WeChat: a unique “super-app” model
Launched in January 2011 by Tencent, Wechat is the reference and most used super-app in China.
As a matter of fact, you can do absolutely everything on WeChat.
From the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed, you will use WeChat in China.
But what makes this application so indispensable?
It’s simple… On WeChat, you can send messages, post content, take your subway ticket, book your movie ticket, pay your electricity bill, see a doctor in video, make a donation, buy in a group, order your meal, see your friends in the district, take advantage of discount coupons, order a cab, unlock a bike, look at the vacation pictures of your favorite star, follow a concert in live stream, see if there is a line at the concert of this evening… and even follow the daily cases of covid in your neighborhood!
You can do it all on Wechat.
And Wechat reached a milestone of 1 billion users in March 2018 and now peaks at about 1.1 billion monthly users. There are an estimated 800 to 900 million personal accounts in China and 100 to 200 million abroad.
Other staggering numbers:
- 120 million posts per day,
- 400 million users of “mini-programs”,
- 360 million visits of official accounts (figures: KAWO)
Using WeChat for your digital marketing in China:
WeChat, like many social networks, allows you to create several types of accounts.
In addition to the personal account, you can create an “official account” to promote your activities and publish articles on the network.
For companies, it is possible to open two types of official accounts:
- The “subscription account”: where you can post as much content as you want.
- The “service account”: limits the amount of publishable content, but multiplies the capacities of follow-up of digital marketing campaigns: with a CRM, targeted ads, customization of the page, etc… (source: Chozan)
To learn more, I recommend the excellent report of the company KAWO on the marketing of Chinese social networks in 2022.
(Not sponsored, to me, it’s just the best report on the subject!)
My favorite features on Wechat
I’ve been using WeChat for years, and even while in France and abroad, I still use the application daily.
I send electronic hongbao 红包, those little red packets containing money, to my friends for their birthday. I share my life in Europe and brag about the results of the French soccer team. And most importantly, I still read posts from my favorite artist and KOL accounts in China.
My favorite feature though is the step counter.
It’s a daily ranking that resets at midnight and puts in competition all the contacts in one’s list… the prize for the winner? The right to choose the opening image of the program, that all your contacts will see until being beaten.
A good way to exercise daily!
In China, as soon as 99% of the contacts you meet use this application, you can’t really go by without it. For friends as well as for work, it’s our new phone number. Our main contact channel.
As proof, many expatriates in China have not used their phone number for years.
Wechat is definitely an app for everything, necessary for survival!
(I remember having broken my phone once in China: suddenly, I was stuck, no more payment, no more contacts, I’ve disappeared from the system… 😅)
What about you? Do you have a WeChat account? 来来加我吧！
