WECHAT (微信 - WEIXIN)

WeChat (or Weixin as it is known in China), is China's super app. Over the past 10+ years, WeChat has become integral to the lives of people living in China. As a super app, WeChat users can send messages, share photos, post videos, make voice and video calls, follow social media and make payments using WeChat Pay. With mini-programs (essentially mini-apps within WeChat), users can do everything from book hotels and buy the latest fashion items to browse real estate listings and read about the latest tech trend. WeChat is part of daily life in China for hundreds of millions of users. To take advantage of a captive audience in China, businesses can register an official account on WeChat.

WeChat in China allows businesses registered outside of China to open official accounts.

International businesses are required to submit an application to WeChat in China and provide their current company registration documents, the ID of the company director/signatory, the ID and phone number of a Chinese national and other documentation as WeChat may require; this is to verify the legal status and ownership of the business. All documentation must be translated into Simplified Chinese or English.

Businesses registered outside of China, such as in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, etc., have two options when opening an official account on WeChat, the Service Account or the Subscription Account. Once successfully registered, the official account will be searchable and have a badge signifying its verified status.

A WeChat Service Account is an official account on WeChat that allows a business to push content to their followers 4 times per month. Each push can contain anywhere from 1 to 7 articles with text and images. The push notification will appear in the user's main message feed, along with their friends and family. The Service Account also comes with a Video Channel. See the images below for a look at the interface and options available.

The WeChat Subscription Account allows a business to push content to their followers 30 times per month. Similar to a Service Account, each push can contain 1 or more articles with text and images. The push notification appears on a Subscription folder in the main message feed. The Subscription folder contains all of the subscription accounts that a user is following.

According to various reports there are anywhere from 810 million to 1.1 billion monthly active users in China. There seems to be a consensus online that globally WeChat has 1.3 billion users. Regardless of the exact figure, WeChat is clearly the most popular app in China, and perhaps the world.