Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

This article examines the social-commercial activity of microcommerce (wei shang), which has become popular on Weixin (WeChat), one of the most popular messenger applications/social app installed on smartphones in China. By drawing on the notion of platform affordances and data collected from mixed methods centered on the analysis of primary and secondary data, we contend that microcommerce embodies Weixin’s structural (political economy) and cultural (social lives and norms) qualities in China. While microcommerce might have emerged from Weixin’s ecosystem, which is defined by corporate interest and state’s regulatory power, the practice of microcommerce is embedded within the traditional Chinese notion of shuren guanxi (familiar, non-stranger social relational) networks. This article puts forward a sociomaterial approach as a possible conceptual complement to the existing political economy approach of platform studies to call for greater attention to the intersection and interaction between the structural arrangements and social conditions of platform media.

Keywords

China microcommerce platform studies socio-material Weixin/WeChat

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

AERAC (2019) 2018–2023 Global social retails industries study and strategic development report (2018–2023 Quanqiu Shejiao Xin Lingshou Hangye Quanjing Diaocha yu Fazhan Zhanlv Yanjiu Baogao) . China Electronic Retails Association’s Committee (AERAC). http://www.wegoo.com.cn/art/index/96

Bogost

Montfort

(2009) New media as material constraint: An introduction to platform studies. In: HASTAC 2007 conference proceedings, at Duke University and the Marriott Civic Center in Durham, NC, 19–21 April. https://www.hastac.org/electronic-techtonics-breakout-sessions/ian-bogost-and-nick-montfort-new-media-material-constraint.

Boyd

(2011) Social network sites as networked publics: Affordances, dynamics, and implications. In: Papacharissi

(ed.) A Networked Self: Identity, Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites, New York: Routledge, pp. 39–58.

Bucher

Helmond

(2018) The affordances of social media platforms. In: Burgess

Marwick

Poell

(eds.) The SAGE 0Handbook of Social Media, Thousand Oaks, London: SAGE Publications Ltd, (pp. 233–253).

Bloomfield

Latham

Vurdubakis

(2010) Bodies, technologies and action possibilities. Sociology 44(3): 415–433.

Borak

(2018) WeChat is suspending one of its popular features because people are using it to sell porn. Availabe at: https://www.techinasia.com/wechat-suspending-favorite-features-people-sell-porn (accessed 18 July 2010).

Chen

Qiu

(2019) Digital utility: Datafication, regulation, labor, and DiDi’s platformization of urban transport in China. Chinese Journal of Communication 12(3): 274–289.

Chen

Goh

Yifan

, et al. (2017) Integrating guanxi into technology acceptance: An empirical investigation of WeChat. Telematics and Informatics 34(7): 1125–1142.

Evans

Schmalensee

Noel

, et al. (2011) Platform Economics: Essays on Multi-Sided Businesses. PLATFORM ECONOMICS: ESSAYS ON MULTI-SIDED BUSINESSES, Evans

David S.

, ed., Competition Policy International, 2011. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1974020

10.

Evans

Schmalensee

(2016) Matchmakers: The New Economics of Multisided Platforms. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press.

11.

Fei

(1992) From the Soil, the Foundations of Chinese Society. Berkeley, CA: University of California.

12.

Galloway

(2006) Protocol How Control Exists after Decentralization. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

13.

Gaver

(1991, March 01) Technology affordances. Available at: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/108844.108856 (accessed 18 July 2020).

14.

Gaver

(1996) Affordances for interaction: The social is material for design. Ecological Psychology 8(2): 111–129.

15.

Gibson

(2015) The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. New York, NY: Psychology Press.

16.

Glen

(2014) Internet governance: Territorializing cyberspace? Politics & Policy 42(5): 635–657.

17.

Gorwa

(2019) What is platform governance. Information, Communication & Society 22(16): 854–871.

18.

Helles

(2013) Mobile communication and intermediality. Mobile Media & Communication 1(1): 14–19.

19.

Hong

(2017) Networking China: The Digital Transformation of the Chinese Economy. Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield: University of Illinois Press.

20.

Huang

(2016) zAnalysing trusts in microcommerce (Weishang xinren fenxi). Business (Shang), 25. http://mall.cnki.net/magazine/Article/SHNG201625178.htm

21.

ISC and Yiguang Analysys (2015) China’s Microcommerce Development Report 2015 (zhongguo weishang fazhan zhuangkuang yanjiu baogao 2015). Beijing, China: Internet Society of China (ISC) and Yiguan Analysys. https://wenku.baidu.com/view/2618995ab14e852459fb575c.html

22.

Jia

Winseck

(2018) The political economy of Chinese internet companies: Financialization, concentration, and capitalization. International Communication Gazette 80(1): 30–59.

23.

Lai

Fung

(2019) From online strangers to offline friends: A qualitative study of video game players in Hong Kong. Media, Culture & Society 42(4): 483–501.

24.

Langlois

(2016) Meaning in the Age of Social Media. Place of publication not identified: Palgrave Macmillan.

25.

Light

Burgess

Duguay

(2018) The walkthrough method: An approach to the study of apps. New Media & Society 20(3): 881–900.

26.

Luo

J-D

Yeh

Y-C

(2012) Neither collectivism nor individualism: Trust in the Chinese guanxi circle. Journal of Trust Research 2(1): 53–70.

27.

Lusch

Nambisan

(2015) Service innovation: A service-dominant logic perspective. MIS Quarterly 39(1): 155–175.

28.

Martin

(2017) Rethinking network capital: Hospitality work and parallel trading among Chinese students in Melbourne. Mobilities 12(6): 890–907.

29.

McDonald

(2018) Strangership and social media: Moral imaginaries of gendered Strangers in rural China. American Anthropologist 121(1): 76–88

30.

McIntyre

Srinivasan

(2017) Networks, platforms, and strategy: Emerging views and next steps. Strategic Management Journal 38(1): 141–160.

31.

Meng

(2014, March 10) Tencent to take 15% stake in JD.com. Available at: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/tech/2014-03/10/content_17335176.htm (accessed 18 July 2020).

32.

Nieborg

Helmond

(2019) The political economy of Facebook’s platformization in the mobile ecosystem: Facebook messenger as a platform instance. Media, Culture & Society 41(2): 196–218.

33.

Nieborg

Poell

(2018) The platformization of cultural production: Theorizing the contingent cultural commodity. New Media & Society 20(11): 4275–4292.

34.

Nocetti

(2015) Contest and conquest: Russia and global internet governance. International Affairs 91(1): 111–130.

35.

Norman

(1988) The Psychology of Everyday Things. New York: Basic Books.

36.

Plantin

de Seta

(2019) WeChat as infrastructure: The techno-nationalist shaping of Chinese digital platforms. Chinese Journal of Communication 12(3): 257–273.

37.

Reuters (2017, December 18) China’s Tencent, JD.com invest $863 mln in online retailer Vipshop. Available at: https://www.reuters.com/article/tencent-holdings-jdcom-vipshop-hldg/chinas-tencent-jd-com-invest-863-mln-in-online-retailer-vipshop-idUSL4N1OI1H6 (accessed 18 July 2017).

38.

Srnicek

(2017) Platform Capitalism. Cambridge, UK: Polity.

39.

Steinberg

(2017) Introduction: Regional platforms. Asiascape: Digital Asia 4(3): 173–183.

40.

Stoffregen

TΑ

(2018) Affordances as properties of the animal-environment system. How Shall Affordances Be Refined? Four Perspectives 15(2): 115–134.

41.

Summers

(2019, May 31) How to set up WeChat wallet: Guide for China expats and travelers. Available at: https://www.travelchinacheaper.com/using-wechat-wallet (accessed 16 June 2020).

42.

Tencent (n.d.). Tencent-Business. Available at: https://www.tencent.com/zh-cn/business.html (accessed 8 June 2020).

43.

Tencent Global (2020, May 13) Tencent announces 2020 first quarter results. Available at: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/IH09J0CGOJqaYHFWXC4fNw (accessed 8 June 2020).

44.

van Dijck

Poell

Waal

(2018) The Platform Society: Public Values in a Connective World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

45.

Wang

(2020) Chinese affective platform economies: Dating, live streaming, and performative labor on blued. Media, Culture & Society 42(4): 502–520.

46.

Wang

Lobato

(2019) Chinese video streaming services in the context of global platform studies. Chinese Journal of Communication 12(3): 356–371. DOI:10.1080/17544750.2019.1584119.

47.

Weltevrede

(2016) Repurposing digital methods: The research affordances of platforms and engines. Master’s Thesis, Proefschrift Universiteit van Amsterdam, Amsterdam.

48.

Yang

(1994) Gifts, Favors, and Banquets the Art of Social Relationships in China. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.

49.

Yang

Chen

(2016) The role of business and friendships on WeChat business: An emerging business model in China. Journal of Global Marketing 29(4): 174–187.

50.

Yin

Miao

Zhang

(2015) A study of the trust mechanism in microcommerce (weishang de xinren jizhe yanjiu). Modern business magazine (Xiandai Shangye). http://www.xdsyzzs.com/shichangyingxiao/881.html

51.

Cao

(2017) China’s Microcommerce Industry Development Report 2017 (2017 zhongguo weishang hangye fazhan baogao). Beijing, China: Internet Society of China (ISC). https://tech.huanqiu.com/article/9CaKrnK437B

52.

Zhang

(2020) Infrastructuralization of Tik Tok: Transformation, power relationships, and platformization of video entertainment in China. Media, Culture & Society. Epub ahead of print 21 July 2020. DOI: 10.1177/0163443720939452.

53.

Zhao

(2020) Digital labour in transnational mobility: Chinese international students’ online boundary work in daigou. New Media & Society. Epub ahead of print 25 June 2020. DOI: 10.1177/1461444820934096

54.

Zhou

Gui

(2017) WeChat and distant family intergenerational communication in China: A study of online content sharing on WeChat. Communication, Culture and Change in Asia New Media and Chinese Society. Epub ahead of print 25 October 2017. DOI: 10.1007/978-981-10-6710-5_11.