Perhaps you have WeChat, a mobile instant messaging service that coexists in the West with WhatsApp or Telegram, and that reigns in China alone. Like the other applications, WeChat allows you to send text or voice messages and make video calls. However, equating them would oversimplify things. Take a seat as we explain what WeChat is and why you should use it in your company or brand.
WeChat is the most popular social network in China with more than 1.25 billion active users who spend 66 minutes a day. Tencent, the most valuable technology company in the country, created it in 2011 under the name Weixin (‘micro-letter’ in Chinese).
Today anyone in the world can download WeChat (it is available in 20 languages on the App Store and Google Play) and enjoy its advantages over WhatsApp. One of them is that this network remains standing when Mark Zuckerberg’s apps crash. However, if you are Chinese, you have no alternative, since the other instant messaging applications do not reach there.
A multipurpose tool
WeChat transcends the rest of the apps by offering a variety of functions, ranging from communicating with our friends in its ‘Moments’ function (a kind of Facebook), to requesting an appointment with the registry to get married or divorced, to follow celebrities, to play to video games, pay the electricity bill, buy in a store or send money with ‘WeChat Pay’, order a taxi, or find out what happens in your favorite competition.
WeChat is the most popular social network in China with more than 1.2 billion active users who spend 66 minutes a day on it.
Why Brands Are Interested in WeChat
WeChat works as a website. In fact, the usual thing in most companies is to first open an official account in it before your own website or presence in other apps.
More than 1.5 million companies are registered on WeChat and some 30 million people use it for work purposes. This happens for two reasons: The first, ‘Enterprise chat’, the function that allows the workers of a company to communicate with each other. The second, that in China WeChat messages are replacing email.
The best ally of e-commerce
90% of small business owners use WeChat for their operations and 70% of freelancers transact with it. In the WeChat virtual store, companies promote their products and services. They also offer exclusive services for their subscribers, such as giveaways or discount coupons. Its payment service has millions of registered cards, so this network is a must if you have an e-commerce. Young people on WeChat are reshaping China’s luxury market, Tencent explains.
Now that you know what WeChat is, you have seen that it offers a multitude of functions (social, business and internal organization) that will make it easier for any brand to have a presence in China. However, the process to get a verified account is even more complicated than with Weibo: you need to have a company in China or get a special license for foreign businesses, upon payment of fees and in a process that lasts between three or four weeks. Kalea Group can help you to be in the essential social network for any brand in China.
