WeChat mini programs spur business

Tencent Holdings Ltd is betting big on the mini program functionality embedded in its WeChat app as the new daily point of contact.

According to Zhang Xiaolong, Tencent's senior vice-president who is also dubbed as "father of WeChat", the app now has 580,000 mini programs, which have lured more than 170 million daily users.

Already home to nearly a billion users, WeChat now supports more than 1 million software developers who are working on a slate of mini programs serving transportation, retail, dining and other purposes to enrich its functions.

Among those who use mini programs almost every day, 30 percent live in first-tier cities, while half are third-to-fourth-tier city residents, the company said.

Debuted a year ago, mini programs are "sub-applications" within the WeChat app. It allows mobile phone users to scan a QR code and access a vast number of services such as bike-sharing and food-ordering, without the need to download separate applications.

Adopting mini programs, brands and vendors can offer cash rebates, group-buying options, virtual gift cards and livestreaming services to users, as well as serving other offline uses.

For instance, Mogujie, an online shopping community for young women, saw the site's conversion rate - the percentage of browsers who actually place orders - more than double since the introduction of its mini program in June.

"A majority of our new customers come from the group-buying business, which is heavily reliant on the sharing feature backed by the vast WeChat network," said Chen Qi, CEO of the site's parent company Meili.

Mini programs have also extended into civic services. Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, has started a pilot project that creates a virtual ID card using mini programs.

To promote awareness of mini programs, Tencent successfully "hooked" its users onto a simple mobile game called Jump Jump, which is available to players through the WeChat app. The game has recorded a staggering 100 million daily active users since it was introduced in late December.

Mini programs can reduce the number of apps people already store on their devices as they deal with an overload of information, said Zhou Jiajun, investment director at Sinovation Ventures.

Mini programs also can increase the power of the growing number of top WeChat influencers - popular figures followed by many people. These influencers often have subscription accounts that allow their followers to sign up to receive their articles or posts.

"Its open and lightweight architecture could accelerate application development for business scenarios such as marketing, customer engagement and social collaboration, but it still needs some work to further streamline the integration with legacy systems for enterprise adoption," said Charlie Dai, principal analyst at Forrester.