Allen doesn’t think much about competitors. Instead, he sees the competitor as WeChat itself - and whether his organization will be able to keep up with users whose tastes and needs change every year.
WeChat follows the “Grand Design” approach to innovation vs. “Design Thinking” Popularized by the design firm IDEO in the 1990s, design-thinking is defined as a non-linear process which seeks to iteratively understand users, challenge assumptions, and create innovative solutions to prototype and test. In other words, it is an incredibly user-focuse... See more
Allen is known in China to be more of a “humanistic philosopher-creator” as opposed to a business mercenary. At the start of WeChat's creation Allen’s mission statement for the company was to not perceive WeChat as a commercial product, but rather as an impressive “work of art”.
A person’s world used to be how far they can walk, but now it is the breadth (and the quality) of information they acquire, because what you see & read determines what kind of person you are and the thoughts you’ll have. - Allen Zhang
WeChat has integrated both approaches in the product development process. However, it leans more heavily on the Grand Design approach given Allen’s top-down management style. All features have to go through Allen for approval. As a result, WeChat has benefited enormously from having a singular and coherent identity.
His product philosophy focuses on combining intuitive design, human psychology, and what’s technologically feasible. After these are melded, economic viability naturally comes afterwards.
Despite all the advertising revenue potential with an app that has over one billion daily active users, WeChat limits ads in its social feed to just 2 per day. In contrast, westerners tend to see 10,000 ads/day.
I often think if WeChat can’t give our users even a little bit of hope, then we can’t judge whether what we’re doing is right or wrong. So, this is also how we measure ourselves. When a platform only focuses on pursuing its own benefits, it’s short sighted, it won’t last. When a platform can benefit the people, then it’ll take on a life of its own.