Chinese Users: WeChat Moments Has Too Much Spam

Chinese Users: WeChat Moments Has Too Much Spam
Jul 27, 2016 By eChinacities.com

Editor’s Note: We all have that WeChat friend (or two) that posts sneakers or make-up for sale or tries to promote their restaurant or club ten times a day on WeChat Moments. For many Chinese users, the amount of spam posts and advertisements on Moments is getting to be too much. Other users just feel that Moments is addicting and they check it too much. Many users have decided to stop using the feature for these reasons and others explained in the translated article.

China Youth Daily recently reported that many young people are unhappy with WeChat because they feel that they are spending too much time on the app’s Moments page. WeChat has become the most popular way for Chinese to connect with friends, read and send news, but many think there are too many spam posts and advertisements on WeChat Moments.

 

The newspaper surveyed 2,000 WeChat uses. 35.8% want stop using Moments, and 19.7% say that they are planning to stop using Moments. 13.8% stopped using Moments a while ago, and 2.4% recently stopped using Moment. 64.2% of respondents say they will not stop using WeChat Moments.

The Art of Selective Blocking

Third grade teacher at East Gaodi No. 3 Primacy School in Fengtai District, Beijing, Deng Chunyang said that she often uses WeChat to get in touch with parents at the school. “I have a WeChat group with the parents at the school in order to send out information. Every day when I get up and leave work, the first thing I see is the messages on the WeChat group and Moments with complaints and issues about their children.”

“Fortunately, you are able to block your own Moments from certain friends,” said Deng Chunyang. “I’m just a normal person: I have a photo of myself eating skewers while wearing house slippers. However, I do not want parents to see those pictures of me, so I choose to block certain people,” she said. Deng Chunyang said that she would not want to delete Moments because she can look at the pictures that the parents in her class post in order to learn more about her students’ lives.

Keeping Up with Close Friends

Zhang Xue (pseudonym) works at a tech company and has not used Moments for more than a month. “I haven’t looked at Moments, and I haven’t missed anything. Everything has become calmer. I don’t have to pay attention to who is doing well, who is campaigning, and who went to the beach last week,” he said. “We were all fine before WeChat Moments came alone.”

“It does not take a lot of willpower to stop using Moments. You can always still look at your friend’s Moments and see what he has written. This is a lot more efficient, and helps us value people individually,” said Zhang Xue. He said that this will help you keep up with close friends and not alienate people. “But we don’t need to know how every single person we know is doing. I deleted most of my contacts and only have about 100 friends. I use the time I usually waste looking at Moments to read good books,” he said.

Love the Comics, Hate the Advertisements

WeChat users surveyed said they enjoy the comics and jokes, and personal photos posted on WeChat Moments. Respondents said that the most annoying posts are advertisements, posts about sports, and posts about shopping.

57.1% of respondents said that they often check WeChat Moments as soon as they wake up in the morning. 24.2% said they sometimes check WeChat Moments first thing in the morning, and 11.9% said they occasionally do. Only 6.8% of respondents said they never check WeChat Moments when they wake up.

40.8% of survey respondents also have 100 friends or less on WeChat. 35% have 100 to 200 friends on WeChat. 16.1% have 200 to 300 friends, 1.4% have 300 to 400 friends, and 1.3% have 400 to 500 friends

Professor Kuang Wenbo of Renmin University’s School of Journalism & Communication said that parents should supervise their children when their children are looking at Moments, as the content has often not been screened. “You can stop using Moments, but if you do use it, there are some people that you should block. Everyone has their own way of living, and you should choose what is best for you.”

Source: The Paper

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Keywords: WeChat WeChat Moments

6 Comments

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Allisya

trying

Nov 10, 2022 21:17 Report Abuse

SenseiSteve

They should rename "Wechat" to "WeShop". Not really used for chatting anymore, as opposed to being a place where a woman can spend all her money on Korean rubbish they don't really need.

Sep 09, 2016 11:37 Report Abuse

Guest14237834

The problem is all the bored house wives posted infinite of baby pictures or hopelessly trying to peddle Korean cosmetics/apparel in the hopes of giving their life any kind of meaning while their husband is out slaving all day at the office.

Aug 02, 2016 18:30 Report Abuse

greatpark2016

wechat is getting not that popular.

Aug 01, 2016 15:57 Report Abuse

kuntmans

It's a cause of cancer and blindness. That has been proven. But nobody is teaching the kids that on school. Everyone learns the hard way.

Jul 28, 2016 16:40 Report Abuse