American tech companies are starting to emulate WeChat

“If you can get ahold of Facebook’s product roadmap, it’s a giant WeChat clone,” says William Bao Bean. “China is behind in a lot of different areas, but one area where it’s ahead is in social content-driven commerce.” As managing director of Chinaccelerator, one of the country’s most prestigious startup accelerators, it’s William’s job to spot trends that can be exploited by budding new companies. One of the most important of those trends has been the rise of WeChat – not just as a messaging app, but as a place where people shop online. Starting from last year, Tencent, WeChat’s parent company, began a serious push to open up its platform for developers to build ecommerce stores and a wide range of online services. Instead of building standalone apps, some developers now build their services within WeChat. All of the chat app’s features are at their fingertips – WeChat’s wallet allows users to seamlessly make in-app purchases; its social networking allows users to influence each other’s purchasing decisions; companies can see precisely how much people are talking about their product, and which people within a community have the most influence.