WeChat Payments for Overseas Companies

September 8, 2021

WeChat, a social networking platform developed by Chinese internet giant Tencent, is the most popular platform in China, with over 1.2 billion active users. It provides a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to connect out to the Chinese people.

While WeChat is the most popular social networking platform in the country, WeChat Pay is the most popular payment platform. With over 900 million users a month, the payment platform with its convenient payment options have driven China to become the virtually cash-and-card-free economy it is today.

WeChat has recently brought together a number of essential features, including a game platform, a bank, and even a food delivery and thrift shopping gateway. As a result, it has become a must-have tool for foreign businesses looking to expand in the world’s most populous country. WeChat is not just a significant social tool for Chinese users, but it is also at the core of commercial corporate operations in China, making it the best and only opportunity for foreign companies wishing to establish a business in the country.

With 1.21 billion monthly active WeChat users worldwide and a +7 million quarter-over-quarter increase in global monthly active users, there is no doubt that WeChat and WeChat Pay are the most essential platforms for any foreign company looking to establish a presence in China and gain broad access to one of the world’s largest markets.

In order to get started on the process, you’ll first need a WeChat official account. Then, using your WeChat Official Account login information you can set up your WeChat Pay. As with Facebook pages, these are official WeChat brand accounts.

Setting up WeChat Pay is pretty straightforward if you already have a WeChat Official Account. If you don’t, you’ll need to create one. Here are some options on how an overseas business can set up WeChat Pay to conquer the Chinese audience.

1. Establish using Tencent directly

Through Tencent’s WeChat Pay website, businesses can easily set up WeChat Pay. Their Tencent’s bank account will transfer any money you receive immediately to your company’s account.

Setting up your WeChat Pay account directly with Tencent normally takes 2-4 months. Currently, there are limited refund alternatives, and you can only offer one if that day’s inbound transactions are larger than the refund amount. WeChat Pay will collect a 1-2% commission on all transactions.

2. Establish using Tencent-authorized WeChat Pay distributors

With the support of authorised payment agencies, WeChat Pay has worked with brands in different countries to enable them to set up cross-border payments.

Setting up your WeChat Pay through an authorized WeChat partner normally takes 1-2 weeks. Currently, there are flexible refund options; most orders placed within the past month can be refunded. To the WeChat Pay rate/transaction the service provider will add a minor surcharge of 2-3%.

Irrespective of which option you choose to set up your account, there are several documents you must provide:

Companies registration certification
All directors’ identification documentation
Financial license
Anti-money laundering agreement
Primary business contacts and legal representatives

Therefore, WeChat Pay is an essential medium for seamless selling of products and conducting business with a Chinese audience. It connects global businesses with Chinese consumers, allowing them to pay for transactions with overseas vendors in RMB.

Furthermore, because WeChat Pay can be linked to a WeChat Official Account, you can increase your brand awareness by creating a WeChat Official Account and encouraging your WeChat Pay users to follow and interact with it.

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WeChat Marketing vs Website Marketing

July 15, 2021

Introduction

China has 574 million active mobile internet users and 668 million internet users. People in China spend about 50% of their daily time on digital devices. Going by these huge figures, there is a huge potential for digital marketing and advertising in China.

There is an uncapped potential for digital communication for companies to reach out to the masses and engage with them in innovative new ways. This phenomenon is taking place globally, but what makes China stand out is its massive tech savvy population who form a big chunk of the market.

This article will provide tips on how and when to utilise WeChat as well as websites to market your product to this market in China.

1. WeChat Marketing Practices:

WeChat, the Super-App

WeChat was launched in 2011 as a messaging platform but transformed into an app for both personal as well as professional use. Along with its basic social networking features like news feed and messaging system, it also has a digital wallet, gaming center, and options for businesses to promote themselves.

WeChat is (or should be) any company’s first choice to engage with Chinese audiences.

Best Practices For WeChat Marketing

Timely Activities

Like any social media platform, people check their WeChat on the go, so it is a good idea to keep tabs on the times when users are most active and optimise marketing campaigns around those times. Agencies like TheWeChatAgency can help you monitor your engagement and ensure all posts and responses are on time.

Interesting Snippets

WeChat marketing strategies usually work if the information is short, simple and interesting as attention spans vary in effectiveness from user to user. Forbidden City & Tencent had launched an interactive campaign which featured Zhu Yuanzhang, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, coming to life from an ancient painting. It involved users by taking selfies, singing songs and navigating through various features of WeChat. Within two days, it had around 800 million downloads.

Connect Your Website To WeChat

It is a good idea to connect your product catalogue or website to your WeChat account. This will lead to automatic updates on WeChat whenever you post or update your website.

2. Website Marketing Practices

First things first. Hosting a website in China requires an Internet Content Provider (ICP) license. These are issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. ICPs are only given to companies with an established Chinese legal entity such as a Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprise (WFOE) or a Joint Venture (JV).

It’s also essential to register a “.cn” domain name with the Chinese Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC). This domain name also gives an impression to your potential customers that you have a brand presence in China.

Lastly, companies need to register with Baidu, China’s online search engine, for visibility.

Best Practices For Websites In China

Mobile Over Desktop Websites

Most websites in China use a phone number instead of an email ID, and for users their phone number is linked to their e-commerce accounts, digital wallets, social network accounts among others. So it makes sense that a mobile website would be your first priority.

Designing The Website

The next hurdle to cross in your efforts to reach the masses is to create a user-friendly mandarin-based website aimed at Chinese consumers. In designing your Chinese-language website it’s also important to consider the role of space.

In most Chinese websites, the font size is large as there is no space between Chinese characters.

Other important website design features involve choosing the right colours and symbols which appeal to Chinese audiences.

Although Chinese websites are not as fancy as their English-language counterparts, they have more text and updates on promotions and offers. The visuals are also different to keep it localised and these visuals play a large part in attracting Chinese consumers.

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How Brands Can Get Started With WeChat CRM

November 10, 2020

With China becoming a bigger and bigger opportunity for brands by the day, more and more companies gear towards tapping that market, which means bigger competition. Therefore, brands need to deliver experiences that create authentic customer value. They want continuous growth but they forget to utilise the tools that can help them achieve that goal. In order to achieve the best ROI direct engagement and interaction, they need good social CRM.

💼Why should brands use CRM Integrations on WeChat and how about Salesforce? [UPDATED 2022]

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Implications of the WeChat Ban

September 25, 2020

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning WeChat in the United States. The order says along with the ban, Americans will be prohibited from carrying out any transactions with Tencent, WeChat’s parent company. This decision to ban the WeChat app will have serious long-term implications on consumers, American companies that have a large and significant presence in China and US-China relations as well.

WeChat is China’s most popular and useful messaging app with a monthly active user base of over 1 billion. WeChat’s popularity makes it the main form of communication among Chinese consumers. Even though many like to call WeChat a messaging tool, it’s much more than that. The app can be used for texting, voice or video calls, reading news, bill payments, taxis, and even games. It’s no wonder why WeChat is called a “super app” in China.

What’s the issue?

According to Donald Trump, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in India had asserted that the Chinese companies Tencent Holdings and Bytedance were allegedly stealing and surreptitiously transmitting users’ data without authorization to servers outside India and that the US needed to ban any transactions on such apps as a protective measure as well. The United States wants “untrusted” Chinese apps to be removed from US app stores. And those “untrusted” apps belong to Chinese companies Tencent Holdings, the owner of WeChat, and ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company. The executive order said the government would ban WeChat and TikTok from operating in the US if they are not sold by their parent companies.

April 14, 2020

WeChat has well over 1.12 billion users, making it the fifth most popular social media platform worldwide. It’s an app you cannot ignore especially since its penetration rate is approximately 80% in China. With WeChat becoming more and more popular and powerful in China, being present on the platform and having a well-documented strategy around it has become necessary.

Here are 4 important pointers to fine-tune your WeChat marketing strategy to the highest possible level.

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What Is WeChat’s “Time Capsule”?

March 26, 2020

With hundreds of features already on deck, there’s one which is quite in talks: the Time Capsule. This feature is similar to Snapchat’s main feature of disappearing messages. It allows users to post videos and other rich media on the platform for a period of 24 hours, after which it vanishes.

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