Analysts pointed out that with Wo Card's promotion in other provinces and cities, China Unicom's user development will take a leap.
By 22:00 on the 5th day, WeChat Wo Card’s first day of pre-sales had already surpassed 700,000 people. Faced with this data, an analyst who has been closely following the cooperation between China Unicom and Tencent sent a message to the reporter saying, "It's amazing, they sold so many in just one day."
WeChat Wo Card's large first-day booking volume
Accelerating China Unicom's user development
The WeChat Wo Card, jointly launched by Tencent WeChat and Guangdong Unicom, has received widespread attention within the industry as it is seen as a groundbreaking move between OTT companies and operators. At midnight on August 5th, YiXun.com, Tencent's comprehensive e-commerce website, officially launched the exclusive pre-sale of the WeChat Wo Card. Within just one hour of going online, the pre-sale exceeded 100,000 people. Coincidentally, version 5.0 of WeChat was also officially released on the same day, which positively impacted the rapid rise of WeChat Wo Card's first-day pre-sales. By 3 PM, it broke through 500,000 people, and around 10 PM, it surpassed 700,000 people.
It is understood that from August 5th to August 7th, the WeChat Wo Card will conduct a three-day pre-order on YiXun.com, and will be officially launched on August 8th. This time, YiXun.com's first pre-sale of the WeChat Wo Card mainly includes three packages: 66 yuan, 96 yuan, and 126 yuan. Currently, the WeChat Wo Card is only sold within the Guangdong Province region, and users from other regions are temporarily unable to purchase it. Guangdong Unicom has also prepared a deposit-and-gift phone fee discount for the WeChat Wo Card, such as consumers purchasing the 66-yuan package can pre-deposit 120 yuan for phone fees and receive 360 yuan in return, or deposit 168 yuan to get 504 yuan in phone fees.
However, YiXun has not yet announced the specific selling price of the WeChat Wo Card. Han Rui, the South China Operations Director of YiXun.com, stated that the specific price will be officially announced on August 8th, “The price will be very favorable. For example, if consumers choose the 66-yuan package, they originally need to pre-deposit 120 yuan in phone fees to receive 360 yuan back, but YiXun.com's selling price will be much lower than 120 yuan.”
The attraction of the WeChat Wo Card to users is self-evident. 700,000 people—this is only the number of pre-orders in Guangdong Province. China Unicom can't help but smile.
Hua Chuang Securities TMT Chief Analyst Ma Jun, in an interview with The Securities Daily, said that with the Wo Card being sold online and offline through Guangdong Unicom's channels and its future promotion in other provinces and cities, China Unicom's user development will take a leap.
"WeChat Wo Card not only attracts more users to join the network, but in the future, it will further increase the average traffic per user of Unicom, while providing more value-added services to users through Wo Card, exploring new business models for operators in the mobile internet environment," Ma Jun believes that this reflects China Unicom's advantage in the process of de-telecomization, transforming and operating according to internet practices, creating new vitality in network openness and mechanism changes.
He pointed out that model innovation accelerates the development of China Unicom's users and revenue, changing the income structure. It is estimated that China Unicom's net profit growth will still maintain over 50% growth in the next two years.
China Mobile feels the urgency
In contrast to China Unicom's rapid growth in the 3G era, China Mobile is obviously anxious.
Due to its disadvantage in the 3G network, the usually arrogant China Mobile has encountered quite a bit of "injustice." Smartphone manufacturers like Apple and Samsung simultaneously produce phones compatible with TD, WCDMA, and CDMA2000 network standards. In the past, some manufacturers' equally tiered TD models would be slightly more expensive, with worse performance, and Apple has even failed to launch a TD model to this day.
In order to break free from passivity and force manufacturers to accelerate the development of TD terminal industries, China Mobile recently unveiled its own branded smartphone strategy.
And facing the alliance between China Unicom and WeChat, China Mobile was indeed nervous.
At the WeChat Wo Card launch event on July 30th, there were even market personnel from Guangdong Mobile "infiltrating." Before the event, China Mobile was concerned that the WeChat Wo Card would introduce a 36-yuan unlimited WeChat data package, which, if true, would have substantially impacted China Mobile's campus business. However, the final package standard set by WeChat Wo Card allowed China Mobile personnel to breathe a sigh of relief.
In the eyes of China Mobile personnel at that time, despite having target markets and potential users, WeChat Wo Card would still face numerous difficulties in capturing the market in Guangdong's university welcome season. This version of the WeChat Wo Card could only capture a niche market. Moreover, the issuance of 4G licenses, terminal popularization, and commercialization are already certain facts. This will be China Mobile's future advantage.
But from the situation of WeChat Wo Card's first-day pre-sales, before the arrival of the 4G era, China Mobile will still have a period of intense anxiety.