Copying WeChat,can Facebook make it？

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海词积累

1. sketch /sket∫/ v. 画素描

2. commission /kə΄mɪ∫n/ n. 佣金

3. innovate /΄ɪnəveɪt/ v. 改革；创新

4. elaborate /ɪ΄læbəreɪt/ v. 详尽阐述

5. ultimately /΄ʌltɪmətli/ adv. 最后；最终

As Mark Zuckerberg begins shifting Facebook to private messaging and away from public sharing and open conversations， the vision he hassketchedout for the future of social networking already exists just not in the United States. Instead， it is a reality in China through a messaging app called WeChat.

Developed by the Chinese Internet giant Tencent in 2011， WeChat lets people message each other via one-on-one texts， audio or video calls. Users can also form groups of as many as 500 people on WeChat to discuss and debate the issues of the day.

While Facebook users constantly see ads in their News Feeds， WeChat users only see one or two ads a day in their Moment Feeds. That's because WeChat isn't dependent on advertising for making money. It has a mobile payment system that has been widely adopted in China， which allows people to shop， play games， pay bills and order meal deliveries all from within the app. People also use WeChat Pay to transfer money and to buy personal financial products. WeChat gets acommissionfrom many of these services.

What is happening in China offers clues to not only how Facebook may carry out its shift，but how the Internet more broadly might change.Many of Silicon Valley's tech giants are dependent today on online advertising to make enough money to keep growing andinnovatingon new services. Some call online ads the lifeblood of the Internet. But WeChat， which has 1.1 billion monthly active users， can support massive digital businesses. That has implications for Google， Twitter and many others， as well as Facebook.

Mr Zuckerberg didn'telaboratemuch on how the change toward private messaging would affect Facebook's business， which relies on people publicly sharing posts to be able to serve them targeted advertisements. In a blog post， he said Facebook would build more ways for people to interact on top of messaging， including calls，video chats， groups， stories， businesses，payments， commerce， andultimatelya platform for many other kinds of private services.

Facebook lacks such a payment system. So to be more like WeChat， the Silicon Valley company has to acquire banking and payment licenses in many countries.

—From New York Times

Reading Check

Answer the following questions according to the text.

1. When was WeChat developed?

2. What are the advantages of WeChat?

3. What does Facebook's business rely on?

4. Why can't people deal with issues like money on Facebook?__

Language Study

Sentences for writing

1. 那是因为微信并不是依赖广告来盈利的。

That's because WeChat_________ _________ _________advertising for making money.

2. 它有一个已经在中国被广泛使用的手机支付功能，这让人们得以在这个应用程序内购物、玩游戏、付款、订餐，等等。

It has a mobile payment system that has been widely adopted in China， which_________people _________shop， play games， pay bills and order meal deliveries all from within the app.