Mobile Minutes: WeChat grows; Mobile order and pay; Whisper app; Apple’s business push
WeChat’s growth shows why messaging apps attract big valuations
For an idea of why messaging applications are attracting valuations in the tens of billions of dollars, look no further than WeChat, a 600 million-user messaging application that’s part of Tencent Holdings Ltd. WeChat, a smartphone instant-messenger, digital wallet and car-booking service rolled up into one, is probably worth $83.6 billion1, or about half of TenCent’s value, according to HSBC.
Read more on Bloomberg
Mobile order & pay – the ultimate brand experience (just ask Starbucks)
It’s long been said that life is fleeting, and increasingly that includes the interactions that make us loyal. The best experiences today come not in minutes, not in seconds, but in milliseconds.
Read more on Forbes
Anonymity working for Whisper app
Despite the huge outcry over anonymous comments on websites like Redditand Yik Yak, Whisper has found a way to make anonymity work. Instead of name calling, bullying, harassment, racist taunts and homophobic slander that has characterized some online comments without names attached, Whisper’s brand is a nice anonymity.
Read more on USA Today
With iPad sales falling, Apple pushes into businesses
Apple Inc., grappling with swooning sales of the once-blockbuster iPad and sensing an opening in the changing ways of work, is making its broadest assault to date on business computing.
Read more on The Wall Street Journal