The WeChat Pro Conference 2019 focused on past success, future strategies, new ideas and entrepreneurship. Allen Zhang (Zhang Xiaolong in Chinese) made an unusual appearance and spoke at length about a number of key WeChat themes. Zhang is Senior Executive Vice President and President of Weixin Group at Tencent Holdings — and is the creator of WeChat.  Zhang talked about WeChat’s design philosophy, not following short-term trends but continually looking to enhance WeChat features and functionality. He explained what he believes good design truly means by quoting “10 Timeless Commandment for Good Design” from Dieter Rams, a famous German industrial designer and retired academic. Rams is part of the functionalist school of industrial design who believes in "less but better" design intended to create a timeless quality. [caption id="attachment_68879" align="aligncenter" width="652"] Allen Zhang, Senior Executive Vice President and President of Weixin Group, Tencent Holdings
Source: Tencent PR[/caption] Expect More from New Features  WeChat is developing more advanced features, such as a new “good stuff” feature, which will recommend products for individual users based on ratings of the user’s WeChat friends. WeChat Mini Apps: On a Mission Zhang explained WeChat mini apps are designed to help connect brick-and-mortar businesses with WeChat users. These are some of the things WeChat will focus on to further develop mini app capabilities:

• Direct access using a search function. For example, users can find a travel mini app by searching flight information.
• A complete “evaluation” system so users can use reviews to find the most useful mini app.
• A “Strong Reminder” feature that can send notifications for situations such as when the long line at a bank or restaurant shortens.

New Features for Chinese New Year Giving  Everyone gives away money in small red envelopes called hong bao at the Chinese New Year, and WeChat is launching new features to help users personalize this feature. Traditionally, hong bao are delivered in person, handed directly to the recipient, but in recent years this has gone digital: WeChat says about ¥3 billion was sent by WeChat in 2015 — but that figure climbed to ¥46 billion in just two years.  This is a lot more convenient — but also less personal. So, WeChat is working to make digital giving more personalized by introducing new features. For example, WeChat will add a feature that lets users add personalized facial expressions in the digital hong bao, and companies sending them to employees can customize the envelope with the company logo or design of its choosing. Another feature even allows the person sending the money to see how the recipient spends it. [caption id="attachment_68881" align="aligncenter" width="298"] Relative Hongbao Card
Source: Coresight Research[/caption] WeChat Is “To Be Continued”  The theme of the exhibition was “Unfinished City” — meaning WeChat realizes it must continually invest in innovation and continue to build out new capabilities; it will never be “finished.”