WeChat is one of the most popular social media platforms in China, with more than 1.3 billion users worldwide. In 2023, China alone had 827.2 million users, representing 58.9% of the total population.
Half of China's population is therefore actively using WeChat. Businesses and individuals across all sectors are using this platform to tap into its vast user base.
In addition to its role as a social networking platform, WeChat offers features such as payments, transactions, shopping, video sharing, news, etc. It has become an indispensable tool in the daily lives of the Chinese people.
Your potential Asian customer is probably using WeChat right now. Isn't it exciting to find out how you can use this to your advantage and turn it into business?
That’s what we’ll explain in this blog post. We’ll focus on how WeChat is used in China, particularly for B2B SME marketing.
How do professionals use WeChat at work?
An alternative to email for communicating with your customers
You’re exhibiting at a trade show in China. You’re there with your best products or services, and excellent colleagues. A Chinese visitor walks by your booth and shows interest in your company.
After making initial contact at your booth, you'll typically follow up via WeChat rather than email. Your prospects will likely look for your QR code to follow your official account.
Now you’ve established a connection with your potential customers. With the ability to send instant messages and interact on WeChat Moments, you can now exchange holiday greetings with your business partners during the upcoming Chinese New Year, wishing them a wonderful Year of the Dragon!
In most Chinese companies, WeChat serves as a professional work platform for internal and external communication. WeChat groups, file sharing, WeChat Moments, and official accounts are the most commonly used features.
A LinkedIn Company Page on WeChat
As a B2B SMEs in China, your company likely already has an official WeChat account. Congratulations! You’ve taken one of the crucial steps in your business operations in China.
Please note that brands are allowed to post up to 4 articles per month using an official service account. New articles appear directly in users’ discussion feeds and immediately catch their attention when they check their unread messages.
You can also optimize the layout and your automatic replies. There are also some useful plugins available depending on your business's needs. For example, you can add your website pages to the tabs at the bottom and include "contact us" information in the automatic reply message.
Users can therefore access more information about your company and browse your products more easily. Compared to writing and sending an email, keep in mind that Chinese consumers prefer to communicate via direct messages when reaching out to a brand.
Channel: A video-sharing feature to showcase your products on WeChat
You may have noticed the “Channel” in blue, where users have access to short videos on the official account’s home page.
In 2020, WeChat, building on its familiar social base and billions of daily active users, launched its short video and live streaming feature "视频号 shì pín hào" or "Channel" in English. B2B companies can now showcase their products or industry insights through videos to increase their brand visibility.
There are several ways to access this “Channel” video feature in WeChat. One of them is on the Discover page, where you see “Moments,” where you can scroll through videos endlessly, just like an Instagram feed. The “Channel” and “Official Account” are linked to each other. Users can easily switch from an article feed to a more engaging short video page.
Moments: Your Personal LinkedIn Feed on WeChat
Statistics show that 80% of visits to official WeChat accounts come from Moments. Moments is also known as “péng yǒu quān,” which means “circle of friends” in Chinese. Users can post text, images, and videos or share links, much like on a LinkedIn feed.
Zhang Xiaolong, the founder of WeChat, describes Moments as“a town square”where users spend half an hour each day strolling around, listening in on others’ conversations. Come across something relevant to you? Take a moment, say hello to the community and join the conversation with a comment.
In the field of B2B commerce, Moments serves the same professional purpose as the LinkedIn feed. Users update product information, repost the latest WeChat article, and interact with potential customers. In other words, you drive your private traffic to the company’s official account by posting to your Moments.
It is worth noting that a visible increase in the number of visitors and followers has been observed following a re-post by a top-tier seller.
Over the past decade, the WeChat ecosystem has continually evolved to become a more business-friendly platform. For example, you can optimize your post according to SEO guidelines to increase traffic. There’s a mini-program available to analyze your post’s performance. You can purchase WeChat ads in Moments to display your content in your target audience’s Moments feed. We’ll cover this in more detail in our upcoming blog posts.
WeCom: A Team Collaboration App
However, the app has faced criticism as the boundary between employees' work and personal lives is not clearly defined. Tencent therefore launched "WeCom", or "企业微信 qǐ yè wēi xìn" in Chinese, an app that smartly separates employees' professional and personal lives.
Users can now log in to WeCom using the same WeChat account, but no personal account is involved anymore.
It serves both as a workplace communication tool and as a customer relationship management system. In fact, when an employee leaves the company, the company can reassign customer management and avoid the risk of losing valuable resources.
A Closer Look at the Handy Features to Remember in WeChat
In China, when you’re in a store, a cashier might ask you, “Would you like to pay with WeChat or Alipay?” instead of “card or cash.” You can make the payment right within WeChat without having to open a separate app. In addition, it’s also convenient to transfer money, split the bill, or send “lucky money” as a gesture of goodwill during the Spring Festival.
WeChat Mini Program is a “lightweight app” that can be used without any download or installation. Users can easily order a meal, book a taxi, or complete an administrative task by scanning a code in WeChat. Whether in e-commerce, education, healthcare, or lifestyle services, the development potential and business opportunities are considerable.
In 2023, the number of daily active users of WeChat Mini Programs exceeded one billion.
These very handy features allow more WeChat users to stay within the WeChat ecosystem, making it a super app with many possibilities.
As you can see, WeChat is therefore a must-have app for B2B companies.
WeChat and European Companies: Some Key Features
However, there are obstacles for European B2B SMEs looking to leverage this impressive WeChat ecosystem, such as setting up an official account, maintaining regular updates and registering for WeCom.
As a Chinese technology company, WeChat has created an efficient process for Chinese entities, but the process for foreign companies is completely different. As a result, foreign companies cannot benefit from copyright protection for original articles, payment features, or customer service due to language barriers and bureaucratic constraints..
The good news is that we have someone at Maia Consulting who knows WeChat inside and out and can help you overcome these challenges.