Category: Featured News

WeChat is leading the way in boosting mobile commerce in China

Mobile commerce is seeing explosive growth in China, which is being powered by WeChat, one of the country’s leading social applications. WeChat has approximately 600 million monthly users, according to Tencent, which founded the company responsible for the mobile application. Tencent sees major promise in the mobile commerce space and has invested heavily to establish a foothold in this growing market. Through WeChat, Tencent has managed to accomplish this goal.

Mobile commerce infrastructure is becoming larger

WeChat has developed a comprehensive mobile commerce infrastructure, allowing consumers to use the application to shop for and purchase products that they are interested in. Consumers can use the app to purchase products either online or at physical stores, as long as these stores support mobile payments. Along with other apps, WeChat has managed to make China the world’s fastest growing mobile commerce market, opening up promising new opportunities for retailers.

Alibaba has drawn more attention to mobile shopping, and WeChat is capitalizing on the growth of the mobile market

Mobile commerce began gaining momentum in China when Alibaba, the country’s leading online merchant, began supporting mobile shopping through its e-commerce store Taobao. Consumers quickly showed strong support for mobile shopping because of its convenient nature. The use of QR codes to initiate mobile transactions is quite popular throughout the country, as consumers can simply scan one of these codes with their smartphones in order to purchase products. Apps like WeChat have become very powerful tools in the retail space, pressuring merchants to become more mobile-centric.

Security concerns could slow the adoption of mobile commerce

WeChat is expected to continue aiding in the growth of China’s mobile commerce market. As the app grows more popular, a greater number of retailers are expected to focus more heavily on mobile consumers. Security is still a concern, however, which may slow the adoption of mobile commerce among consumers. Because mobile shopping involves sending financial information over the Internet, many consumers have concerns regarding the security of e-commerce sites that support mobile payments. Without adequate security measures in place, retailers may not be able to effectively engage mobile consumers.

The startup is currently driving forward at a rapid rate and intends to be huge in the not-too-distant future.

Magic Leap, a company that has already managed to raise about half a billion dollars from some massive tech giant investors have been working on secret technology for years now and it now looks as though augmented reality is going to be a central component to its future.

Its own version of computing over mixed reality is causing them to prepare for millions of gadgets.

The company, which has even received investment dollars from Google, is “gearing up to build millions of things,” said its president and CEO, Rony Abovitz. It is currently running part of its operations in Florida out of an abandoned Motorola factory and Abovitz said that it has begun manufacturing. “We’re not ready to announce when we’re shipping, but it gives you a signal that we’re not far,” he said. While not much is actually known about the device being created by the company, what is believed is that it will be a small sized computer that is self contained and that will likely include augmented reality as it is meant to be something that consumers will be comfortable using while in public.

Aside from augmented reality, it might also involve the use of retinal projection and was developed through surgical research.

Once the Magic Leap device arrives, it is very likely that it will be in direct competition with the HoloLens from Microsoft, which is already taking development kit applications. The HoloLens is wearable technology that uses augmented reality and that has been in development for some time.

According to Abovitz, when it comes to his own company’s devices, “Anything you can do on a smartphone, you can do on Magic Leap.” This gadget also has a working software development kit and it has issued invitations to a number of development teams to start to make mobile apps that will be compatible with the tech. It also holds hackathons on a regular basis at its Florida offices.

So far, the mobile apps that have been built for the Magic Leap device include basic games that allow an augmented reality ball to be thrown back and forth, as well as an application that projects a digital hand and stove that provides directions for making macaroni and cheese.