Super-Sticky WeChat And Chinese Society Paperback

New

Yujie Chen

App designers dream of creating a platform that users never want to leave, that keeps them glued forever - a platform that is "sticky". Over 846 million WeChat users leave text and voice messages, share life moments, play games, use stickers, purchase rail and flight tickets, shop online, pay utilities and bills, transfer money to friends, and even donate to charity without leaving WeChat, the super-sticky platform. The Economist called WeChat "one app to rule them all", and as it starts to gain global appeal, it is rewriting the rules for social media platforms. This book provides a balanced and nuanced study of how the super-sticky WeChat platform interweaves into the fabric of Chinese social, cultural, and political life. It keeps the wider global and national social media landscape in view and compares and contrasts WeChat with Weibo and QQ, two other popular social media platforms in China, and other Western social media platforms.

9781787430921

English

Emerald Publishing Limited

13 Jul 2018

168

The authors examine the stickiness of WeChat, addressing how the platform makes users never want to leave. They discuss how the app works; how it has evolved as a communication tool and socio-technical artifact; why it is super-sticky and integrates itself in China’s daily social fabric; how to understand this platform in the context of Chinese society with its media practices, cultural traditions, and political climate; the dangers of the app for social interaction and commerce, as well as surveillance and censorship; and the consequences of globalization of the app’s model. They describe the chronological development of WeChat; its benchmark functions and how its super-sticky design builds on, mediates, and expands popular communication and cultural practices in China; and media activism and critical events on it, through three case studies.

Zhifei Mao

Jack Qiu

Yujie ("Julie") Chen, Lecturer, Department of Media, Communication and Sociology, University of Leicester Zhifei Mao, Lecturer, School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong Jack Linchuan Qiu, Professor, School of Journalism and Communication, The Chinese University of Hong Kong