It’s commonplace in the English-speaking world to think of East Asian countries as more community-focused, and with the advent of social media, this has taken on more meaning in China, especially with apps like WeChat.
WeChat has already become incredibly successful due to its importance to communication within China and the number of actions users can perform within the super-app, such as purchasing train tickets, booking restaurants, and more.
Recently, Tencent has taken the social aspect of WeChat one step further. This time, they have set their sights on the articles that Official Accounts can share within the app by tweaking how users consume them.
In short, now users can see articles their WeChat friends liked at the top of their Official Account article subscription interface.
In this article, I will cover these changes and how they can be used to improve your company’s marketing abilities.
WeChat’s New Official Account Article Feature
The 朋友 icon shows articles that a user’s friends have liked.
Traditionally, users usually experienced articles on a personal level. If they were interested in a particular company or subject, they’d follow an Official Account and see that account’s articles appear on their main page within the “Subscription” chat.
This way, the articles a user saw would be entirely within their own preferences.
Tencent has now added a new feature that makes this experience more social by highlighting articles (at the top of the screen) that friends recently liked, expanding on the previous innovation that allowed users to see how many friends have read an article.
How Can This New Feature Improve Your Marketing?
There are a few ways this new social feature can improve your marketing:
- Increased traffic to Official Account articles
- Increased traffic to smaller accounts
Increased Traffic for WeChat Official Account Articles
WeChat has changed a great deal since Official Account articles first arrived, which may be one reason why Tencent released this new feature. Since 2017, online media has become busier, especially with the rise of short-form videos on both WeChat and other apps like Douyin (China’s TikTok).
Additionally, more articles and accounts have appeared on the app, making it tougher for publishers to attract eyes. To illustrate this: Eight years ago the average open rate was 10%, but as of 2020, this decreased to 1–2%.
This new social feature is beginning to change the direction of this trend. Indeed, compared to 2023, 39,000 more articles reached 100,000+ views in 2024, despite fewer articles being published overall. This good news has continued with data showing how traffic from the new feature has risen from 24.3% in August 2023 to 45.9% as of this month (March 2025).
Therefore, given these events, your company may want to place extra emphasis on the quality of your Official Account articles in the future.
Increased Traffic for Smaller Accounts on WeChat
Two WeChat articles liked by a user’s friends
One essential plus point to WeChat is that the app does not show how many followers the accounts have. Because of this, users can see how many likes an article receives, but have no idea just how popular this Official Account is.
This small aspect of WeChat’s user experience makes it a bit different from other apps.
This new feature is a continuation of this. Companies looking to advertise in China may be happy to know that WeChat has long prioritized the social aspect of articles over the number of subscribers the connected account has.
Subscribers still matter, particularly for larger accounts, and data shows that notifications still drive traffic for them; however, WeChat’s intent with this new feature is to give smaller accounts more space to shine.
This also means you may want to pay more attention to the quality of the content found in your articles.
Content Strategies Using WeChat’s New Social Feature
A Facebook post on the Genshin Impact page
Given that articles can now gain more traction when friends read, like, or share on WeChat, companies should consider how this can be used to their advantage.
In other words, brainstorm incentives to get WeChat users to share or like your articles.
At the end of your articles, you could end your discussion by alluding to other topics you may want to write about; for example, you could say, “If you’re interested in hearing about this, like this article.”
This way, you are boosting your likes, and you’re also understanding what content users want.
You could also remind users to share the article in subtle ways. “Do you know anyone who would find this useful? Share this with them!” (Just try not to be too obvious, so use this strategy sparingly.)
Another idea is to make your articles more interactive by creating polls or quizzes related to your products and encouraging readers to leave comments at the bottom of the article.
You may take this even further by running competitions asking users to share your articles alongside their personal creations. The winners of these events can be revealed later on in other articles.
This method doesn’t merely give your company more interactions—it also builds a community around your brand.
Contact Nanjing Marketing Group
There are other ways you can use this new WeChat feature for your marketing campaigns in China. If this interests you, feel free to reach out to us! We have almost two decades of experience helping companies like yours succeed.