WeChat has hit one billion monthly users for the first time, the owner of the Chinese messaging app has revealed.

中國即時通訊應用程序微信的月用戶數量已經首次達到10億。

The vast majority of its users are based in China, where it's known as Weixin, and where the recent Lunar New Year boosted it past the milestone.

微信的絕大多數用戶都在中國，并在最近的農歷新年取得了里程碑式跨越。

But it is still lagging behind Facebook-owned WhatsApp which has about 1.5 billion monthly users.

但微信發展仍不及Facebook旗下的WhatsApp，WhatsApp每月約有15億用戶。

WeChat is the jewel in the crown of Chinese tech giant Tencent. But why is it so popular? Here are five reasons it has done so well.

微信是中國科技巨頭騰訊公司皇冠上的明珠。微信為什么這么受歡迎呢？原因有以下五點：

1.It's not just about messaging

1.微信不僅僅傳遞信息

Sure, it began as a messaging app. And it does at first glance look and feel a bit like WhatsApp and Viber.

當然，微信最初是一款即時通訊應用，剛開始感覺有點像WhatsApp和Viber。

But WeChat evolved quickly, and it lets users do much more than just communicate with their friends and family.

但是微信發展很快，用戶不僅僅可以和朋友、家人交流。

It serves as China's biggest social network. But it's also where people turn to book a taxi, order food, make a doctors appointment, do their banking, or find a date.

微信是中國最大的社交網絡。一些人還會用微信租車、點菜、預約醫生、銀行交易或尋找約會對象。

And when they are playing games like the huge Tencent-owned hit Honour of Kings, WeChat is where players compare scores with their friends.

用戶在玩諸如騰訊旗下王者榮耀等游戲時，玩家在微信上與其朋友們一比高低。

It has become integral to the daily life of many in China, especially in the cities. It is quite possible to get through an entire day using the app for (pretty much) your every need, which means it's only going to grow.

微信已經成為中國人日常生活中的一部分，特別是在城市里。微信能夠滿足你一天中的所有需求，正因為此微信蓬勃發展。

2.It makes paying for things simple

2.支付更加便捷

The growth of digital payments in China means many younger people have skipped the credit card concept for paying online.

在中國，數字支付快速發展意味著許多年輕人跳過了信用卡在線支付概念。

Instead they use payments services run by local tech giants like Alibaba or Tencent.

相反，他們使用由阿里巴巴或騰訊等本土科技巨頭運營的支付服務。

WeChat's payments feature lets users upload their banking details and then can buy products or services from any official account.

微信的支付功能允許用戶上傳他們的銀行信息，然后從官方賬戶購買產品或服務。

Even taking a small percentage from each transaction makes WeChat in one of Tencent's best-earners.

即便每筆交易只占一小部分，微信也是騰訊收入最高的公司之一。

3.Corporations love it

3.企業熱衷于微信

WeChat has let millions of businesses get into the smartphones of customers and would-be customers.

微信讓數以百萬計的生意進入客戶和潛在客戶的智能手機。

Companies and organisations can create official accounts within WeChat - a little like apps. Some do this before they even set up an app of their own.

公司和組織可以在微信中創建公眾號——有點像應用程序。有些公司在建立自己的應用程序之前就這樣做。

Users can subscribe to the accounts and get promotions messaged directly to them or click in be taken to a shopping page,.

用戶可以訂閱這些公眾號，直接獲取促銷信息，或者點擊進入購物頁面。

And the payment system already mentioned means if firms can persuade a user to part with some cash, the process of making that transaction is pretty straight forward.

而且已提及的支付系統意味著，如果公司能夠說服用戶不使用現金，那便可以簡化交易過程。

And WeChat is a big reason QR Codes have been adopted so readily in China - technology that helps firms get information to users as well as facilitate those payments.

正因為微信，二維碼在中國推廣很快——二維碼技術幫助企業向用戶提供信息，簡化支付。

Also, while WeChat has been fairly conservative in the amount of advertising it allows on its platform, it is a very targeted way for corporations to reach people.

此外，即便微信平臺廣告投放數量很保守，但是企業可以有針對性地接觸消費者。

4.It is unashamedly China-focussed

4.聚焦中國

While it is making in-roads in South East Asia and South Africa, WeChat really is still all about China. It understands that market, and taps into what Chinese users are doing both online and offline.

即便微信正在進入東南亞和南非市場，但微信仍然聚焦于中國。其了解中國市場，了解中國用戶在線上和線下做什么。

For example, the giving of red envelopes containing money at Lunar New Year - the country's biggest annual holiday - is a huge tradition.

例如，農歷新年（中國最重要的年假）時發紅包是最重要的傳統。

A few years back WeChat introduced digital versions of these "hongbao" and its popularity has soared. During the festival which just ended, more than 688 million WeChat users sent or received them.

幾年前微信推出了“紅包”數字版本，人氣飆升。在剛剛結束的節日期間，超過6.88億微信用戶發送或接收了紅包。

5.The Great Firewall doesn't apply

5.不采用長城防火墻

Restrictions on access to many Western social media services such as Facebook and Twitter - as well as Google - meant most Chinese people do not have access to these services legally, even if they wanted them

由于對Facebook、Twitter、谷歌等西方社交媒體服務限制，即便需要這些服務，大多數中國人在法律上也無法獲得這些服務。

And that created an environment where local players like WeChat could thrive. So too did QQ - another Tencent-owned platform which migrated its users over to WeChat, another boost to its user base.

在這樣的大環境下，像微信這樣的本地應用程序蓬勃發展。騰訊旗下的QQ也是這樣一個平臺，其將用戶移至微信，提升用戶基礎。

All Chinese social media platforms are required to censor public posts deemed illegal by the government. WeChat is no different.

中國所有的社交媒體平臺均須審查政府視為非法的公共帖子。微信也不例外。

But it insists encryption means others can't "snoop" on your messages - and that content such as text, audio and images are not stored on its servers - and are deleted once all intended recipients have read them.

但其強調，加密意味著其他人不能“窺探”你的信息--而文本、音頻和圖像等內容不會存儲在服務器上--所有收件人讀過后便會刪除。

WeChat has hit one billion monthly users for the first time, the owner of the Chinese messaging app has revealed.

中國即時通訊應用程序微信的月用戶數量已經首次達到10億。

The vast majority of its users are based in China, where it's known as Weixin, and where the recent Lunar New Year boosted it past the milestone.

微信的絕大多數用戶都在中國，并在最近的農歷新年取得了里程碑式跨越。

But it is still lagging behind Facebook-owned WhatsApp which has about 1.5 billion monthly users.

但微信發展仍不及Facebook旗下的WhatsApp，WhatsApp每月約有15億用戶。

WeChat is the jewel in the crown of Chinese tech giant Tencent. But why is it so popular? Here are five reasons it has done so well.

微信是中國科技巨頭騰訊公司皇冠上的明珠。微信為什么這么受歡迎呢？原因有以下五點：

1.It's not just about messaging

1.微信不僅僅傳遞信息

Sure, it began as a messaging app. And it does at first glance look and feel a bit like WhatsApp and Viber.

當然，微信最初是一款即時通訊應用，剛開始感覺有點像WhatsApp和Viber。

But WeChat evolved quickly, and it lets users do much more than just communicate with their friends and family.

但是微信發展很快，用戶不僅僅可以和朋友、家人交流。

It serves as China's biggest social network. But it's also where people turn to book a taxi, order food, make a doctors appointment, do their banking, or find a date.

微信是中國最大的社交網絡。一些人還會用微信租車、點菜、預約醫生、銀行交易或尋找約會對象。

And when they are playing games like the huge Tencent-owned hit Honour of Kings, WeChat is where players compare scores with their friends.

用戶在玩諸如騰訊旗下王者榮耀等游戲時，玩家在微信上與其朋友們一比高低。

It has become integral to the daily life of many in China, especially in the cities. It is quite possible to get through an entire day using the app for (pretty much) your every need, which means it's only going to grow.

微信已經成為中國人日常生活中的一部分，特別是在城市里。微信能夠滿足你一天中的所有需求，正因為此微信蓬勃發展。

2.It makes paying for things simple

2.支付更加便捷

The growth of digital payments in China means many younger people have skipped the credit card concept for paying online.

在中國，數字支付快速發展意味著許多年輕人跳過了信用卡在線支付概念。

Instead they use payments services run by local tech giants like Alibaba or Tencent.

相反，他們使用由阿里巴巴或騰訊等本土科技巨頭運營的支付服務。

WeChat's payments feature lets users upload their banking details and then can buy products or services from any official account.

微信的支付功能允許用戶上傳他們的銀行信息，然后從官方賬戶購買產品或服務。

Even taking a small percentage from each transaction makes WeChat in one of Tencent's best-earners.

即便每筆交易只占一小部分，微信也是騰訊收入最高的公司之一。

3.Corporations love it

3.企業熱衷于微信

WeChat has let millions of businesses get into the smartphones of customers and would-be customers.

微信讓數以百萬計的生意進入客戶和潛在客戶的智能手機。

Companies and organisations can create official accounts within WeChat - a little like apps. Some do this before they even set up an app of their own.

公司和組織可以在微信中創建公眾號——有點像應用程序。有些公司在建立自己的應用程序之前就這樣做。

Users can subscribe to the accounts and get promotions messaged directly to them or click in be taken to a shopping page,.

用戶可以訂閱這些公眾號，直接獲取促銷信息，或者點擊進入購物頁面。

And the payment system already mentioned means if firms can persuade a user to part with some cash, the process of making that transaction is pretty straight forward.

而且已提及的支付系統意味著，如果公司能夠說服用戶不使用現金，那便可以簡化交易過程。

And WeChat is a big reason QR Codes have been adopted so readily in China - technology that helps firms get information to users as well as facilitate those payments.

正因為微信，二維碼在中國推廣很快——二維碼技術幫助企業向用戶提供信息，簡化支付。

Also, while WeChat has been fairly conservative in the amount of advertising it allows on its platform, it is a very targeted way for corporations to reach people.

此外，即便微信平臺廣告投放數量很保守，但是企業可以有針對性地接觸消費者。

4.It is unashamedly China-focussed

4.聚焦中國

While it is making in-roads in South East Asia and South Africa, WeChat really is still all about China. It understands that market, and taps into what Chinese users are doing both online and offline.

即便微信正在進入東南亞和南非市場，但微信仍然聚焦于中國。其了解中國市場，了解中國用戶在線上和線下做什么。

For example, the giving of red envelopes containing money at Lunar New Year - the country's biggest annual holiday - is a huge tradition.

例如，農歷新年（中國最重要的年假）時發紅包是最重要的傳統。

A few years back WeChat introduced digital versions of these "hongbao" and its popularity has soared. During the festival which just ended, more than 688 million WeChat users sent or received them.

幾年前微信推出了“紅包”數字版本，人氣飆升。在剛剛結束的節日期間，超過6.88億微信用戶發送或接收了紅包。

5.The Great Firewall doesn't apply

5.不采用長城防火墻

Restrictions on access to many Western social media services such as Facebook and Twitter - as well as Google - meant most Chinese people do not have access to these services legally, even if they wanted them

由于對Facebook、Twitter、谷歌等西方社交媒體服務限制，即便需要這些服務，大多數中國人在法律上也無法獲得這些服務。

And that created an environment where local players like WeChat could thrive. So too did QQ - another Tencent-owned platform which migrated its users over to WeChat, another boost to its user base.

在這樣的大環境下，像微信這樣的本地應用程序蓬勃發展。騰訊旗下的QQ也是這樣一個平臺，其將用戶移至微信，提升用戶基礎。

All Chinese social media platforms are required to censor public posts deemed illegal by the government. WeChat is no different.

中國所有的社交媒體平臺均須審查政府視為非法的公共帖子。微信也不例外。

But it insists encryption means others can't "snoop" on your messages - and that content such as text, audio and images are not stored on its servers - and are deleted once all intended recipients have read them.

但其強調，加密意味著其他人不能“窺探”你的信息--而文本、音頻和圖像等內容不會存儲在服務器上--所有收件人讀過后便會刪除。