1.1 Research Background

The communication process originally stems from mathematical communication theory introduced by Weaver and Shannon in 1949. This theory was intended to explain how electrical signals are transferred from one point to another. Later this theory was introduced as the “mother of all models”, because Weaver considered that it also satisfied the demands of human communication （Barlow, 2002）.

There are seven key elements in this process model: sender, receiver, message, channel, context or setting, feedback and noise （or interference）. All of these elements are equally crucial in the process of communication, since the process would never be completed without one of them （Dwyer, 2005）.

Speaking of external marketing communication processes on traditional mass media, one of the barriers is the method it communicates to consumers. Despite the claim that the marketing communication process is a two-way process and feedback on mass communications is difficult to measure; most of the time, it is just a one-way mass communication process: the sender may not have any idea about how the receiver decoded and reacted to the message （Copley, 2004）.

Today’s communication technologies are changing our lives dramatically. Among all advanced communication technologies, the smartphone[2] is one of them. In its early stage, the mobile phone （in this book, “mobile phone” is defined as any not equipped with application programming interfaces） was designed to enable long-range voice communication. However, owing to technology development, the divide between conventional mobile phones and computers is becoming more and more diminished. Finally, the various capabilities afforded by smartphones lead to a new paradigm: the ubiquitous mobility of smartphones enables people to interface more constantly and directly.

Integrated with multimedia and Internet functions, a smartphone allows people to access diverse social communication spaces, where the existing types of conventional communication （calling and texting） mix with types of Internet communication （email and social networking services）. Smartphones make the online space available “24/7,” and thus develop ubiquitous sociality （Lee, 2013）. Moreover, owing to the fast growth of information technology, more types of mobile social media have been created, such as WhatsApp, Line, and WeChat （WeChat here is defined as a mobile social media running on smartphones）. These mobile social media have been growing in influence among people, especially youth, around the world. Their user-friendly interfaces conveniently present recent information with text, photos, and videos （Pelet, 2014）.

Simply speaking, the core of the smartphone era is changing how people send and receive information. The traditional sender-receiver communication loop has been completely revolutionized. A new media landscape has been drawn by the smartphone. It enables users to be not only a receiver or sender but also a producer, reporter, singer and artist, etc.

Figure 1 The Sender-receiver Model （Shannon & Weaver, 1949）

Speaking of mobile social media, Facebook and Twitter could be seen as juggernauts and have a large number of users （1.2 billion and 240 million, respectively）. However, some experts controversially pointed out that Facebook follows the same wax-and-wane pattern as infectious disease outbreaks. Facebook had already reached its peak in 2012 and it will face a rapid user decline from 2015. The decline is predicted to be as much as 80% between 2015 and 2017 （Cannarella & Spechler, 2014）.

At the same time, some reports claim that small-scale social sharing and messaging tools, most of them mobile apps, draw people’s attention and are much more popular than those juggernauts. Different from Facebook or Twitter, these apps do not disseminate information to the masses but encourage users to send personalized information to selective individuals or small groups （Gross, 2014）. So what happened to Facebook and Twitter?

Facebook was invented by a university student who just wanted to get in touch with his fellow schoolmates （Mezrich& Chamberlain, 2009）. Twitter stemmed from a brainstorm by Evan Williams（Johnson, 2009）. Both were somehow “accidentally” created and neither of them was based on deep understanding of social media and its theories. Actually, long before the emergence of Facebook and Twitter, Robin Dunbar, a British anthropologist, had discovered the relation between the size of human brain and the size of social group. Robin Dunbar （Purves, 2008） proposed a theory that could partially explain the decline of social juggernauts: humans could maintain no more than 150 stable social relationships. If the number increases, the relationship will become more superficial. Furthermore, experts have stated that there is a lack of a social component in Facebook and Twitter （Gross, 2014）. They have become individual broadcasting tools that encourage users to do “public performance” and to spread information to big groups about events. Their users do not actually share real, useful things （Gross, 2014）. In contrast, according to a survey done by Global Web Index in Q3 2014 （Mander, 2014）, WeChat was the fastest growing mobile social media both globally and Asia Pacific （APAC） region.

Figure 2 WeChat as Top Mobile Social Media （Mander, 2014）

What is WeChat, and why does its growth beat Facebook and Whats App? In the following pages, this book will first introduce WeChat and then analyze its new characteristics, which made it a popular mobile social media.