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Have you ever heard of Weixin? Me neither. It is similar to WhatsApp in the United States but is only available in mainland China. WeChat—the English name for Weixin—is the similar overseas version for users with common functions and interfaces but the two apps do not belong to the same servers or system. Weixin was first introduced to the Chinese market in 2011 and quickly grew in popularity to become the second-largest messaging app after WhatsApp. The app gives users the option to send messages and pictures and share news with anyone around the world.

Knowing Your Audience

Weixin was successful and gained fast popularity by knowing who its target audience was which is the first step towards a successful social media campaign. With its thorough approach to understanding its audience, the company knew that it needed to target young, urban smartphone owners who are searching for an “all-in-one-platform” app that is easy to use. Users of the app could do almost everything with the app which gave users access to unlimited media options. If you could do everything in one place or app, wouldn’t you be on board? Weixin began one of the most convenient and straightforward apps that users just had to download and join. To stay current with its target audience, Weixin continued to innovate its app by adding new features and functions.

One way to get to know your social media audience better is through social listening. Marketers use social listening to monitor online conversations, mentions, and discussions to gather insights about your company, brand, industry, competitors, and/or market trends. With social listening, marketers can “hear” what their target audience is saying about their company and what topics matter to the target audience. Marketers can take this valuable information to develop and execute social media campaigns and messaging that resonate with their target audience.

Meeting Audience Needs

Weixin is an “all-in-one-platform” app that provides its users with almost everything a user could need. Instead of clicking from app to app to see your friends’ feed updates or go shopping online or read a news article, Weixin provides that all in its one very successful app. Weixin has met the needs of its audience by making everything so easy to do all in one convenient location while also increasing users’ self-efficacy. Because of this, Weixin is the norm for media use for the Chinese people.

Success In Other Countries?

As mentioned earlier, Weixin is the Chinese version of the messaging app while WeChat is the overseas version. Weixin was strictly created for mainland China so Weixin specifically would not be successful in other countries because it cannot be accessed in other countries. However, WeChat could be successful in other countries. There are concerns about privacy and security issues with both Weixin and WeChat which shows users that the apps are unsafe because they do not protect user data. But what app does not have privacy and security concerns for users?

A messaging app that was modeled after Weixin and WeChat is something that could be successful in other countries, similar to WhatsApp. Today, WhatsApp has around two billion monthly active users worldwide whereas WeChat and Weixin have around one billion monthly active users worldwide (slides 423-427). Based on the data, WhatsApp is more actively used than Weixin and WeChat but all three apps are being used by billions of users every month.

Final Thoughts

Weixin has created a unique app that was built for its target audience and the app has had a lot of success since its launch. Weixin has become a part of its user’s everyday lives and that is exactly what marketers need to do with their own social media. When something is involved in a person’s everyday life, it can change behavior whether it is a purchasing decision or a positive social change. Even though we cannot access Weixin here in the USA, it sounds pretty cool to have a messaging app that is so convenient, easy to use, and does so much for a user.

Please share your thoughts in the comments!