As of September 2014 Tencent reported that monthly active users (MAU) of WeChat now stands at 468 million. The figures for Q3 show an increase of 39% YoY.
It’s for this reason that there has been an explosion of articles about how to use WeChat’s marketing platforms. I’ve written about it extensively for Nanjing Marketing Group, but with the constant development of WeChat come constant changes.
Differences
So what is the difference between these two marketing platforms? The chart below taken from walkthechat.com gives a good synopsis of how the two different types of Public Account can be used.
For me the most important thing to remember about WeChat Public Account set up is the need for a registered company in China if you want to get the account verified. As Thomas Graziani writes:
“Although you can create a subscription account with only a Chinese ID, you will also need a registered company in China in order to create a service account (in both cases, you will need a registered company in China in order to get your account certified).”
Future trends on WeChat
There is one further thing to consider if it’s not possible to have your company registered in China.
Sogou has developed a search engine for WeChat Public Accounts. This search engine isn’t very popular at the moment, but there’s a good chance that this will change in future. If it does then the use of Subscription Accounts could become a much more attractive prospect.
The development of WeChat ads on the Public Account system may also make Subscription Accounts rather more attractive in future too.
At the end of the day it depends if your business wants to provide content or services via WeChat. Although many businesses see Subscription Accounts as the poor relation to Service Accounts this may not be the case.
As WeChat develops its marketing platform and as other internet firms develop their services to interact within WeChat’s ecosystem, it will become more important to make sure your company chooses the correct WeChat Public Account for your specific needs.