Sky Gidge

    skygidge@icloud.com

    Not sure what you’re doing tonight? One Shenzhen-based entrepreneur might have an answer for you with his recently launched app.

    WeVite will bring Facebook-like “event” functions to WeChat, according to app creator David Garzotto.

    “The idea came from WeChat not having an events function, making it easy to create and share an event,” said Garzotto.

    “Events are one of the few areas where WeChat lags behind Facebook,” said he, who is originally from the United States.

    In 2007, Garzotto launched shenzhenstuff.com, a social networking site that lists events in Shenzhen.

    “Everything is going mobile now, right? In the future desktop websites are not going to be popular. The idea was to add something to WeChat — to make it better.”

    It took about a year to develop the app, with most of coding being done by a team based in India.

    “You have to register a company in China even to register with Tencent,” said Garzotto, explaining that Tencent has strict rules about which apps can interact with WeChat. “So I had to register a company to do this app.”

    Garzotto said that over 1,000 people have begun using the app, although some signed up before Friday’s official launch.

    The program was also designed for people who want to organize small get-togethers with friends, according to Vincent Zhao, the chief technology officer for WeVite.

    “Event pages can be created right from [user’s] phones and shared privately on WeChat,” Zhao said.

    “The push messaging part of the application — which sends you message about events nearby — that was the most difficult part,” said Garzotto, saying a complicated algorithm is used to decide when the app will message a user about a nearby event.

    “It’s more thinking from the user standpoint: people want to know what is happening nearby them,” said Garzotto. “Over a thousand people have joined. There is traction.”

    The app officially launched Friday, but was available for download earlier for Android and Apple phones.

    Garzotto, who has been in Shenzhen for 11 years, said he hopes the app will eventually be able to sell tickets.