A new type of local expertise
Two years ago, Tencent introduced a new product: Mini Programs. Fast forward to today, a very hot expertise appeared on many job descriptions: Mini Program development!
The growth rate of mini programs is rapid. According to Tencent's 2018 Q4 report, as of November 2018, daily active users of WeChat mini programs has exceeded 200 million, and the number of online small programs has reached 1M+, mainly related to retail, e-commerce, life services, government....more than 200 fields.
In the meantime, the number of mini program developers in China reached 1.5 million Outside the mainland however, very few programmers would even know where to start...
Follow the traffic
If you are about to build a new product, you are probably weighing your options:
In China, Super Apps are eating pretty much all the traffic. In September 2018, WeChat had 1B+ active users every month (Annual Data Report).
We believe the future of an Internet Business is not about opening yet another website, but instead building on top of a Super App and utilizing its traffic. WeChat comes top of mind, obviously. Alipay, Baidu, Bytedance are also very vibrant ecosystems to look into.
The Chinese tech market has seen an explosion of Mini Programs and it’s not slowing down. Whether you’re a large brand or a startup, you’re looking into having your own Mini Programs. The demand for developers is high - particularly if you can work with international companies and understand the Chinese tech ecosystem.
That demand is even higher if you’re abroad, working in a big city where many Chinese nationals are. Outside China, Chinese tech is a blackbox, and those who can develop and leverage WeChat becomes immensely valuable to anyone looking to do business with Chinese customers.
——Dounan HU, program head of Le Wagon China
A community-driven platform for Mini Program developers
The software developers capable of designing and building mini programs inside these Super App ecosystems have lots of jobs opportunities. We are constantly receiving requests by organizations in and outside China.
Almost every day, companies based in London, Barcelona, Paris, Tokyo...... are connecting with us. They want to hire someone globally minded and experienced with Mini Programs.
To address this urgent need, the Le Wagon China community opened a new platform named www.wechatdevelopers.com. Selected developers listed here can be directly hired (freelance or full time) for Mini Programs.
We're calling out to all developers in our community to add themselves today, if they would like to receive some new projects!
Le Wagon, on a mission to train digital professionals
Two years ago, our training programs in China added extra lectures about mini programs as we anticipated scarcity. We already trained 200 international talents capable of designing, coding and advising global brands and clients on building applications for WeChat or any other super app platforms.
——Thibault, head of Le Wagon China
If you too decide to specialize and become a mini-program expert, a huge market is in front of you.