(Yicai Global) Jan. 20 -- Videos are likely to become the main form of self-expression on WeChat in the next 10 years, according to the inventor of China’s most popular social messaging app.

Video content on Tencent Holding’s blockbuster app has soared 33-fold over the past five years, Allen Zhang said on the occasion of its 10th anniversary yesterday. Clips posted on the app’s social-networking section Moments have jumped 10 times.

More and more videos will be posted on WeChat Channels, a new space dedicated to video feeds by content creators, brands, businesses and individuals that allows them to reach an audience beyond their own network of WeChat friends, said Zhang, who is also Tencent’s senior executive vice president.

Unlike Moments, which only shows posts by people accepted into a user’s friends circle, Channels displays videos from the whole WeChat community, widening their reach and influence.

WeChat will act like a library for clips and will have greater video content as time goes by, Zhang said. “I hope every person, not only social media influencers and online celebrities, can use the Channels feature in the future.”

There are already one billion people who use WeChat every day, and 330 million of them make daily video calls, Zhang said. Some 780 million check Moments each day, and, as of yesterday, 120 million had posted 670 million photos and 100 million video clips.

‘Livestreaming Is More Personal’

WeChat’s next version will focus on livestreaming, Zhang said. Livestreaming is about people expressing themselves in real time. It will become an important online form of individual self-expression in the future, he added.

“During the Chinese Lunar New Year, people traditionally extend their good wishes by visiting friends and family,” he said. “In recent years, we have become more accustomed to an online lifestyle and instead send virtual red envelopes, a form of gifting money, to WeChat groups.

“Livestreaming is more personal, and this year we have made some adjustments and hope that people can send their Spring Festival wishes via livestreaming.

“We’ll rely entirely on users to promote livestreaming and will not depend on advertising,” Zhang said. “We hope Channels will form an ecosystem that can run by itself.”

There have been some concerns that Shenzhen-based Tencent leaks users’ chat records. WeChat does not read users’ chats and Tencent will fire any employee who does, Zhang said, adding that WeChat also does not store these records.

Editor: Kim Taylor