--FILE--une pancarte de la messagerie mobile app Weixin, ou de Tencent WeChat, est représentée au siège de WeChat dans la ville de Guangzhou, Chine du sud Gu
--FILE--A signboard of mobile messaging app Weixin, or WeChat, of Tencent is pictured at the headquarters of WeChat in Guangzhou city, south Chinas Guangdong province, 31 August 2014. WeChat, one of China¯s most popular mobile-messaging applications, is turning to thousands of students studying in the U.S. to spread its usage across the country. One of those is Xiaoxing Han, who graduated last year from Michigan State University. Han, 25, introduced her off-campus church to WeChat, which is owned by Chinese Internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. Now about 15 fellow members are using WeChat to stay in touch with friends and to alert the 4, 000-person Chinese community about church events. °WeChat has everything, ± said Nick Setterington, director of international ministries for University Reformed Church in East Lansing, Michigan. °Maintaining personal communication with the international community through WeChat has helped me stay in touch with people better.± Han is one of about 274, 000 Chinese nationals who studied in the U.S. in the past academic year, many of whom have become informal ambassadors for WeChat by introducing it to non-Chinese friends and classmates and helping to lay the groundwork for Tencent to expand in the country.
