Specialized newsrooms abuzz on WeChat (2)

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Specialized newsrooms abuzz on WeChat (2)

(Xinhua) 15:15, August 06, 2013

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As they become increasingly immersed in social media, however, users find that it gets "boring" to sift through massive amounts of irrelevant information to find news that interests them. Instead, they prefer to spend their time perusing concise and well-organized information delivered to them directly.

"The parabola has reached its peak, and it will go down," said Lv, "but people's demand for social media will go up."

The professor attributed the popularity of WeChat to the platform's ability to push content that meets public demand.

"In the social media age, no dish suits all tastes. People need more information to serve their personal interests. The Official Account on WeChat provides a venue for both institutions and individuals to publish their personal information," one blogger wrote.

Lu's case helps to illustrate that point.

He describes his "Tearoom 90" as a professional business magazine. "My target customers are industry insiders, and those gossip girls or boys have little interest in following."

The customized information helps to attract people with shared interests to subscribe, but subscriber-only content, which only subscribers can read or comment on, could be used to broadcast false information.

"It could create content regulatory risks," according to Zhang Yi, CEO of IIMEDIA Consultation Group, a market research company focused on China's mobile Internet sector.

"If you want to see hard news, I believe that information published by authoritative media is the preferred choice," Zhang said, "because they are more credible."

Indeed, traditional media does not need to stop reporting on a broad spectrum and narrow down their scope to expand their audience.

In April, China Central Television, a state-owned broadcaster, launched its official WeChat account "CCTV News" to spread news reports and photos, as well as receive reader comments.

Many national newspapers, magazines and websites have also landed in the platform.

Government departments have also opened accounts for hearing opinions from the public. According to a report released in May by Tsinghua University, the number of government accounts on WeChat has reached 1,000 across China.

This had led Zhang to worry that the WeChat official account mania may also result in an information overload, which would leave customers disappointed, much like the microblog sphere has.

In the latest version of WeChat, Tencent has organized official accounts into one compressed icon, rather than leaving them as separate icons that could fill an entire screen.