Susan is a businesswoman, busy but organized, running a start-up marketing agency. She usually spends her days like this: She gets up at 6 am, going through all the WeChat official accounts she follows to stay updated about what is happening around the world. After a short morning break, she makes a WeChat video call with her sales team based in California and shares the meeting notes in her sales team WeChat group chat. She usually stops by a Starbucks on her way to the office and grabs a cappuccino – surely paying with WeChat Pay. She always skims through WeChat Moments on the subway to see how her friends have been doing, and never hesitates to give them likes or “joy to cry” emoji comments if there is anything amusing. Her assistant, Celia, has lunch ordered through WeChat after the morning reports to ensure the food will be delivered on time by 12 pm. Susan has two important clients visiting the office next week, so she’s thinking about buying herself a new dress. She takes a quick look at a couple mini apps in WeChat and finally places the order. Susan likes to relax around 10 pm as no one will contact her about work past that time, during which she enjoys playing small games on WeChat for they’re simple and easy – the best choices for releasing some stress before sleep.
This is Susan’s daily life, and so many others. WeChat is no longer just for communicating in China, but also is an integral part of our work and study, socializing and purchasing. It shapes our lifestyle and maps the trends of future. According to DMR’s data in 2018, WeChat definitely deserves the honor of 1st app in China.
Due to its impressive user base, WeChat is an important part of the life of many Chinese. It can be used in almost any offline or online scenario encountered in daily life, for example:
- Send instant text & audio messages
- Place free audio & video calls
- Shop in WeChat stores
- Transfer money to contacts
- Book train, plane or cinema tickets
- Pay utilities
- Recharge your phone credit
- Read articles
- Play games
With such a mix of entertainment and utility, WeChat is now labeled as a super application, but I believe that their ultimate goal is to build an operating system at an app level – whether iOS or Android. With this, as long as you have a smartphone, all the convenience WeChat provides would be fully accessible. After all, the investments and efforts for hardware development don’t really come on a phone that can compete with Apple or Samsung. It’s clear that monetization saves when it comes to a long-term development of one single app, and WeChat has almost finished creating an ecosystem, which would “lock” users into one app to talk, to read, to think, to buy, and to live.
Here at Chinese Marketing, we are ready to walk you through WeChat’s intricacies and possibilities. We will further explain WeChat’s social eco-system, monetization model, and advertising patterns. These articles and analysis will give you a clear image of WeChat’s ambitions, as well as its unlimited future commercial possibilities for both China and your business.
Are you ready to be onboard? Let’s start our exploration by clicking the links below!
- The Development of WeChat
- Features That Have Made WeChat Successful (1)
- Features That Have Made WeChat Successful (2)
- Full of Magic – WeChat’s Official Account
- Is Mini App Going to Be the Future of WeChat Marketing?
You may also like
