Wechat: The Chinese one-app for everything.

Clean up your screen! This one app does it all

Today, people who do business in China and know how to do it well, have a common BFF (Best Friend Forever), Wechat. If you have a strong interest in doing business in China, Wechat is something that you must pay attention to. If you google “China top 10 popular social media”, the first thing to come up with will be Wechat. As a smart business person, I am betting you will download Wechat before you even finish this post!

Wechat – the New Emperor of Chinese social media.

"When your brand becomes a verb, it’s amazing." -Meg Whitman

Wechat, or Weixin, is a multi-function social media application developed by Tencent, allowing text and voice messaging communication and a social platform via photos, articles, and videos. It was born on January 21, 2011. In just five years, Wechat has become the most popular social media in China. In the US, you say “google it” when you want to search something. Similarly, In China, you will “Wechat me” when you want to contact someone. That’s the power of Wechat. Meg Whitman once said, “When your brand becomes a verb, it’s amazing.” Wechat is amazing!

5 Things A Smart Business Person Like You Should Know About Wechat:

1.       The super app!

Wechat is a combination of many other apps. Look at your phone, you use WhatsApp for communicating, Facebook for sharing moments, Apple Pay for mobile payment, Uber for online taxi ordering……Imagine all of these gone because you can replace all of these with Wechat. Wechat is a mix of Apple pay, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Uber, Linked-in, YouTube, and Twitter. Wechat makes your phone home page simple, and clean!

2.       One billion users can’t be wrong!

Wechat is the most popular and common user app in China. Almost everyone in China gets a Wechat account. Kids in primary school have Wechat, even my grandparents have Wechat as well. In 2017, the number of users on Wechat has reached nearly one billion, and it continues to grow. Up to 55% of the users spend more than one hour on Wechat. Every day you have to be on Wechat to capture any business in China.

Source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/255778/number-of-active-wechat-messenger-accounts/ from statista.com

3.       Wechat is a marketing powerhouse

Learn to market on Wechat! With a nearly one billion users, Wechat is a perfect place to promote, brand, and advertise. Smart brands use Wechat for O2O (online to offline) too. There are three great ways to use wechat for marketing:

1)      Online sales: The China E-commerce market is the most developed in the world. 20% of the purchases are made online, and 90% of them come from mobile. The micro-store is a function on Wechat, allowing owners to sell products and services and users to order online. Business is easy between sellers and buyers.

2)      Wechat creates entrepreneurs and distributors: Wechat business is the fastest way for young people to make money. It allows them to sell things as middle men in Wechat and decide the sales price by themselves! These young people have their own customer group and do their own business!

3)      O2O: A new extension of E-commerce is O2O (Online to Offline). Use a QR code, which is easy to spread, and to attract customers. The QR code is a scan function on Wechat, which allows mobile payment, coupons and more. Once people scan the QR code of a company, to get a discount, they become potential customers and follow your shared content. They also can follow Wechat to the store with a built-in mapping function.

4.       Wechat makes carrying cash a thing of the past

Wechat debuted its first payment system in 2013. Users can send each other money through “Pocket money” and “Money transfer”. Meanwhile, users can also pay their bills by scanning QR codes. With this more convenient way to pay the bills, people are more willing to spend their money.

Wechat Pay and the QR code

5.       Official Account-the new social media website

Wechat is now the primary source for Chinese to follow their favorite brands. Official Wechat accounts provide a platform for companies to promote themselves. Through official accounts, companies undertake campaigns with content and well-designed landing pages, to let more people know more about their brands and even experience their products. Meanwhile, with official account, users can easily send to chats or share on Moments (something like a FB post or an Insta post), letting all their friends know about the product. And you own the data as all of it goes to a private programming interface.

Here’s a great example, Durex Condoms: Durex is one of the largest condom brands in the world. It’s popular in China because the products work! Durex gives out free condom packages to users who follow their official account by randomly selecting the “Lucky one” (no pun intended). To participate in the campaign, users only need to reply “I Join!” to the official account landing page. It turns out that in only two hours, Durex got tens of thousands of replies from the subscribers. Here’s to start your official account. It’s simple, just follow the chart.

source: http://www.adone.com.hk/wechat-marketing.html from adone.com

6.      Simplify everything in your life – Wechat!

Need to make a hospital appointment - Wechat!

Need to order a car - Wechat!

Need to meet people nearby just shake your phone - Wechat!

Need to add minutes to your phone - Wechat!

Need to rent a bike- Wechat!

Need to get food delivery- Wechat!

Need to book a movie/bus ticket- Wechat!

Need to share your location- Wechat!

……more services are added every month!

Times are changing, don’t miss the new opportunities. What kind of people will refuse an app that can do anything? Download Wechat now and start your business in China. Win at the beginning!