Microsoft sets up Xiaobing partnerships

A division of Microsoft Corp in China set up strategic cooperation with major Chinese mobile instant messaging (IM) application and social networking service (SNS) platform Yixin over the weekend in an effort to bring back Microsoft's artificially intelligent chatbots to the country.

Based on the cooperation, Yixin users can have intelligent chats with the chatbots, dubbed "Xiaobing" or little ice, after following Xiaobing's account on Yixin, and in the future they can enjoy services like mobile searching, consumer service rating and viewing merchant information, according to a statement posted Saturday on the newly created Weibo for the chatting robot app.

Analysts said Sunday that Microsoft expects the cooperation with established domestic SNS platforms further its foray into the mobile Internet arena, but deals with SNS except WeChat can hardly live up to such expectations.

The partnership came right after a similar agreement between Microsoft and Beijing-based Xiaomi Technology, owner of a SNS platform named Miliao, on Friday, both in response to the removal of Xiaobing by Tencent Holdings from its popular IM app and social networking platform WeChat over alleged privacy concerns and claims of an emergence of fake Xiaobing on June 1.

Xiaobing's appeal may distract users from WeChat in the short term, which is likely to be a reason why Tencent decided to remove Xiaobing from WeChat, Lu Jingyu, an industry analyst with iResearch, told the Global Times Sunday.

In just three days after debuting on WeChat, Xiaobing attracted a good response from tens of millions of WeChat users, said Xiaobing's Weibo account on Friday.

"Xiaobing's lack of a big breakthrough in technology may be another factor. Tencent will not support an app that cannot be a benefit to the company," Li Yi, secretary-general of the China Mobile Internet Industry Alliance, told the Global Times.

Xiaobing was developed and launched by Microsoft's Asia-Pacific Research and Development Group on May 29 to function as Siri-like voice assistance, which analysts said is aimed at helping Microsoft tap China's promising mobile Internet where the US software veteran has failed to reap any big fortunes so far.

Microsoft, a long-time dominant company in the PC era, has long been unable to gain traction in the mobile Internet arena, and it has to find a popular mobile application to re-emerge as a viable player in the mobile era, said Li.

Lu agreed with this, saying that seeking partnerships in the Chinese market where it has already lost the initiative can be an easy way to accomplish mobile success.

According to the Friday post on Xiaobing's Weibo account, Microsoft will roll out the chatting robot app on more SNS platforms in the future.

Yixin and Miliao can help Microsoft's Xiaobing amass some users and gain some popularity on the mobile front, but they can hardly promote Xiaobing as effectively as WeChat can due to smaller and less active user bases, Lu noted.

With reportedly 600 million registered users, WeChat saw 396 million monthly active users in the first quarter of 2014, according to a financial report disclosed by Tencent in May.

By contrast, Yixin, which is co-developed by the country's third-largest telecom carrier by subscribers China Telecom and Internet company NetEase, has 80 million registered users as of Saturday, while Miliao said on its Weibo Friday that its registered users has reached 50 million.

Although Yixin and Miliao will gain rapid popularity with the introduction of Microsoft's chatting robot app, they are still unlikely to threaten the position of WeChat, which is widely used by Chinese Web users, said Lu.