Category: Blogs

Imagine a world where Apple isn’t the be-all and end-all. Imagine switching from an iPhone to an Android device without losing files or having to re-download apps. That place does exist: China!
Unlike the West, the Chinese app ecosystem is very fragmented – you won’t see Google and Apple battling it out here.

Whilst the Google Play store wasn’t hugely popular before Google pulled out of China in 2010, its exit did pave the way for the rise of the domestic market. Today there are currently over 200 Chinese Android app stores, owned by a combination of third parties and smartphone manufacturers.

Android is overwhelmingly the dominating force with claiming 86.4% of the smartphone market share.

CHINA’S THRIVING APP MARKET

According to research firm App Annie, mainland China now has the world’s biggest iOS app store measured by revenue. However, China’s homegrown Android alternatives are also on track to reach $20 billion in revenue this year, and potentially overtake their rival.

It comes as no surprise, then, that China is predicted to drive the largest app revenue growth of any country in 2020.

THE TOP 5 ANDROID APPSTORES (2017)

• Tencent Myapp – Owned by China’s social media powerhouse, it attracts users through its other services i.e. WeChat, QQ and games.

• 360 Mobile Assistant – Belongs to China’s second largest search engine. Recently launched its own smartphone with built-in app store.

• Xiaomi App Store – Fastest growing Chinese smartphone manufacturer, moved up to 3rd since 2015. Also available as a web app and can be installed on any Android device.

• Baidu Mobile Assistant – Owned by China’s largest search engine, it has dropped by 4.3% since 2015 and claims to be moving away from mobile technology.

• Huawei – Smartphone manufacturer with largest market share in China, built-in app store.

WECHAT – THE SUPER APP

Apart from the vast number of app stores, the unique position of WeChat also makes China’s digital landscape a lot more challenging for Apple.

If Chinese consumers want to switch to Android, it simply requires re-downloading WeChat where typically all the user’s mobile payment records and files are stored. As such, China’s iPhone retention figures are around 50% compared to 80% in the UK and US markets.

Earlier in 2017, we also saw the launch of WeChat’s mini programs – essentially stripped back versions of iOS and Android apps which don’t need to be installed, instead they’re stored and run from within WeChat.

LOCALIZING YOUR APP FOR THE CHINESE MARKET

A few points to consider…

1) Be visible

For an app to be visible on Android devices in China, you’ll need to go through an approval process (usually around 2 weeks) with each Android app store individually. This must be done by a local Chinese entity with a developer account for each store.

2) Don’t rule out the Apple App Store

If your target market is willing to pay for premium accounts, consider having a presence on the Apple App Store as users in China tend to spend more on apps than Android users.

3) Host your app on a local server

There’s nothing worse than an app that’s slow to load or even disconnects. Hosting on a local Chinese server will ensure the user experience isn’t compromised. If your company doesn’t have a base in China, find a local partner or agency.

4) Apply for an ICP license

You’ll need permission from the ‘Chinese Internet Authority’ to run/host your app within the Great Firewall. To use a local server, you’ll need a few things:

• Local business license
• Domain name
• ICP License

Abi is a digital marketer currently living in Chengdu. Originally from the UK, she’s still trying to train her taste buds to cope with Sichuan spice!

WeChat (Weixin) doesn’t really need any introduction but if you want to talk numbers it has 767 million active monthly users in mainland China alone (as of Jan 2017).

For those enticed by the opportunities of the Chinese market, the question is not whether your business should be on WeChat, but which type of account you should use.

Subscription, service, enterprise, verified or unverified? I don’t blame you if it’s all a little hazy, after all, Facebook and Twitter make it incredibly easy to get a business online. China’s digital landscape, however, is unique and a little complex – but those who can navigate it will reap the rewards!

Let’s look at some of the key considerations for any social media strategy and how service and subscription accounts weigh in:

BRAND VISIBILITY

As a service account, your business will appear in a user’s chat feed amongst personal contacts and groups. Clearly a good place to be as users spend a lot of time scrolling and browsing here, and if they really like you they can pin your account to the top of the list. Probably even more valuable,your followers will receive a push notification every time you post new content.

You’ve essentially been invited to a user’s inner circle, so this is a chance for you to build top-of-mind awareness and keep that proactive engagement going in the long run.

Surely that will just lead to spamming? No, WeChat has limited this to 4 posts per month – it’s a user-centric platform after all (if only Facebook cared so much about us!).

With a subscription account, your brand is housed in the ‘subscription folder’ along with dozens of others. Crucially, the user must actively choose to read your latest post – no push notifications. As a new brand entering the market, this can be challenging, therefore, try to keep users coming back without the need for incentives (e.g. promotions and giveaways). However, as a subscription account allows you to send one message per day, it might just be the perfect choice for content-based businesses like BuzzFeed.

  

CUSTOMER SERVICE

Word of mouth is incredibly powerful in China so making sure your customer service is up to scratch should be a priority.

Available for both service and subscription accounts, WeChat allows you to manage customers incoming messages with a Message API. Additionally, service accounts have access to  template or event-based messaging, as the name suggests, specific messages can be triggered by different actions rather than an individual message to the customer.

This is particularly important for e-commerce as it can be automated for delivery updates, feedback messages etc. and is not included as part of the 4 messages per month limit. In fact, this could be adapted to any customer life cycle not necessarily just for e-commerce.

A word of warning – avoid using it for outbound marketing or you might feel the wrath of WeChat!

CUSTOMIZATION AND INTERACTIVITY

Both types of account allow you to customize the menu at the bottom of the chat interface. However, the service account gives you that bit extra and you can really create a much more unique and interactive brand experience.

Ticket reservation, check-in services, online stores, games, in fact, any mini-mobile site can be integrated into a service account, so you don’t need to build a standalone app.

For example, McDonald’s integrated store finder detects the user’s location and provides directions to the nearest store. CuraLife, a provider of homeopathic supplements, lets diabetes sufferers digitally record and track their blood sugar levels, receive advice and purchase products – all within WeChat.

 

FOLLOWER INSIGHT AND CHANNEL ANALYTICS

With a service account, you have slightly more sophisticated data analysis tools at your fingertips for segmentation, channel traffic, and follower insight.

Aside from the basic profile of your followers, you can also detect user location – perfect for location-based marketing. Even more useful is the ability to create multiple ‘parametric’ QR codes and track the performance of each placement e.g. on a flyer, on a website, at an event etc. Now you can finally get some feedback on whether those leaflets did the trick or not!

But wait, there’s more! Combine this with the ability to embed path rules i.e. QR codes routing directly to different products, services or campaigns depending on placement. Sales, customer service and user analysis could all benefit from this targeted approach.

E-COMMERCE

This is where service accounts really come into their own, especially for cross-border e-commerce! Your WeChat store is integrated directly with WeChat’s E-wallet, which makes it a seamless process for customers browsing and buying products.

Your product can be bought in one click without the customer even leaving the app (Note: This is not a feature of a subscription account whether verified or not).

 

What’s the point in a subscription account, then?

Service and subscription accounts aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive! It’s not uncommon to see companies making the most of the customization features offered by a service account, as well as setting up a dedicated content marketing channel using a subscription account.

(A brief word on the enterprise account – this is more for internal company use, think of it as WeChat’s answer to Slack or Trello).

VERIFIED OR UNVERIFIED?

Like Facebook and Twitter, it’s a straightforward way for users to guarantee the authenticity of the account (or stop people trying to pass off a fish eye for a pearl! 鱼目混珠). As a business, not only will you receive a gold badge next to your name and rank higher in search results but certain advanced features (WeChat Payment, WeChat geo-location etc.) are only available after an account has been verified.

For both subscription and service accounts, verification also unlocks the world of WeChat advertising… but that’s for another time!

OPENING AN ACCOUNT

It’s important to realize that whilst users with the foreign version of the app can access content and accounts from both inside and outside mainland China, accounts created by companies outside of China are not visible in mainland China.

To open a service account, you’ll need to be a registered company in China or an agency can act on your behalf. By comparison, a subscription account is slightly easier to set up, but you’ll still need an excellent knowledge of Mandarin and a Chinese ID number!

Want to know more about the potential WeChat has for your business? Get in touch, we’d love to chat to you!

Abi is a digital marketer currently living in Chengdu. Originally from the UK, she’s still trying to train her taste buds to cope with Sichuan spice!

Imagine yourself this scene – You’re having some troubles with your toilet and you have no choice but to call the plumber. The plumber arrives and fixes the problem. You examine his work and it seems that you’re satisfied: Time to pay the bill. The plumber tells you it’s just 35$ because he’s feeling happy that day and he likes you. “No problem”, you say as you reach for your wallet. Suddenly, you realize that you forgot to withdraw money – DAMN! that always happens.

Well, if you’re in China it’s not a big deal!

You see, this kind of situation happened to me here in China, and the plumber’s response was “no worries man, just send me the money via WeChat Wallet”. That situation got me to realize something – China truly is an E-commerce superpower, a place where even the simplest daily things become an E-commerce transaction. After all, when was the last time you paid your plumber, hairdresser or vegetable seller via PayPal? In China, that’s the norm.

That’s truly a surprising fact when thinking of a country like China, which is still, even if only officially, Communist. The Chinese economy is skyrocketing for years. China surely wasn’t the pioneer in the E-wallet market, but it absolutely is the one who took it to a whole new level.

Basically, there are two dominant E-wallets and several smaller providers. The most well-known providers are “WeChat Wallet” and “Alipay”. “WeChat Wallet” is basically a feature of an app called “WeChat”. This app, some would argue, is the Chinese substitute for Facebook and WhatsApp combined. “WeChat Wallet” allows you to send money to your WeChat “friends”, who of course can be your plumber or whoever you’d like to do business with. Pretty handy huh?!
But you don’t always have to add all mainland China to your friends list, many shops and businesses have a QR code stand on the cashier table that allows you to scan it and make your payment. WeChat also allows you to book flights, call a taxi, book hotels and even “Go Dutch” when you’re going to a restaurant with your friends and decide to split the bill! It doesn’t stop there. Many other handier and less handy features will wait for you on “WeChat Wallet”.

Alipay (run by Alibaba) is basically the Chinese version of the worldwide PayPal. Like PayPal, it allows making online secured purchases and can also be used as an E-wallet. Alipay is even more used than WeChat Pay but basically, there is no significant difference between them. However, while WeChat is more like a social network wallet, Alipay has more financial, bank-like features. For example, Alipay allows having a savings plan and earn interest on your money with no commission and no minimum amount.

Although it seems like Alipay is more secure and somehow more “professional” than WeChat Wallet, most people still prefer to use WeChat’s paying service, probably due to WeChat popularity with more than a billion users worldwide.

The change to digital mobile payment seems drastic but take into consideration that money has been present ever since the dawn of civilization and changed its form and system constantly throughout history. From the days of barter to modern credit-based economy, every time people needed to make a change, it made them feel anxious, and took some time until they got used to it (just ask your parents how they felt when they used a card to withdraw money for the first time, instead of the familiar bank teller). The E-wallet is a relatively new thing. And in China, people are more than ready for it.

Don’t miss out on your chance to take a part in tomorrow’s economy – today.

Slava is an entrepreneur that has been living in China for the past two years. These days he has been working on a new project that might change the world of import! Stay tuned…

Today, e-commerce is a common trend in China. It has synced into the lifestyle of an average Chinese citizen. Nowadays, it’s not uncommon to see people that never have to leave their homes to purchase items for their daily needs. This is due to the vibrant e-commerce operations of the major online retailers, named Taobao, Tmall, and Jingdong (JD). Many Chinese customers constantly engage these platforms to order whatever they need in and around the house. Life is more convenient, easier and shopper-friendly. You can order online and pay for anything you need from groceries, clothes, electronics, furniture, kitchen utensils, shoes, cosmetics and, you won’t believe, even food.

Now, let’s consider the players.

Taobao Marketplace is a consumer to consumer (C2C) platform created by the e-commerce giant, Alibaba. The objective is to engage small business owners and even individuals to open an online store facility, rendering their service to consumers in Chinese-speaking regions. The number of registered users now stands at over 375 million, making it about 80% of the Chinese online market.

Taobao Mall or simply called TMall was founded by Alibaba group in April 2008. It is mainly dedicated to the B2C market in a way to compliment the C2C market operations. TMall quickly established itself as the marketplace for quality brand name goods for Chinese consumers. It launched an independent web domain, Tmall.com and as of October 2013, it was the eighth most visited website on the Chinese e-commerce front.

Jingdong (JD.com), formerly known as 360Buy, is another major player in Chinese online e-commerce being one of China’s largest B2C online retailers. JD.com started with a focus on online direct sales of magneto-optical memory. As it gained increasing popularity however, it started accepting other products and established itself as e-commerce marketplace for all electronics. There’s no doubt in Jingdong’s success: Their gross merchandise volume, or GMV, increased from RMB 32.7 billion in 2011 to RMB 125.5 billion in 2013 and the number of products they offer has grown from 1.5 million to 40.2 million stock-keeping units within three years.

The business operates 1.5 million square meters of warehouse area, 1,620 delivery stations and 214 pickup stations in 495 cities across China and has more than 40,000 employees as of April 1st 2014. Leveraging their nationwide network, JD.com is able to deliver 70% of all orders on the day the order was placed or the day after.

Although there are many other e-commerce websites, none can effectively compete with these three major providers in China. Also, as direct profiteers of the growing e-commerce market, the courier industry has blossomed, too, and turned small entrepreneurs into vibrant business. Companies such as SF Express and ZTO Express, are a few good examples benefitting from the e-commerce growth.

Conclusively, Alibaba is still regarded as China’s e-commerce giant with both its B2C and C2C platforms, Taobao and Tmall, dominating over 60% of the e-commerce market share in China, while JD.com trails behind. But all together it is still a tough marketing warfare, each player striving to overtake absolute dominance in the fiery e-commerce market in China.

Some might say that WeChat is the Chinese version of WhatsApp – maybe because the icons of both apps are suspiciously similar. Others might say that WeChat is a combination between WhatsApp and Facebook. That would be a lot closer to reality, but it’s still not precise.

So how to define WeChat? WeChat is a platform rich in functionality that includes a little of all our favorite ingredients: Filled with Facebook stuffing, baked with roasted E-Wallets, a hunch of braised Skype and chili-spiked Viber sauce. Then finally topped with grated WhatsApp and you get the perfect dish for breakfast, lunch, dinner and even late-night meals for the food lovers among us.

WeChat is one of the three main social networks/messaging apps in China. One of them is Weibo – Which is kind of like Twitter with very short “Tweets” plus some features for bloggers and people posting pictures of their chihuahuas wearing iWatches. In case you didn’t know what a chihuahua was, it’s basically a dog that looks like a hamster, the pinnacle of over-breeding animals until they become accessories. But back to China’s social media.
Another influential messaging service is QQ which is the Chinese version of ICQ. Although QQ is still considered an important player, popularity is more and more shifting towards WeChat, both of which are owned by technology giant Tencent.

Nowadays WeChat is the biggest messaging app in China. As of March 2018, WeChat has over a billion monthly active users with around 100 million outside of China. In other words, if you deal with China you must have it. For example, a WeChat user in China can (and does) book a car ride (like Uber), transfer money (like PayPal), book plane or train tickets (like Expedia), buy goods online (like Amazon) and even make investments (like WealthFront) – but all without ever having to leave the WeChat app. Users can also exploit WeChat’ wide functionality for booking doctor appointments, paying electricity fees or traffic fines.

WeChat in terms of a social networking service allows its users to share their moments, which is the Facebook equivalent of “posting a status”. However, to differ from Facebook there are some restrictions and distinctions between them. For example, on WeChat when you comment on other user’s moments, only you, the other user and your mutual friends can see

 

this comment. Another example is that you can’t share other user’s moments. This makes it a bit difficult to share ideas and promote marketing. BUT DON’T WORRY! There is a solution for that and it’s called “Official Accounts”.

Official accounts are WeChat pages opened by companies, newspapers, magazines, businesses etc. The purpose of these pages is to pitch important content including discounts and marketing features or even build your own online store. The users will get a notification when new information is posted on the official account. As Chinese people always use their mobile phones and especially refer to WeChat official accounts to read articles, news and to get discounts, this can be a viable option for any business.

 

Another very important function of WeChat are groups. It’s similar to those you can find on WhatsApp but on a much larger scale. There are groups for just about everything you can think of: wholesale products, entrepreneurs, workplaces, companies and even community issue groups. As mentioned, these groups put a many people with the same interests in one place. A great opportunity for strategic marketing!

It’s shocking coming to China and realizing that everything you like about the internet is blocked. Think about it! How do you “Google” with no Google?! How do you “Like” with no Facebook?! Are there any other options to watch videos with no YouTube?! How do you look up information without Wikipedia or hook up girls without Tinder? There is a solution, and we are about to discover it!

So how to “Google” without Google? Probably the best alternative in China is to use Baidu.com. Baidu is the largest search engine in China. Like Google, Baidu provides a variety of services to its users – including maps, videos, news, translation and cloud services, e-mail, encyclopedia, etc. Baidu is huge and extremely popular in China. How popular? When established in 2010, it got a market share of 56.6% in China until the 4th quarter of that same year. Ever since it has kept the same market share, even though nowadays there are many more competitors than before. In 2015, the website was ranked 4th worldwide in the Alexa Internet ranking. So yeah, it’s crazy popular! However, there is a big problem. Baidu’s interface and the provided information is mostly in Chinese – and if you can’t read the language it might be difficult to understand. Nevertheless, when thinking about it, you must realize that a country with such a strict internet and content censorship will keep most of their information within its own borders. That’s why you won’t be able to find most of the information about China on Google but easily on Baidu – therefore, knowing how to use it can be of advantage to you.

Could you imagine your life without Facebook? In China, this is a reality as Facebook is blocked. And not only Facebook – also Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Blogspot (if you guys still use it). One of the coolest things about Facebook is its exposure. Once you promote something on Facebook it can easily become viral. However, the access to the famous social network is restricted and it’s only possible to use if you have a VPN. But fear not! – The fact that it’s blocked makes Facebook simply irrelevant to the Chinese people and particularly to the Chinese market. So, what to do? – WeChat. WeChat is used in a very similar fashion to Facebook and can be a great tool to promote your business. One of the many things you can use WeChat for is to open an official account and update your followers on your activity. It’s extremely popular and exploiting its wide functionality can be helpful to quickly gain exposure in the Chinese market.

As for Wikipedia, well… it’s not always blocked, depending on the situation. Chinese Wikipedia is most of the time whereas other languages are only occasionally restricted. For example, if there is an important meet up of the communist party, the English Wikipedia might be blocked as well. However, of course, there is a Chinese alternative – Baike.com. This Website is basically social media with a Wiki-based Encyclopedia. But due to government restrictions, only registered members can write and edit articles. Baike is the biggest Encyclopedia in China with almost 15 million articles!

There’s a time for business and a time for funny cat videos, so when you’ve finished your day, you’re tired and just want to relax so you enter YouTube to watch the latest content… BAMMMM! No YouTube! Well about that… the Chinese internet offers lots of options. You probably won’t be able to watch your local TV shows, especially if you don’t come from the USA. But in many cases, you will find almost any video you desire and even some features YouTube doesn’t offer (yet). There are lots of alternative websites offering video-players but let’s concentrate on the famous ones. One distinguished website is YouKu, which has been dubbed the “Chinese YouTube”. It offers a large number of videos in various categories, lots of Chinese TV series (if you are into Chinese language and culture), sometimes worldwide TV shows (“Master Chef” for instance), and the highlight – Movies! The best of all: Most of them are for free!
Another website that is heavily recommended is PPTV. PPTV allows you to watch live sporting events like football and basketball. This is a great option for the sports fans among us – even if you’re not in China!

For those who survived until this point, here’s a bonus! You’re surely dying to know what the alternatives for Tinder are. I heard (…from a friend…) that the most popular Apps are MoMo and TanTan which work very similar to Tinder. TanTan even looks the same! However, the major difference between Tinder and the Chinese alternatives is that the latter are used, in most cases, for actual dating. So be careful with that, or else you are going to find yourself under the canopy earlier than you expected.

These are only a few examples of the alternatives you can find in China, there are much more! However, due to differences in culture and interests, you still might miss your beloved websites. Nevertheless, one must understand that living and doing business in China might require you to make some adjustments to the Chinese internet environment. The fact that some Western websites and apps are blocked prevents most Chinese people from sharing information on the platforms we all familiar with. Learning how to use these Chinese websites will help your business flourish in the Chinese market. So 加油 (jia you = good luck) !