WeChat Becomes CES Sponsor's Communication Tool

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, 2016, if you use WeChat to search for people nearby, you may be surprised – you may find Gary Shapi, chairman of the exhibition's organizer, the American Consumer Technology Association. Luo.

Although from China, WeChat has a large number of loyal “fans” overseas. The Consumer Technology Association of America is one of them. The Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show hosted by the association has always been known as the “vane” of the industry.

On the eve of the opening of the exhibition, Shapiro volunteered in an interview with Xinhua News Agency reporters: “We think WeChat works well, so we have designated WeChat as the official communication tool for the staff of this exhibition.”

He said that all staff members of the American Consumer Technology Association had downloaded WeChat before the end of 2015 and stressed that this is not for dealing with Chinese companies, but for their own convenience.

Shapiro said that WeChat's voice communication function allows people to send voice messages while walking. This is especially useful in situations where text input is inconvenient. He and his family recently used WeChat exchanges to travel to the seaside.

China is a big manufacturing country. It is not surprising that the world’s largest consumer electronics product exhibition such as the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show uses Chinese equipment. However, the use of “intelligent” instant messaging software in China is still rare. The most popular mobile instant messaging applications in the United States include WhatsApp and Line.

According to some of the latest industry statistics, WhatsApp is still the most instant messaging tool in the world, with about 900 million active users. However, WeChat is catching up quickly and the number of active users has reached 650 million. Even in the United States, there are also more and more. The more users choose WeChat.

Shapiro said that throughout Asia, progress has been made in innovation, and China’s investment in innovation has shown a “very good” momentum. Recently, many Chinese companies were founded by young people. The types of products are also very unique. WeChat is an outstanding representative of them.

He said that WeChat is "world-level" and "not only occupies the Chinese market."

However, just as many Chinese products have encountered in the United States, WeChat has also been questioned by so-called technical experts in the United States. They claim that WeChat will harm the U.S. economy and even national security.

The 2016 Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show opened on the 4th and was formally launched on the 6th. According to Shapiro, the booth area of ​​this exhibition reached a record high of 223,000 square meters, attracting more than 3,600 exhibitors, and the number of applicants exceeded 150,000, of which 45,000 came from abroad and only participated in the exhibition. The reporter reached 5,000 people.