WeChat – Facebook’s newest rival?
In a world where ‘disrupters’ is an all too frequently used buzzword, one communication tool from China is living up to the hype—WeChat. The social media and messaging platform is the most popular in its country of origin; making waves throughout the rest of Asia; and steadily creeping onto the global scene.
After its launch in China in 2011, WeChat took a little time to expand—but now its popularity is gaining ground. Using it for marketing purposes is one of the biggest opportunities open to companies in Asia.
Like its competitors Facebook and Twitter, WeChat offers companies, brands and celebs ‘official accounts’ that can be used for connecting with the customer base. People follow these accounts and interact with them—giving businesses another platform to communicate and drive content to their audience.
Using push notifications, brands get their message out to the masses with the option to visit their website at the bottom of the page. Combining these methods is powerful, especially when you have an audience of over 1 billion monthly users at your fingertips.
Take BBC India as an example. Its WeChat page contains a brief profile on the front page with links bringing users through to news, sport or cinema. This platform allows the BBC to showcase their content and to send push messages to their followers—messages that alert users to the new content and drive people to their web page. The integral payment service on WeChat also allows consumers to shop securely and with ease on a product’s page.
New platforms are developed all the time. Sometimes it can be difficult to embrace the abundance of choice in this area while avoiding the common pitfalls they share, but the growing popularity of WeChat suggests it’s a tool worth exploring for the promotion of content—especially when attempting to reach a global audience.