Customer relationship management with WeChat: How to apply analytics principles to social media in China

Abstract

WeChat is by far the most important social communication platform in China, encompassing more than a billion daily active users across an entire ecosystem of touch points. It combines peer-to-peer messaging, online payments, business accounts, miniprograms, social sharing and business productivity. This presents great opportunities for brands looking to do business in China as well as serious challenges. This paper contextualises WeChat’s development from app to superapp since its launch in 2011. It looks at how the WeChat account itself is changing and what that this indicates about the average Chinese netizen. The paper then delineates the changes in WeChat and how marketing and sales people are leveraging them, including some of the most common tactics for conducting successful customer relationship management via WeChat. Finally, the paper discusses how WeChat is likely to develop in the coming years.