WeChat grows 500%, leads Blackberry World, iOS, in SA

WeChat has grown its new user registrations by 500% since its launch, which has tripled the level of interaction on their active user base.

“Part of this campaign features a television commercial with football superstar Lionel Messi. It shows how he connects to his family around the globe by using the application,”” says Brett Loubser, Managing Director of WeChat South Africa.

“”We are not ready to share numbers yet. However the 500% increase in daily registrations has led to us taking the number one spot on BlackBerry App World, as well as the number one spot in the iOS store. This means it is probably a safe assumption to make that this increase is not happening off an insignificant baseline.””

Since launching the campaign in South Africa, WeChat has achieved the number one position in the BlackBerry World and App Store as the most downloaded app in South Africa. In addition, WeChat promoted the Messi commercial on YouTube with it becoming not only the most viewed video in South Africa but also the most shared.

“”The success of this campaign in the short time it has been launched shows just how effective the advertising and television commercial have been,”” says Loubser. “”Given the extensive mobile footprint in South Africa, we are very excited by the potential that this application has in the market.””

Users can text each other, swap voice messages with a “”Hold to Talk”” feature, video chat, and share images, music, and videos. WeChat supports all smartphone platforms including Android, BlackBerry, iOS, Symbian, and Windows Phone operating systems.

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