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Celia Chen
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Mini programs are helping to boost customer retention on WeChat, which has 1 billion users globally.

Tencent Holdings now offers one million mini-programs on its WeChat platform that help consumers do everything from online shopping to avoiding eye contact on the subway with simple-to-play games.

The Shenzhen-based company reached the million mark in the first half, increasing from the 580,000 sub-applications reported by Allen Zhang, a Tencent senior vice president, in January.

Mini programs refer to applications smaller than 10 megabytes that can run instantly on WeChat’s interface. They offer speed of access to users because they do not have to be downloaded from an app store but can run from within WeChat on any operating system.

Mini-programs are helping WeChat retain users.

The proportion of users who return the next day to use the app increased to 25.5 per cent in June, from 13.2 per cent in November, according to a report by statistics provider Aldwx.co.

Gaming and e-commerce are the most popular segments among mini programs, with more than a third of users playing games on the platform.

The record for daily active users was 280 million, reached in February during the Chinese New Year holiday. That was helped by the popularity of the Jump Jump mini-game, which attracted 400 million players in less than three days after becoming available on WeChat’s homepage. The game involved manipulating a block to jump on other blocks of differing distance. Continue Reading