“WeChat charges”? It turned out to be a false alarm

Recently, the topic of "WeChat charges" has attracted a lot of discussion on Weibo. After a closer look at the details, it turns out that WeChat's charges are aimed at "micro-drama mini-programs" and have little to do with ordinary users. But in other words, if WeChat really charges, what do you think?

Before starting today's article, Xiao Lei will test you first:

Without thinking too much, can everyone immediately tell what membership services are available on the APP in the mobile phone?

I guess few people can accurately give the correct answer. It’s not because our memory is bad, but because there are so many members opening it.

Yes, that’s right. Up to now, Internet products have already reached the point where “everything can be integrated into a membership”.

Internet products covering daily life such as food, clothing, housing and transportation can arrange a wave of members based on various needs.

Moreover, driven by the membership trend, some free products are sufficient, but they are far less refreshing than becoming stronger by spending money!

Looking back at the mobile phones, which one of the apps for takeout, shopping, taxi, cloud storage, office, etc. is not pushing membership?

Of course there are exceptions. The national free social app WeChat does not have a membership mechanism and focuses on the principle of equality for all.

But, Xiao Lei wants to say but.

A few days ago, I was surfing the Internet looking for topics, and Bige sent me a link that shocked me - WeChat is actually going to charge a fee!

No way, no way, is it possible that WeChat is also following the example of its big brother QQ and preparing to set up various memberships to make money?

This is related to everyone's vital interests, so Xiao Lei dare not neglect it. What is the "WeChat fee" all about? Let's talk about it.

1. Is WeChat going to charge a fee?

After all, it is a national-level super APP. As soon as the topic of #WeChat charges# came out, it quickly became a hot search on Weibo.

Netizens were talking at once, each with their own opinion, and the argument was heated over the issue of WeChat charging.

Some netizens are still in a confused stage, wondering whether the WeChat charges are true or false.

Some netizens immediately grasped the key point. Since WeChat charges fees, what items are charged?

Some netizens have already made up their minds and linked the number of WeChat chats with VIP, requiring people to pay to chat normally.

Xiao Lei did some careful research and found that the issue of #WeChat charging# is actually different from what most netizens know.

First of all, let me make it clear that WeChat has indeed launched a paid project recently, but it is not for ordinary users like us.

Well, this time WeChat is charging for the "Micro-Short Drama Mini Program".

Recently, some short drama practitioners received notifications from the WeChat public platform, stating that they needed to pay a "deposit."

This thing is a bit like the store deposit on an e-commerce platform. The specific amount depends on the total amount of merchandise transactions.

So, some short drama mini programs may cost 1,000 yuan, while some mini programs may only cost 100 yuan.

However, the consequences of not paying are similar. The functions of the mini program will be restricted, including but not limited to limiting mini program searches, etc.

This wave of operations by WeChat was within Xiao Lei’s expectations. Some of you may remember the popular micro-short drama that I talked about before.

Micro-short dramas have exciting plots, low costs and high profits. They have developed particularly rapidly in the past two years, but industry standards have not kept up.

This has led to some people shooting and uploading short dramas with distorted values ​​in order to attract attention and make more money, thus polluting the market.

As the platform for publishing short dramas, it is naturally responsible for supervising whether the content of short dramas violates the rules. In this way, WeChat's collection of deposits from short drama mini programs is also a powerful means of supervising them.

With the deposit and the restrictions on the registrant's identity, short play practitioners will not dare to cross the line and violate the rules at will!

2. WeChat “Charges” in Those Years

After seeing this, you can put your minds at ease now, because this WeChat charging has nothing to do with us ordinary users.

Having said that, WeChat has actually had quite a few "charged" operations over the years, and it's nothing new anymore.

For example, WeChat balance withdrawals were free at first, but later the withdrawal limit was changed to only 1,000 yuan per lifetime for a single ID card.

If the limit is exceeded, a service fee of 0.1% of the withdrawal amount will be charged, with a minimum of 0.1 yuan per transaction.

Although WeChat later launched a "payment discount" program, where you can save coins and exchange them for free withdrawal coupons through WeChat payment, people who often have large amounts of money transactions still hope to have free withdrawal coupons of larger amounts.

To take a more recent example, in June this year, many universities including Northwest University and Nanjing University of Science and Technology announced the suspension of the use of WeChat Pay.

Well, WeChat plans to conduct refined management of campus scene users starting from July 1. In addition to charging tuition fees, other charges will be restricted, and a 0.6% handling fee will be charged.

WeChat said that since 2015, it has provided a long-term zero-fee preferential policy for non-profit payment scenarios on campus, and has continued to invest a lot of costs.

At the end of the incident, the WeChat Pay team issued an apology statement and provided a follow-up solution.

A preferential rate policy below the market average will only be implemented for a small number of profitable scenarios such as e-commerce, hotels and tourism; non-profit scenarios on campus will continue to maintain a zero rate.

3. WeChat charging needs to be done slowly

Based on Xiao Lei’s many years of experience in the Internet industry, if WeChat really wants to charge fees, it still has a long way to go.

Firstly, WeChat is a social chat app, and in order to distinguish itself from QQ, it takes a simple approach. If it wants to charge for decoration other than chat, it will deviate from the original intention of WeChat.

And if users really like personalized decoration, they can choose to use QQ. WeChat is certainly not for this purpose.

Secondly, if WeChat were to charge for some of its office functions, it would be contrary to its office APP and its own social attributes.

For example, the company already has a corporate WeChat, so if WeChat were to move into the office sector, it would be duplicative.

So, personalization is unnecessary if you don’t want to do office work. WeChat will have to spend more time to find paid items in the daily use of ordinary users.

However, Xiao Lei does have a good idea. Maybe it will work by starting with the cloud backup of chat records, which is highly requested by users.

For example, you can set up a backup cloud space and provide corresponding packages with different prices based on the capacity and time limit.

In this way, users who have needs can choose to purchase it themselves, and those who don’t need it can choose local backup on their computers.

Finally, Xiaolei will leave a small homework. Which aspects of WeChat charging are acceptable to friends? Let’s talk about it in the comment section~

Editor: Jonty

Original title: WeChat suddenly announced that this melon made me dumbfounded

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