Is Facebook trying to be the WeChat of the West?

BY CHRISTINA GWIRA

Over the past couple of weeks, Facebook has been rolling out new features to their platform. In our last edition, I introduced Facebook Page Shops; a concept which would allow any business with a Facebook page to have their own eCommerce setup, sans eCommerce store. Now, Facebook Messenger Rooms (they’ve even rolled out something similar on Instagram!) is set to be the feature of the month to be rolled out to “The Book”.

As mentioned, prior, connecting with teams, friends and family over video is now a part of our culture and our future. With this in mind, Facebook created Messenger Rooms to allow you to add Facebook friends into one big video conference, all without leaving the platform. I’m not a big fan of video conferencing. Even using that word seems archaic and outdated. However, in a soon-to-be post-pandemic world, video calling is now, more than ever, a growing part of our lives. From schooling to meetings to security, video calls and VoIP (video over internet protocol) are here to stay.

Some say that Messenger Rooms are a direct attack on Zoom. Over the past couple of weeks, Zoom’s security and video quality has been steadily going down the toilet, and people are starting to notice. Even my mentor-in-my-head Chris Do has forgone the platform to build his own streaming studio within his home to be able to do Zoom-like sessions with a dash of social distancing.

But what does all of this have to do with WeChat?

In my personal opinion, I think (did you catch “The Good Wife” reference?) that Facebook is on track to attempt to have market dominance not just in the social media space but in the lives of everyday people. WeChat is akin to a conglomerate of apps, services and content that are all nicely packaged together into what I’d like to think is one super app. From the WeChat app you can pay bills; you can also grab a taxi to go to your next coffee outing. At the coffee date, you can use money within your wallet – also on WeChat – to pay for your coffee. If you’d like, you could (China has since put heavy restrictions on digital currency) even use WeChat Pay’s digital currency to pay for said date.

In 2019, Facebook announced that they were working on their own digital currency called Libra. For the past couple of years, words like bitcoin, blockchain and digital currency have become commonplace throughout out every day speech and with a move to also create their own cryptocurrency – much like WeChat – Facebook could be making the many calculated moves to become the WeChat of the West.

Each day, Facebook is creating or launching a new feature that seeks to bring all the features of their platform together. Yet is this a good thing? We have evidence that this could have disastrous consequences. The aftermath of the Trump 2016 campaign saw Mark Zuckerberg – founder and CEO of Facebook – on trial for potential misuse of the Facebook platform, specifically targeting the paid ad network and components.

So, what does this mean for us, the common people?

It could mean everything, or it could mean nothing.

Believe it or not, it is possible to live a life that doesn’t rely on Facebook. While it is one of the Western world’s fastest growing social media platforms (it’s child network Instagram is actually 2020’s fastest growing social network) it does not mean that we should focus so heavily on integrating it into our lives. Remember to keep first things first: build genuine connections with people in real life. Business owners: remember to build your email list and have your own website which you own entirely. Keep track of your passwords, information and the like online.

In conclusion, I know that Facebook will continue to find ways to get more people, more businesses and more eyes onto their platform. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, however, be vigilant, keep watch and remember to make first things first always, and that’s people.