The Multipurpose Application WeChat: A Review on Recent Research

Abstract

With currently over one billion monthly active users, the Chinese social media and multipurpose application WeChat (, Wēixìn, micro-message) has become one of the world’s most popular social media platforms. Despite its enormous number of users in Asia, WeChat is still not well known in Western countries. Against this background, the present review aims to provide the reader with a comprehensive overview on the functionality of this application, comparison with other popular applications such as Facebook/WhatsApp and previous research. Although WeChat has become an integral part of everyday life for many users, research has only recently begun to examine the impact of this development on the societal and individual levels. The present review summarizes the literature on this topic with a focus on the motives to engage in using the app and potential detrimental effects of excessive use. In the context of the growing popularity and increasing usage times of the app – in particular in Asian countries – future research seems warranted to examine systematically how social media platforms such as WeChat will affect interpersonal communication behavior, well-being, and mental health. The direct comparison of WeChat’s influence on the mentioned variables compared with its competitors Facebook and WhatsApp often used in Western countries will also be of high importance.

Patient health-seeking behavior on WeChat: Social media and dermatology

“…WeChat (微信, W eix ın) is currently the most popular social media and multipurpose application in China and is one of the world's largest mobile apps, with more than 1 billion monthly active users. 4 Launched in 2011 by Chinese company Tencent Holding Limited, the application has grown into a comprehensive platform that provides not only text messaging, voice calls, and video conferencing but also offers broadcast messaging, location sharing, online games, mobile payments, online shopping, travel booking, and food delivery. Companies can create public accounts for clients to follow, receive promotional updates, and message.…”

“…Despite its enormous user base, WeChat is still not widely known or used in Western countries outside of ethnically Chinese people living abroad. 4 This discrepancy is reflected in the medical literature; the vast majority of publications discussing the increasing role of WeChat in patient health-seeking behavior and health information acquisition are published by Chinese authors and institutions, and only 1 article in the U.S. literature examines WeChat in dermatology. 5,7 Similarly, literature on Neuramis Volume Lidocaine, a hyaluronic acid filler manufactured in Korea, is lacking.…”

Providing educational and instructional support for dog bite victims via WeChat in China: A satisfaction survey

“…It was found that 92.1% of the users intended to recommend the program to others, and the total mean satisfaction score was 41.54, which indicated that users were satisfied with the WeChat education program. WCPRP met their needs due to its convenient functional design, and since this program was built in the public WeChat account, it is a convenient channel to transmit information to specific users and interact with them [8]. The education modules and text messages on the WCPRP public account were developed to provide simple, easy-to-understand health information, which was a viable way to connect medical staff and victims to facilitate health instruction delivery and resource sharing [9].…”

The Effect of Burnout, Stress, Depression, and Anxiety on the General Efficacy of Health Service Provision Among Chinese Nurses During Coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak: A Single-Center Survey.

“…MBI is a validated tool for measuring burnout among workers (14). In this study, a validated Chinese version of the MBI tool for human service survey was utilized (15).…”