Abstract
This short volume is the first English-language book-length examination of Tencent WeChat, China’s most popular mobile application. Chen, Mao, and Qiu set their inquiry in motion with the observation that, as of the late 2010s, this app has become “super-sticky”—that is, “inseparable from its users’ everyday habits” (p. 2). Grounded on technical analysis, historical data, and ethnographic research, Super-Sticky WeChat and Chinese Society argues that, between 2011 and 2017, Tencent’s mobile app has grown into a unique kind of “mega-platform” responding to the peculiar communicational and cultural practices of its Chinese users.
Throughout the book, the authors strive to pin down WeChat’s uniqueness through a repertoire of terms responding to recent debates in platform studies scholarship: Tencent’s app is described as a “super-app” (p. 3), “mega-platform” (p. 5), “meta-platform” (p. 6), “silver-spoon platform” (p. 22), and “one-stop platform” (p. 43). A condensed history of the app’s developmental trajectory and an overview of Tencent’s design philosophy are linked to the broader context of China’s ICT development. In so doing, the authors successfully demonstrate how and why WeChat has become the paradigmatic “social, informational, transactional and infrastructural” protagonist of the Chinese digital media landscape (p. 16).
Super-Sticky WeChat sets the stage with an introduction detailing the major characteristics of WeChat, Tencent’s platform’s ambitions, and the app’s aspiration to become a gateway to the everyday activities of its billion users. The first chapter delves into the history of Tencent, connecting WeChat’s success to the company’s existing experience with its cousin messaging software (QQ), arguing that the app’s stickiness allows it to become a “quasi-utility” (p. 44) across different sectors of society. The discussion moves to the app itself with Chapter 2, which offers a brief analysis of its functions and affordances, conceptualized through the metaphors of the walkie-talkie, the bazaar, and the wallet (p. 57). The third chapter focuses on a specific use of WeChat—as a platform for initiating, supplementing, and extending media events such as nationalistic protests and rights-based struggles (p. 78).
Readers will find in this book a concise and informative overview of China’s most iconic mobile app, supported by contextual examples and some ethnographic grounding. Chen, Mao, and Qiu make a cogent case for the uniqueness of Tencent’s messaging app, emphasizing how China’s tech industries have rapidly shifted from emulation to innovation (p. 111). The authors’ attempts at defining the sort of “mega-platform” that WeChat has grown into are a promising starting point, but fall short of engaging with existing platform studies describing the centralization of apps and their transformation into gateways or constellations. Similarly, the historical overview of WeChat’s success downplays the role of protectionist measures locking competing international services (i.e., Facebook, LINE) outside of the Chinese market, earmarking them as unspecified “political climates” (p. 43). Lastly, given the increasingly troubling insights about the Chinese authorities’ reach into messages and content exchanged through WeChat, the authors’ optimistic encouragement to migrant workers, journalists, and activists to “develop alliances and push for change, through WeChat or by using it as an integral part of multi-modal media strategy” (p. 101) seems to be a somewhat dangerous suggestion. Accessible and brimming with pointers for future research, Super-Sticky WeChat is a comprehensive introduction to the popular Chinese app suitable for both scholars and general audiences.