Page 19 - The EDIT | Q1 2017

Year of the chatbot
and birth of the
‘mini program’
2017 looks to be the year of the chatbot. The technology has been around for a number of years now and developers have been constantly improving on interfaces to allow for a more intuitive user experience.
The chatbot is often seen as a way to bypass ad blockers and create more interactive experiences.
WeChat China has really pioneered the ways brands use chatbots to interact with consumers — providing everything from customer service, product sales and air ticket or taxi bookings on its site through the use of bots.
In the Western World, Quartz, a digital news site, already launched its app in Feb 2016 — built entirely on a chatbot interface. Other big name brands have also jumped onto the chatbot bandwagon — KLM’s Messenger bot provides you with your flight documentation (including booking confirmation), check-in notification, boarding pass and flight status all through Facebook Messenger.
The birth of ‘mini programs’
Another development which is linked to chatbots is the birth of the ‘mini-program’.
In January 2017, WeChat’s parent company, Tencent, announced they are rolling out these mini-programs, embedded apps which require no download or install, available within WeChat itself. This could spell the demise of website and independent apps at the same time...
Discovery
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THE EDIT ISSUE 05 | Q1 2017