Looking at the WeChat Mini Program Environment from the Takedown of Popular Mini Program “Brain King”

WeChat Mini Programs have been around for quite some time. Relying on a huge user advantage, they quickly attracted a large number of developers, including the mini games that just launched not long ago. WeChat Mini Programs have now become the choice of many companies.

Some time ago, a WeChat Mini Program was very popular: the quiz PK game—Brain King. It is essentially a game, but it competes through answering questions, giving users a feeling of “gaining knowledge while playing a game.” It also makes better use of fragmented time than the popular mobile games of the moment, and was very well received by users.

However, this mini program was recently taken down by WeChat officially, because many of those questions contained a lot of vulgar content. WeChat official’s starting point is good—maintaining the internet environment. Setting aside for now whether WeChat’s practice of forcibly taking down mini programs is right or wrong, let’s first briefly compare the similarities and differences among WeChat Mini Programs, traditional Apps, and WebApps.

Similarities with traditional Apps: Like traditional Apps, mini programs can have convenient entry points on the phone’s home screen or in the app drawer. The usage experience is very similar.

Similarities with H5-developed WebApps: The implementation technologies are similar; both are developed in JavaScript. Loaded directly over the network, no installation required. They need to run through a container. (Mini Program: WeChat; WebApp: mobile browser)

Differences from the other two types of applications: Runtime performance is lower than native Apps. Reviewed and managed by WeChat official, with more restrictions than WebApps. Many functional limitations; they can only serve as a supplement to traditional Apps. Mini programs run in WeChat’s closed environment and cannot connect to other applications.

From these characteristics of mini programs, it’s not hard to see their pros and cons. The advantages are obvious. WeChat has a large user base. Mini programs, at the end of the day, are an upgrade of the previous H5 page applications based on WeChat Official Accounts, improving the user experience a bit. They can also be bound to Official Accounts, making promotion convenient; they are also convenient for users, and can be distributed quickly. The disadvantages are also fairly obvious. Anyone who wants to publish a mini program must go through WeChat official review. It’s not that the review itself is a problem—traditional Apps also have to go through Google Store / Apple Store review—but the mechanism of mini programs is different from Apps. Mini programs need to be used while online, equivalent to opening a web page, and every time you launch a mini program, you need WeChat official’s permission.

In other words, if WeChat takes a mini program down, then even if you had installed it before, you still cannot open it. Traditional Apps are different: once installed on the phone, even if taken down from the store, as long as the App provider has not stopped the service, you can still use the App normally, and you can install the App through other channels.

Imagine this: suppose you use Windows, and one day at work you open Photoshop ready to edit images, and Microsoft tells you that Photoshop has been taken down for violating some Microsoft agreement, and you can no longer use Photoshop on your computer—how would you feel. Of course, comparing a production tool like PS with an entertainment mini program isn’t quite appropriate. WeChat Mini Programs are now building a closed platform; the entire ecosystem revolves around WeChat. Whatever you want to do, you can’t get around the WeChat big boss.

Having read this far, you probably already understand my attitude toward mini programs. Let me reiterate: I take a conservative stance on mini programs. It’s not that mini programs shouldn’t be made. WeChat has so many users that not using WeChat Mini Programs as a low-cost distribution channel would definitely be a huge waste. But you can’t put all your eggs in one basket. Mini programs can only be used as a supplement to regular Apps, and the copycat culture in the internet industry is already well known, so the operational risks of mini programs cannot be ignored either.