Trending: We are, therefore WeChat

Chinese social networking app is an indispensable tool, some Western companies find

On a recent trip to China, it occurred to Imran Amed that what stands out is not the increasingly sophisticated taste of Chinese people for luxury goods or the country's increasingly competitive fashion market.

"The absolute shift in China is technology," says Amed, founder and editor-in-chief of The Business of Fashion, a business intelligence company that specializes in the global fashion industry.

Ten years ago, in business and social settings it was the done thing to exchange business cards, but now it is all about scanning the WeChat contact codes of the people you meet, he says.

"Those in the Western business world need to make better use of WeChat, which is an extremely powerful social platform to engage people," Amed said at a luxury industry summit in London last month.

WeChat was on everyone's lips at the summit, organized by Walpole, an organization that promotes the British luxury industry, and the term was probably uttered more times than the word fashion.

WeChat, a social application developed by Tencent Holdings of Shenzhen, announced this year that it will reduce promotional activities in overseas markets as its foreign user growth has plateaued.

However, the shrinking spending on promotion has not stopped British brands from using WeChat as a marketing channel.

In fact, a growing number of companies in Britain see WeChat, which is said to have more than 500 million users, as a strong weapon to tap potential business in China.

Debrett's, the specialist publisher of books about social skills, etiquette and style, set up an account on WeChat about six months ago.

"WeChat is an effective way to interact with customers and appeal to a younger, discerning audience," says Joanne Milner, chief executive officer of Debrett's.

"In the same way that Debrett's uses Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in the UK, WeChat helps us initiate an informal dialogue, reach new customers through referrals, and build awareness through information sharing in China."

Debrett's, which with 245 years under its belt entered the Chinese market last year by offering training programs on British social skills, has attracted nearly 1,500 followers on its WeChat account.

Debrett's uses WeChat as a main channel to post information on its training programs in China, such as the Young Achiever Residential Programme, as well as to disseminate information about British culture, social skills and etiquette, Milner says.

Chinese people are very open in social networking, she says, "much more open than people in the UK".

Chinese are happy to share every single moment of their personal life on social networking platforms, which makes apps such as WeChat powerful in marketing and for approaching customers.

A report Tencent issued in January said about 24.7 percent of WeChat's users follow public accounts set up by companies and marketing teams, despite the commercial and promotional nature of the material.

Pete Davis, regional manager for Mandarin Consulting, which provides career coaching to Chinese students looking to find temporary or permanent jobs in Britain, says it would be silly not to use WeChat to tap the Chinese market.

"It is such an inexpensive way to tap the massive market in China, not to mention very effective," he says.

"Especially when our target customers are overseas Chinese students, who use WeChat all the time to stay in touch with their families and friends back in China."

Mandarin Consulting's sales people use WeChat to keep in touch with potential customers, he says.

WeChat, seen as a cross between WhatsApp, LinkedIn and Facebook, does not disclose how many of its public accounts are set up by Western companies. In the latest count in November, WeChat said the total number of public accounts exceeded 8 million.

Anson Bailey, head of business development with KPMG China, says apart from being a marketing and branding platform, WeChat can also be used to build up a company's customer database. He cites his own shopping experience as an example.

"When I entered a silk store in China, the sales lady immediately added me on WeChat and started to send me photos and videos of their products from time to time.

"So in the long term, she can accumulate a lot of customer data on her WeChat."

Laughing, he adds: "Imagine the damage she can bring if she decides to work for your competitor one day."

mengjing@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily European Weekly 05/22/2015 page20)