Today, chat apps are as numerous as the grass in your backyard. The most popular one worldwide at 1.5 billion users is WhatsApp. Second to it at 1.3 billion users and most popular in the US and Canada is Facebook’s own Messenger. Coming in at third with over 1 billion users is the one I’m here to talk about: Tencent’s WeChat (known locally as Weixin). On the surface, WeChat has all the trappings of any modern messaging app: group chatting, photo sharing and voice and video call. But to categorize WeChat as simply an app for messaging would be severely underselling its true capability and its influence in the country. In other countries where inhabitants juggle multiple chat platforms for messaging, WeChat is the undisputed leader in China, and for good reason.

Ubiquity

WhatsApp and Messenger surpass Tencent’s WeChat in terms of total users worldwide, but not by much. More, the popular app’s market penetration is 79% in China alone. Think about that for a second. In a country of 1.38 billion (2017), anyone you come across likely uses the app. Breaking it down to my own micro-world when I was an expat in Beijing, there wasn’t a single soul that I didn’t communicate with via WeChat. That includes friends, colleagues, and even certain merchants. Simply put, it’s an app for friends, work, and general information. Sure, competitor chat apps may be blocked behind the Great Fire Wall, leaving some folks grumbling for more choices. But there was a subtle convenience I enjoyed not needing to figure out the best way to communicate with a friend. I didn’t need to wonder whether they prefer SMS, WhatsApp, Messenger or e-mail (ugh!). Communication was as simple as “WeChatting” someone to start a conversation. In fact, if you’re in China and you’re not using WeChat, you’ll often find yourself left out of activities and events organized by friends.

Business Marketing

It’s not just your average citizen using WeChat either. Local businesses use the app as a space to engage with their customers in the form of official accounts. Through official accounts, businesses can provide services to subscribers, such as sharing the latest promotion or answering queries in real-time. Official accounts span across businesses, interests and hobbies, news, brands, and personal services to name a few. But beyond those, established and aspiring KOLs leverage official accounts to build their brand, pushing comprehensive content like news and articles to their devoted followers. Rather than being redirected to an external page, content is directly consumable through WeChat. Followers can then engage with likes and comments. It’s not uncommon for KOLs to even respond back to your comments, making more personal engagement experiences between both parties.

Social Presence

Whereas other apps are designed purely for communication, WeChat is also the de facto social networking service. Because popular foreign social platforms like Facebook and Instagram became blocked in China, Tencent saw this as an opportunity to build their own into its wildly popular messaging app, giving rise to Moments. The premise of Moments is pretty simple: post pictures, micro-videos, status updates or articles in your feed and receive “likes” and comments from contacts you’re connected with. It’s much less robust compared with Facebook, but Moments was wildly adopted by users upon launch, with a 93% penetration rate in the mainland and a reported 750 million daily users. It’s not uncommon to find yourself simply scrolling through your Moments feed during downtime or sparking a conversation off of a friend’s post. Because of all the eyeballs glued to Moments, registering about 10 billion hits in a 24-hour span, the social networking platform has become a crucial promotion tool for companies trying to build their brand in China, which ultimately contributes to WeChat’s revenue stream from ads (17%).

Mobile Payments

But WeChat’s ultimate ace up its sleeve is that the app is also your digital wallet thanks to WeChat Pay. To illustrate, it’s whatever your favorite chat app is + a social payment app like Venmo + merchant payment tool like Apple Pay. In 2014, Tencent introduced WeChat Pay in the form of “red envelopes” to be given during the annual Chinese New Year celebration. Not only was this a fun new way to encourage the cultural practice of gifting red envelopes to friends and family, but it helped demonstrate the value and convenience of peer-to-peer mobile transactions and spur mass adoption amongst WeChat’s growing user base. Pretty soon, WeChat Pay became the easiest way to split a bill among friends. Not long after, China’s merchants adopted WeChat Pay as an acceptable way to pay for goods and services. This includes dining, transport, utilities, retail and just about anything relevant in your daily life.

With the ability to pay back friends and make purchases, WeChat Pay effectively eliminated the need to carry a wallet around. Alibaba’s equally omnipresent Alipay also features a digital payment function, but WeChat’s social clout gives its payment feature a clear advantage in the P2P space. What makes WeChat Pay work so well is that WeChat was already used by virtually the entire population for chatting, making payment a natural extension of the chat app.

One App to Rule Them All

WeChat does have its share of flaws, however. It clearly gets an assist from the government for blocking foreign competition. For better or worse, WeChat is a one-stop communication tool for friends and work, spurring some to create a separate account to engage with colleagues. The societal benefit of Moments is also rather debatable as fishing for “likes” to validate oneself is a real phenomenon. And features-wise, WeChat is not the most refined out of the competition (Tencent really should add a way to scrub through long voice messages). Yet despite all this, WeChat managed to ingrain itself into Chinese culture as a chat powerhouse that’s universally accepted by locals and foreigners alike. The features I described is just scratching the surface. Among others, WeChat has since seized lucrative opportunities by adding mini-games and integrating mini-programs (stripped down versions of 3rd party apps) to its arsenal of features. Add it all up and WeChat is much less a chat app than it is an everything app. If you move to China or you’re planning to do any kind of business in the country, it’s the very first app you should download. WeChat has a firm hold on the world’s most populous country, with no signs of loosening its grip.

How WeChat Dominated a Country was originally published in ExtendNode’s Blogs for Entrepreneurs on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely love playing board games. Back in China, I was almost always the one introducing new board games to my friends. Whenever there’s a gathering of 4–6 people, my first inclination is to bust out a good old tabletop game. It may seem like a dull affair to some, but my idea of an awesome evening is one in which we are playing 2 or 3 competitive rounds of our favorite board games. In some friend circles, I’ve been known as the “Board Game Master”, a moniker for which I wear very proudly.

To the average person, board games might be dismissed as a hobby for kids or “geeks”. Probably the board games that first come to mind is Monopoly or Jenga which, to be fair, are excellent for family nights. But as a gamer of over 12 years, I’ve seen board games bring out a competitive side rarely seen amongst my friends — and they don’t even play regularly. Dismissive friends of mine who’ve reluctantly agreed to let me teach them a board game end up hooked and itching to play another round. The best explanation I have for this phenomenon is simply that board games are a metaphor for life. Many of the situations encountered in a tabletop game happen every day when we’re not even playing. You’d be surprised by how much your life experiences can be applied to board games. Allow me to illustrate with some of my favorites.

Strategic Thinking: Settlers of Catan

Settlers of Catan is a classic board game of building, trading and basic economics. Without getting into the details, the goal is to be the first “settler” to earn 10 victory points on the island of Catan. Every player is harvesting and trading for the island’s 5 finite resources of wheat, sheep, brick, wood, and ore to use as currency to build more settlements, earning victory points in the process. Settlers of Catan is a favorite even amongst casual gamers and for good reason: it’s very easy to pick-up, requires thinking and cunning, and can be extremely cutthroat. At the start of the game, how you position your first 2 settlements on the board relative to other players can either set you up for sustained success or seal your fate. Once you’ve placed your initial pieces, it’s time to decide what approach will get you 10 victory points faster than anyone else. Should you build along the coast and occupy precious trade ports while obtaining the longest road (worth 2 VP)? Or is it better to monopolize one resource and thus increase your bargaining power in trades? Having a strategic game plan beforehand and sticking to it — or knowing when to pivot — is crucial in Settlers of Catan. Random play simply won’t do.

Risk-Management: King of Tokyo

As the name suggests, you and up to 5others play as Godzilla-like monsters, viciously battling each other to be the King of Tokyo. The game can be won in 2 ways: Be the first player to earn 20 victory points or be the last monster standing by eliminating other players. Each player starts with 0 points and 10 hearts. One way to earn victory points is via the game mechanic of rolling 6 dice up to 3 times. The sides of the dice have outcomes that could earn you VP, attack other players, or heal yourself. On each roll, you’re allowed to keep the outcomes you like while re-rolling the dice you don’t. At the end of 3 rolls, you have to live with the final outcome, which may or may not have helped your cause.

But arguably the most exciting way to earn VP is to “occupy” Tokyo city, which only one player can do at a time. Entering Tokyo automatically earns you 1 VP and each time you begin your turn as the occupant of Tokyo earns you 2 VP, all while rolling dice on your turn to earn potentially more VP. But beware! While occupying Tokyo can accelerate your chances to win the game, you become an obvious target for every player on the outside. While in Tokyo, you’re not allowed to roll to heal yourself and you cannot leave Tokyo until you’ve been attacked by another player’s dice roll, leaving you extremely susceptible to getting eliminated. Each time you get attacked, you must immediately decide whether you want to remain in Tokyo or yield the city to your attacker. With 10 hearts that can easily be lost within 2 turns, it’s a risky proposition.

Yes, King of Tokyo is a silly premise and I didn’t explain all the rule details, but it’s a surprisingly deep game with strategy and lots of risk-taking. You are constantly assessing when to gamble for more points and stay in Tokyo or when to cut your losses and exit. What’s so exciting (or frustrating) about this game is that you can be so close to winning on victory points and suddenly be eliminated from the game entirely because you weren’t careful enough.

Communication: Codenames

A game that’s fantastic amongst non-gamers and is sure to evoke laughter (or disdain) is Codenames. The premise is simple: teams are divided into 2 teams — red and blue — with a 5 x 5 grid of words laid out on the table. The goal of the game is be the first team to correctly pick all their team color words before the other team. Each team designates one teammate to be “spymasters”, while the others are guessers. Both spymasters share a map that shows them which words on the grid belong to their team. Each spymaster then takes turns guiding their team to hopefully pick the right words based on giving one-word clues. To add more intensity to the game, the spymaster is allowed to also say how many words on the board are associated with this single clue. It’s then up to the guessers on the team to pick which word(s) on the grid their spymaster is referring to.

Winning this game depends less on how well you can correlate your clue with the correct word, but rather how well you know your spymaster, and vice versa. A team of good friends who have shared experiences have a clear advantage over a team of strangers because of their ability to communicate more effectively. There may not be a one-word clue that’s associated with “Ibiza”, “Computer”, and “Hockey”, but perhaps the spymaster shares some inside joke that he or she can use one word and can count on one of the guessers to connect the dots. When guessed correctly, it leads to moments of sheer excitement when teammates realize that they’re on the same (weird) page and know how to speak each other’s language.

Teamwork: Pandemic

Tabletop games aren’t just about pitting friends against one another. Some have you teaming up against the game itself. Pandemic is the ultimate example of this. In this game, you and up to 3 players form a team of specialized scientists tasked with discovering the cures for 4 deadly diseases before they completely destroy the world population. You and your friends each take turns figuring out how to balance between meeting up to trade city cards for discovering cures and keeping infected cities contained, requiring efficient maneuvering across the world. After each player’s turn, cities become infected. If these infected cities are not contained quickly, they can potentially outbreak into adjacent cities, further complicating the team mission. In short, every single turn and action counts.

If this game sounds stressful, well, it is. There’s one way to win but multiple ways to lose. The odds are greatly stacked against you, making teamwork and communication an absolute must. On your turn, it’s very easy to take matters into your own hands and decide the best course of action on your own. But any Pandemic veteran will tell you that it’s better to involve your team’s counsel because they may have a better plan than you and may see a potential threat that you didn’t. Pandemic is a great barometer for how well you can work as a team and take advice from others. If your team can prioritize communication, then more often than not, you will beat the board and know that you can count on each other if a real world outbreak happens.

There’s probably a life application that can be drawn from every board game. That’s because the game designers themselves implement real-life elements that resonate with people who play them. Playing board games with friends can really reveal how each one thinks, assesses risk and exercises diplomacy. But most importantly, board games are just plain fun! So the next time you’re invited to a game night, do give it a try. You might be surprised just how much board games are a reflection of real life.

Meet Espy, our Hound/Lab* mix puppy. We adopted him when he was just 9 weeks old. Yes, he’s really cute but in the span of just a few days, this energetic doggie managed to flip our comfortable world upside down.

Raising him has been both rewarding and exasperating, more-so on the latter. Every proud moment from a successful training session was offset by a potty accident or chewed up furniture. Our only moment of peace is when Espy is sleeping soundly in his crate. During the day, we keep one eye on him so he doesn’t destroy our home, while nights are spent trying to sleep through whining and barking as he gets used to being left in his crate. On top of all this, until he received his final vaccines at 16 weeks, he was confined to our home and required constant attention. Needless to say, our patience was put through the ultimate test.

But as my wife and I experienced the growing pains of raising a puppy, we’ve also seen tremendous progress from our efforts. Along the way, we’ve picked up a few important life lessons that can be applied to just about anything.

Track Your Metrics

Our initial attempt at potty training was mediocre at best. From the get-go, we had Espy relieve himself several times in the backyard. We immediately rewarded him with praise and treats, expecting him to understand that here is his bathroom… and yet he still did it in the house. At times, we’d watch Espy actively playing in our living room and suddenly squat over for a number 2, a good few hours since we took him out to potty after feeding him. The worst incident came when he would have accidents in his crate at 3AM, leading to some very unpleasant cleanups. We know it wasn’t Espy’s fault, but it was frustrating that we weren’t getting the results we expected.

So after a few days, I began actively logging everything Espy did, noting potties, meals, and play sessions, carefully tagging the time and location of each activity. Sure enough, I began drawing data points and insights that helped us understand what we were doing wrong: regardless of when he ate or drank, he’s a puppy and just needs to go very often. By tracking precise details of Espy’s activities, we were able to better predict his habits and correctly calculate the average time needed between potty breaks. No matter what the situation, we started taking him out to potty every hour or so, and sure enough Espy would relieve himself. Now that I figured out his tendencies, I could correctly set my alarm at the right time, preempting any accidents in the middle of the night. By tracking these puppy metrics, we managed to significantly reduce his potty accidents.

Plan Ahead

Before adopting Espy, we spent our weekends hanging with friends and going out for brunches and dinners. It was complete freedom with no advanced planning necessary. Since adopting Espy, that freedom has evaporated like his food at dinner time. Now, all our plans take our puppy into consideration. Many establishments aren’t pet-friendly, and not everyone (gasp!) is fond of dogs. So before deciding on anything, we first address several questions: Can we bring Espy? Are we going somewhere dog-friendly? If not, how long can we leave him home alone for? How far do we have to travel? Is anyone afraid of dogs? Should we just ask for a dog-sitter? These considerations essentially dictate what we can do these days and challenges us to think 10 steps ahead. For such a little thing, Espy became a giant roadblock for us, requiring us to plan out trips well in advance.

Communicate Effectively

Not surprisingly, Espy ignored all our commands during his first few days at home. Our constant saying “NO!” didn’t stop him from chewing on cable cords or jumping on our couch. And when we commanded him to behave in a way we want, he just stared as us blankly or walked away. Teaching him basic commands like “sit”, “stay” and “shake hands” required a very specific language that only he would be receptive to. In this case, it was treats and high-pitched praises. Every time he did something we approved of, we’d reward him with a dog treat and praise him like he had just cured cancer. When he misbehaved, he got nothing but silence. With consistency and plenty of repetition, he began to correlate treats and praise with acceptable behavior. He was highly motivated to earn more treats, so he was inclined to do as we say, learning many tricks along the way. By speaking his “language”, Espy learned essential doggie behavior, like sitting by default, not barking, and chewing only on his toys.

Persevere

Fast-forward about two months, Espy is now 16 weeks old, fully vaccinated, and can finally venture out into the public. During that 7-week span (which seemed like an eternity to us), most of his bad habits have been eliminated. I no longer need to keep track of his activity and he obeys our commands with little resistance. He’s now gentle, fully potty trained, and can be left home alone for 4–5 hours.

Espy is by no means a perfect dog. In fact, now that he can go on walks, his next important lesson is to stop eating random stuff off the streets. But he’s becoming more of what we had hoped for and we couldn’t be happier with all the progress he’s made. I beam with pride when strangers come up to pet him and comment on how sweet and obedient he is because I know how much work went in to making him that way. It wouldn’t have been possible had we not stuck it out and invested a tremendous amount of time training him. If we had relied on a professional trainer or puppy daycare to do the heavy lifting, our communication with Espy wouldn’t be nearly as strong. By persevering through the amount of trouble he initially caused us helped form an emotional bond that’s now very hard to break.

Puppies are really a lot of work once you get over the initial cuteness. But by putting in the time and dedication to raising them, they can grow into truly sweet and loving companions that add much color to your life. We look forward to future adventures with Espy by our side.

*Espy is a rescue dog from Tony La Russa’s Animal Rescue Foundation in Walnut Creek, CA. We’re not really sure what his exact breed is, but he looks like a Labrador and we’re happy with that.