微信架构能成为主要的广告平台吗

China's popular messaging app, WeChat, is slowly turning itself into an advertising platform.

中国最流行的即时通讯应用微信(WeChat)正在缓慢地将自身转变为一个广告平台。

This week, Tencent, WeChat's operator, said it launched a new service in mainland China whereby companies that have verified WeChat accounts with more than 100,000 followers can pay fees to place ads on other companies' official pages. The fees will be shared by Tencent and the companies that host the ads on their pages.

本周微信的运营商腾讯(Tencent)宣布，将在中国内地推出一项新服务，内容包括：微信公众帐号可以成为“广告主”，通过微信平台发布广告，而拥有超过10万粉丝的公共帐号可以成为“流量主”，为“广告主”展示广告。腾讯和“流量主”将可以分享广告收入。

Although WeChat's core function is instant messaging, it has Facebook-like profile pages, photo-sharing and many other features. Like individual users, companies can also set up their accounts for free and accumulate followers -- somewhat like Twitter. The new advertising service, still a beta version, is Tencent's latest attempt to make money through WeChat, which has about 400 million monthly active users, mainly in China.

虽然微信的核心功能是即时通讯，但其拥有与Facebook类似的个人资料页、照片分享和许多其他功能。与个人用户一样，公司也可以免费开设公众账号，并积累粉丝，这在一定程度上与推特(Twitter)相像。新推出的广告服务仍处于测试期，这是腾讯希望通过微信赚钱的最新尝试；微信的月度活跃用户约四亿，大部分在中国。

For popular messaging apps like WeChat, Silicon Valley's WhatsApp and Japan's Line, one big question is whether they could one day become major advertising platforms like Facebook and Google. Line, owned by South Korean Internet firm Naver, collects monthly fees from companies that have official accounts; those companies can send promotional messages to their followers. South Korea's Kakao, another popular chat app, also offers a similar service.

对于那些与微信类似的流行即时通讯应用，比如硅谷的WhatsApp和日本的Line，一大问题就是，它们是否有朝一日会成为主要的广告平台，就像Facebook和谷歌公司(Google)那样。韩国互联网公司Naver旗下的Line向拥有官方账号的公司每月收取费用；这些公司可以向其粉丝推送广告信息。韩国的另一个流行聊天应用Kakao也提供类似的服务。

WeChat's new service is a little different. The ads are not distributed as instant messages; they appear at the bottom of corporate pages. Advertisers can specify their target viewers based on gender, age, location and even areas of personal interests, according to Tencent. Based on those conditions, Tencent's back-end system that matches advertisers and viewers will decide which corporate pages will host the ads.

微信的新服务有所不同。这些广告不是像即时通讯信息那样发送，而是出现在公众帐号页面的底部。据腾讯称，广告商可以根据性别、年龄、位置甚至个人兴趣具体选定目标观众。根据这些条件，腾讯的后台系统将根据广告商和观众的匹配度决定在哪些公众帐号的页面显示广告。

It's still too early to tell whether the new service can be successful. For this to become a major source of revenue, more consumers would have to follow corporate accounts and view their pages on WeChat.

现在判断这种新服务能否成功还为时尚早。只有更多消费者添加相关公众帐号并在微信上浏览他们的页面，这种服务才能成为一种主要的收入来源。

For now, marketing opportunities through messaging apps are limited, said Forrester Research analyst Thomas Husson in a report released this week.

Forrester Research分析师赫森(Thomas Husson)在本周发布的报告中称，目前通讯应用提供的营销机会还很有限。

'Most people do not want brands to interfere on such intimate turf,' he wrote. 'They prioritize interactions with family and friends and do not see the benefit of connecting with brands.'

他写道，多数人不希望在如此私密的领域出现广告，他们使用通讯应用主要是为了和家人朋友互动，不认为与广告商联系起来有什么益处。

WeChat and other Asian messaging apps are still trying to figure out how to integrate ads into tools that are supposed to offer intimate, uninterrupted communication.

微信及其他亚洲的通讯应用仍在努力探索如何将广告整合入聊天工具中，这些工具的设计本意是实现私密、不受打扰的沟通。

Still, ads are just one of several ways through which the app makers are trying to make money. WeChat, Line and Kakao have all integrated mobile games into their services already.

当然，广告只是这些应用开发商试图增加营收的几种方式中的一种。微信、Line和Kakao都已经在他们的服务中加入了移动游戏。

Those games are basically free, but players pay for virtual items and other additional features. Line and Kakao also sell virtual stickers that chat users can send to one another. Some apps are also trying to integrate online shopping features.

所有这些游戏基本上都是免费的，但玩家可以购买虚拟物品及其他额外的功能。Line和Kakao还提供付费的虚拟贴图，使用者可以在聊天中相互发送这些贴图。一些应用还试图在其平台上加入在线购物功能。

In the long run, some of those apps could become portals that integrate games, location-based services and shopping into a single platform, Forrester's Husson wrote. 'If you think messaging apps are just a free way to communicate, you're missing their potential.'

长远来看，这些应用中的一些可能会发展成为集游戏、位置服务以及购物于一个单一平台的门户。Forrester的赫森写道，如果你认为通讯应用只是一种免费的沟通工具的话，那你就没有认识到它们的潜力。