Oh hi WeChat PRO developer conf is here! The most important app in China. IMO, anyway.
I’ll try to keep up & live tweet / comment here but will also be doing a recap with special guest soon too!

My connection is not great ... audio is cutting in and out ... how am I going to get the hongbaos (red packets) during the event!
I actually have the English link (which only has 127 viewers ahaha) much better vs 100K Chinese viewers.

WeChat Mini program update:
400mm+ DAU
# of mini programs used per user +25%
+67% in transaction volume per user

GMV is up 100% YoY
A lot more mini programs are monetizing. Partly bc WeChat added a lot more advertising options (below left).
Non-game mini program revenue split to developers +25%

Pretty nuts 36Kr is live-tweeting as well LOL (I'm getting alerts from them in-app as we speak). Stats I missed:

Active mini programs +75%
Monetizing mini programs +68%.

I do think mini programs is the most important ecosystem that WeChat has. For ref: https://www.techbuzzchina.com/episodes/ep-37-the-wechat-mini-program-the-end-of-apps-or-not

Better accessibility: you can open them up via SMS & email now. (Really! Didn't know.)
Another priority: bringing down cost of development. (Gave crazy ex of some 50mm user mini program only costing $40/mo?). Better analytics.
Below: cloud development tools. Will be enhanced.

And now it's WeChat Pay. (221K viewers on Chinese version, I had to switch to English, latency was too insane.)
He's talking abt the WeChat Pay score, which was announced last June. It's just like Sesame Credit?
(Sneaker brand "Poop stepping feeling")
https://www.scmp.com/abacus/tech/article/3087781/wechat-rolls-out-its-own-credit-system-nationwide-rivaling-alipays

Ahhh do they have not much interesting to say about WeChat Pay bc there was this super long anecdote abt using ur score to get insurance for returning your power bank next day cuz store is closed & not pay the overnight fine.
Scores increase trust & conversion, blah blah.

WeChat Enterprise's new slogan is "People As A Service.“
(That sounds bad to me ...)
So they offer lots of APIs so you can connect to your existing CRM etc. so you can service customers within the client.
150 new APIs (540 total)

Now we are at WeChat Search.
"We want everyone to use search!"
MAU 500mm, meh.
Newish thing, scenario search: want you to be able to search without leaving chat! includes # search (you can # in chat turn it into a query).
Below: timeline of dev of search functions in WeChat

Now at WeChat Mini Ggames.
Increased monetization +20%.
Almost 2/3 of users are 30 yrs old+
50%+ rural China (3rd tier & below).
Per person gaming time 50%+ (is this just covid tho?)
Pretty even gender breakdown, etc.

Growing mini games
1) integrate into livestreaming, versus play, competitions, etc. interactivity, gift packs
2) sharing, developer-defined sharing
3) play on PC (already exists, I didn't know! will improve)
4) advertising
100K+ devs
typical $15mm rev games: just 6 devs & 4 staff

FINALLY we are at WeChat Channels (video accts).
This is what I've been waiting for.
<35yr old females largest grp of creators
Ppl create most on Sunday, view most on Friday night (why?)
Canto classics was most searched for term.
Clearly a millennial not Gen Z activity ... yet.

So very unfortunately the positioning is still very unclear (we'll have to discuss this in the recap). They're spotlighting the below content. The monk (L) is an IP born on Douyin! Science content (R)
& now she's highlighting Brands using livestream to unveil new products, yawn!

OK that was a VERY MEH ending to the topic I was really really interested in. Now I'm gonna go eat dinner & may or may not tweet more on the small topic specific forums.