WeChat: behind the scenes at China’s most successful app

WeChat: behind the scenes at China’s most successful app

In this article authors provide an analysis of WeChat’s internal innovation process, how it created the original product, how it stays abreast of user needs and how it remains innovative and agile even though it has more than 2,000 employees.

The article is based on exclusive interviews with Allen Zhang and ten other senior executives, as well as extensive desk research.

This article is based on detailed analysis of all the existing literature on WeChat in English and Chinese, and twelve in-person interviews with key members of the WeChat business during the latter half of 2018, in Guangzhou and Shenzhen

The article studies WeChat’s origins in 2011 and its journey towards becoming one of the most used social media sites in 2017.  The article also contrasts different approaches to innovation and how WeChat manages the tension between two models.

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