Social media has the ability to change lives in a positive way. From staying in contact with friends and family, to communicating with your favorite store; social media has impacted life and the way that we interact with people. However, when thinking about the convenience that social media has created within society, there are better and more efficient ways to live our daily lives. One example that is able to show the positive effects that social media apps can have on us is by looking at the popular Chinese social networking app, Weixin.

With a touch of a button, Weixin is taking people by storm with its ability to share news, send messages, and pictures using a smartphone. Developed to reach urban users, Weixin has already reached more than 300 million users in China, Southeast Asia, Europe, and America; Tencent the developers of Weixin, put together a networking app similar to the “WhatsApp” in the United States.  A combination of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, its audiences can do a multitude of things with this one app. From hailing a cab to ordering food, it’s all that users need to get the most of their social media needs.

What makes this app so successful is that it’s a winning strategy for both the developer and the user. For the user there isn’t any need to search around on different platforms to find what you’re looking for, rather, it is designed to be straightforward and convenient. For example, with a touch of button, users can record a message and talk at the same time, saving users from having to type Chinese letters on their phones. When reading the news, instead of sending them to the official websites of news organizations, users can send them to the URL of the new source in their app browser. This makes it more pleasing and more viewable, since users rarely have to leave Weixin to open a mobile browser, no matter if they are reading news or making a purchase. There is great convenience to its capabilities that allows for a constant flow with just a few clicks.

Weixin makes using social media easy, as it enhances “self-efficacy,” as it introduces new functions to satisfy the user. Since 2011, it has become the norm for Chinese people and their use of social media. By fitting to the audience’s mood at the right time for the user.  As social media has become more widely used and time becomes less and less, having an all-in one app to meet our needs is viable to today’s society. Often, we may become inconvenienced with running errands to finding the time in the day to do even complete tasks such as shopping for gifts during the holiday season. Online shopping has made it much easier to accomplish, but imagine being able to send money to loved ones with social media.

In January 2014, Weixin introduced the “Qiang Hongbao” campaign, otherwise known as the Red Envelope campaign, which allowed for its users to link their bank accounts to their Weixin accounts, send, or receive red envelopes virtually. The Red Envelope is a Chinese tradition that includes giving family and friends during the holiday season monetary gifts or red envelopes. To add to the excitement, Weixin allowed for users to randomly include a sum of money in their red envelopes to those the user sets up gifts. Since it starting the campaign, nearly 5 million people have participated in the Red Envelope campaign and has send over twenty million cash filled red envelopes virtually.

The one big takeaway about using Weixin is making this type of social media app a part of the user’s everyday routine, which will only become a habit in time. Since its target is mobile, it becomes a part of a person’s daily life. Weixin makes it easier for users to make behavior change, either it being by making a purchasing decision or a social change that will make a positive difference, it’s an app that equals to success to the virtual world that we live in.