Weibo account The Founder (创业家传媒) uploaded screenshots of users’ comments on WeChat 7 years ago.
Though it’s not possible to tell the overall market response and rating given the limited feedback screenshots, from users’ harsh words, it’s hard to imagine that Tencent has remarkably transformed the hated social network program into one of the world’s most powerful apps.
According to the screenshots, users were extremely unhappy with WeChat’s poor server technology, lack of innovation, and boring notification service.
Now, WeChat has over 1 billion users around the globe, and it’s integrating mini-programs, e-payment, health, marketing, and increasingly diverse user experience support.
While people in China sometimes joke, “to know if a startup is worth investing in, just see if it will demonstrate strong profitability within 2 years of product launch”, it has taken 7 years for us to see a sophisticated, comprehensive, vibrant, and rich WeChat ecosystem.
Pick your favourite emerging business in China, and let’s see, after 7 years, will it still be there.