The Email That Changed the World: How Allen Zhang's Late-Night Message Created WeChat

Imagine you're working late at night when you discover a new product that could potentially destroy your company's core business. Do you wait for tomorrow's meeting to discuss it, or do you act immediately?

Late one October night in 2010, Allen Zhang faced exactly this choice. He had just discovered Kik, an app that gained 1 million users in 15 days—a speed that shocked him. More unsettling was his intuition that products like this could pose an existential threat to QQ.

If you were in his shoes, would you dare send your CEO a late-night email recommending the company immediately launch a project that might cannibalize your own products?

This is the story of how one visionary email created the app that would reshape global communication.

What you'll learn from this visionary story:

• How to spot opportunities in competitors' success
• Why product intuition trumps market analysis
• How to drive innovation projects within large companies
• Why mobile internet requires completely new product thinking

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The Late-Night Revelation

Kik's Shocking Success

In October 2010, a few students at the University of Waterloo in Canada developed an app called Kik. This free messaging app, based on phone contacts, gained 1 million users in just 15 days—setting a mobile app growth record at the time.

On the 10th floor of Tencent Tower in Guangzhou, Allen Zhang was studying this application. As head of QQ Mail, he maintained keen awareness of communication products. But Kik felt different.

"This wasn't just a simple chat app," Zhang later recalled. "It represented a completely new way of communicating."

Several aspects of Kik impressed Zhang:

• Based on phone numbers, not complex account systems
• Designed specifically for mobile, not ported from PC
• Extremely simple, with only core chat functions
• Amazing growth rate with high user engagement

The Creeping Crisis

As Zhang analyzed Kik deeper, a sense of crisis began to emerge.

QQ had dominated China's instant messaging market for over a decade, with hundreds of millions of users. But QQ was fundamentally a PC product. Even QQ's mobile version was essentially a simplified PC client—cumbersome and not truly optimized for mobile.

Kik represented something different: a messaging product designed from the ground up for smartphones.

"I suddenly realized we might be facing a 'innovator's dilemma,'" Zhang thought. "Our success on PC might become our burden in the mobile era."

The Midnight Decision

That night, Zhang couldn't sleep. He kept thinking about Kik's implications for Tencent.

"If a few college students could create something this successful in 15 days, what would happen when tech giants entered this space?" he wondered. "What if Apple, Google, or Facebook launched similar products?"

More terrifyingly: "What if a Chinese company launched a Kik-like product? Could it threaten QQ's dominance?"

Around midnight, Zhang made a decision that would change history. He opened his laptop and began composing an email to Ma Huateng.

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The Email That Changed Everything

The Visionary Message

Zhang's email to Ma Huateng was brief but profound:

"Pony, I think we need to immediately start developing a mobile messaging product similar to Kik. This isn't about following trends—it's about survival.

Mobile internet is fundamentally different from PC internet. Users want simpler, faster, more direct communication. QQ's complexity, which is an advantage on PC, becomes a burden on mobile.

I believe products like Kik represent the future of communication. If we don't act now, we might miss the mobile internet opportunity entirely.

I'm willing to lead this project. We need to move fast—very fast."

The email was sent at 12:47 AM.

Ma Huateng's Instant Response

Ma Huateng was still awake, reviewing documents in his Shenzhen office. When he saw Zhang's email, he immediately understood its significance.

"Allen's email hit me like lightning," Ma Huateng later described. "I'd been thinking about mobile strategy for months, but hadn't found the right entry point. His analysis of Kik gave me clarity."

Ma Huateng replied within an hour:

"Allen, your analysis is spot-on. Let's discuss this first thing tomorrow morning. If you're confident about this direction, I'm willing to give you full support."

The Next Morning's Meeting

The next morning, Zhang and Ma Huateng met in Ma's office. The conversation would become legendary within Tencent.

"Tell me more about your vision," Ma Huateng began.

Zhang pulled out his phone and showed Ma Huateng Kik's interface. "Look at this simplicity. No complex features, no overwhelming options. Just pure communication."

"But we already have QQ," Ma Huateng pointed out. "Won't a new product cannibalize our existing business?"

Zhang's response was prophetic: "If we don't cannibalize ourselves, someone else will. Better to compete with ourselves than lose to external competitors."

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The Birth of WeChat

Project Approval

Ma Huateng was convinced. Within a week, he approved the project with unusual speed for a large corporation.

"This project has highest priority," Ma Huateng announced. "Allen, you have complete autonomy. Build the team you need, get the resources you require."

Zhang was given just one constraint: launch within 100 days.

"100 days?" Zhang was shocked. "That's incredibly tight for a completely new product."

"The mobile internet won't wait for us," Ma Huateng replied. "Speed is more important than perfection."

Building the Team

Zhang faced his first major challenge: building a team in Guangzhou while most of Tencent's mobile talent was in Shenzhen.

"I needed people who understood mobile-first thinking," Zhang explained. "Not just developers who could port PC features to mobile, but people who thought mobile-native."

He assembled a small but elite team:

• 10 engineers focused on iOS and Android
• 2 designers specializing in mobile interfaces
• 3 product managers with mobile experience
• 1 server architect for backend systems

"We were tiny compared to QQ's team," Zhang noted, "but sometimes small teams move faster."

The Design Philosophy

From day one, Zhang established clear principles for the new product:

1. Mobile-First, Mobile-Only "We're not building QQ for mobile. We're building something completely new."

2. Extreme Simplicity "Every feature must justify its existence. If it's not essential, it's eliminated."

3. Speed Over Features "Better to launch with fewer features done perfectly than many features done poorly."

4. User Experience Above All "Every interaction must feel natural and effortless."

The Name Game

Choosing a name proved surprisingly difficult. The team considered dozens of options:

• WeChat (微信)
• WeiXin (微信)
• TalkBox (对话盒)
• ChatOn (聊天)
• MicroMessage (微消息)

"We wanted something that conveyed intimacy and simplicity," Zhang explained. "WeChat felt right—it suggested personal, close communication."

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Racing Against Time

The 70-Day Sprint

Development began in November 2010. The team worked with startup-like intensity despite being part of a large corporation.

"We worked 12-hour days, 7 days a week," recalled a team member. "Allen set the pace. He was often the first to arrive and last to leave."

Zhang insisted on daily builds and constant testing. "We tested every feature obsessively. If something felt clunky, we rebuilt it."

The Critical Decisions

During development, the team made several crucial decisions that would define WeChat's success:

Voice Messages: While competitors focused on text, WeChat added voice messages early.

Shake Feature: A playful way to discover nearby users became iconic.

Clean Interface: No ads, no clutter, just pure communication.

Real Names: Unlike QQ's anonymous culture, WeChat encouraged real identity.

The Soft Launch

WeChat launched quietly on January 21, 2011—just 70 days after the project started.

"We didn't do any marketing," Zhang said. "We wanted to see if the product could grow organically."

Initial adoption was modest: a few thousand users in the first week. But user engagement was extraordinarily high.

"People who tried WeChat kept using it," Zhang observed. "That was our first sign we'd built something special."

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The Explosive Growth

Finding Product-Market Fit

Within three months, WeChat had 1 million users. By year-end 2011, it reached 50 million.

"The growth curve was unlike anything we'd seen," Ma Huateng marveled. "Even QQ hadn't grown this fast."

What drove the growth?

• Word-of-mouth: Users actively recommended WeChat to friends
• Network effects: More users made the platform more valuable
• Mobile-first design: Perfect timing as smartphones became mainstream
• Continuous innovation: New features kept users engaged

The International Expansion

By 2012, WeChat began expanding internationally. Zhang's mobile-first vision proved globally relevant.

"We realized we'd built something that could work anywhere," Zhang said. "Good design transcends cultural boundaries."

Today, WeChat has over 1.2 billion monthly active users worldwide.

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Lessons from a Visionary Email

The Power of Product Intuition

Zhang's success came from trusting his product instincts over market research.

"No focus group would have told us to build WeChat," Zhang admitted. "Sometimes you have to see the future before data can prove it."

The key insight: experienced product leaders develop intuition that can spot opportunities before they become obvious.

Speed as Strategy

WeChat's 70-day development cycle demonstrated the power of speed in technology.

"In fast-moving markets, being first with 'good enough' beats being second with 'perfect,'" Ma Huateng observed.

This philosophy influenced Tencent's approach to all future products.

Internal Innovation

WeChat proved that large companies can still innovate like startups if they create the right conditions.

"We gave Allen complete autonomy," Ma Huateng noted. "Sometimes the best innovation comes from treating internal projects like external startups."

Cannibalizing Yourself

Perhaps most importantly, WeChat demonstrated the courage to compete with your own products.

"WeChat definitely took users from QQ," Zhang acknowledged. "But if we hadn't built WeChat, someone else would have built something similar and taken all our users."

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From Email to Empire

That midnight email from Allen Zhang didn't just create WeChat—it transformed Tencent from a PC-era company into a mobile-first giant.

WeChat became the foundation for Tencent's entire mobile ecosystem: payments, mini-programs, social commerce, and countless other innovations.

"Allen's email was the most valuable message in Tencent's history," Ma Huateng later said. "It literally changed our company's destiny."

For entrepreneurs and product leaders, Zhang's story offers powerful lessons:

1. Trust your instincts when you spot paradigm shifts
2. Act immediately when opportunities appear
3. Communicate boldly with leadership about critical insights
4. Move fast in rapidly changing markets
5. Don't fear cannibalizing existing products

Sometimes the most important messages are sent at midnight by people brave enough to challenge the status quo. Allen Zhang's email reminds us that in technology, the biggest risks often come from not taking risks at all.

The question isn't whether you'll face moments requiring bold action. The question is whether you'll have the courage to send that midnight email when the future reveals itself to you.