WeChat Official Accounts and Weibo into a single Weibo account, and integrated it into WeChat?
That would be amazing.

It can also significantly drive traffic to WeChat!
Even though Weibo has far fewer users 15 years later, the influence of Weibo's trending topics is still terrifying.

During his rebirth, major events occurred, and without Weibo or trending topics, Wang Junshan felt awkward.

In its previous life, Weibo was launched in August 2009.

Of course, Wang Junshan can plan ahead and start now, launching six months ahead of schedule!

Wang Junshan made a decision and once again removed the core development team to develop a Weibo app.

This kind of development is not difficult; it's just a matter of time.

Weibo, for example, has much simpler functions than WeChat. It's integrated into the WeChat desktop client, and a team of 10 people is enough to develop it in 2 months.

But the key question is how to attract users to register.

Back then, Sina Weibo relied on inviting celebrities and media to join and emphasizing content operation to create a series of trending topics and viral moments, which spread rapidly, exploded in popularity, and led to a surge in users.

Other Weibo accounts either had problematic positioning or neglected content operation, failing to keep up with the latest gossip and ultimately fading into obscurity.

Wang Junshan's advantage lies in attracting users through WeChat.

It is directly integrated into the WeChat client, allowing WeChat users to sync their Moments with Weibo with a single click.

It's essentially a software application with two layers of presentation.

By default, Moments posts will not sync to Weibo.

Users who want to keep a low profile still only post on Moments, social circles with acquaintances, and only their WeChat friends can see it.

If you want to be high-profile, simply select the option to sync to Weibo with one click, open up social media, and anyone can see it.

However, since Weibo friends cannot see WeChat Moments, it still protects privacy and the nature of social interaction among acquaintances.

This includes chatting.

As long as you're not blocked, you can send as many messages as you want to your WeChat friends.

However, Weibo private messages are a different system, an open social network, and are displayed separately from WeChat messages.

Private messages can only be seen when a user opens Weibo.

Users can block or restrict with a single click.

Of course, users can also enable the pop-up function if they need timely pop-ups for Weibo private messages.

Alternatively, you can select some friends, and private messages from mutual followers can pop up.

Alternatively, you can open the Weibo private message list at the top of the WeChat message list and reply by clicking on it.

These can all be configured.

Wang Junshan doesn't make choices for users; he arranges all the options and lets users decide for themselves!
Weibo is a very important platform for public opinion.

If he didn't have access to Weibo, Wang Junshan worried that he would be constantly targeted and trending on Weibo, and that someone would manipulate his trending topics.

Just like a brand owner who is a major shareholder of a short video company, any live stream that is detrimental to the brand is often shut down as soon as it starts.

This is the power of the major shareholder.

Of course, if the major shareholder goes too far and is ridiculed by the public, causing public outrage, then there's nothing that can be done.

Taking action a few times when necessary, or issuing timely public warnings, is sufficient.

In short, Wang Junshan wants to control the public opinion platform.

The combination of WeChat and Weibo—one a social networking platform for acquaintances, the other a development platform—is the best weapon to challenge QQ!

(End of this chapter)