While western social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter are banned in China, local internet companies have developed their own alternatives and one app is emerging as a game-changer. WeChat started as an instant messaging service but now integrates countless additional features and lets businesses including food companies interact directly with customers.
Participants in an EU agri-food trade mission to China this week, including leading dairy and meat processors, have all been busy sharing posts on WeChat, or learning how to use it for newcomers to the country.
In-app payment
In everyday life, many Chinese urban consumers now choose a restaurant with their friends, place their order, pay for it, split the bill and share a review of their meal – all without leaving the WeChat app on their mobile. The same applies to grocery shopping. At a convenience store visited by the Irish Farmers Journal in Shanghai, all four customers ahead in the checkout queue paid with WeChat on their phone. Other stores are doing away with checkout staff altogether and letting customers register their in-app payment themselves – under the surveillance of CCTV cameras.
A customer pays for snacks with the WeChat app on his smartphone at a convenience store in Shanghai, China. \ Thomas HubertThe service has nearly 1bn users, nearly all Chinese, 700m of whom live in mainland China. They have provided photo ID and credit card details to access the full service and face recognition software verifies their identity for a number of tasks including food shopping – all under tight control from the Government.
It is like Facebook, Amazon and Paypal all in one
They check the app so often – half of them at least once a day – that WeChat now has more traffic than Facebook, according to Cyril Drouin of the advertising agency Publicis in China. "It is like Facebook, Amazon and Paypal all in one," he said. Many companies including food multinationals have opened online stores within WeChat. "I have big European clients who don't have a Chinese website," Drouin said. "Just a WeChat minisite."
While Chinese internet companies were until recently copying western apps to replace those banned in China, he said that the trend had now been reversed, with US and European tech firms coming to China to get inspiration from the likes of WeChat.
Influencers
Another feature of the app is the platform it provides for so-called influencers – bloggers and commentators who recommend products in the industry they write about online. "Consumers are followers, not leaders in China," Drouin said. "If someone wants to buy infant formula, for example, they often don't know what to choose and follow influencers." WeChat then offers them to buy the product instantly.
Advertising and using such influencers on WeChat is a key part of establishing a food brand in the country, Drouin said. He gave examples of campaigns run by his agency for imported confectionery and beer brands incorporating the social network to reach hundreds of millions of users in a few days.
This, Drouin warned, carries a big price tag: "Media and creative costs in China are among the most expensive in the world, higher than in Europe and similar to the US. But you reach 1bn people," he said.
Irish agri-food exporters to China may find their next challenge in accessing such crucial marketing tools to make their products known to the urban, affluent Chinese consumers who buy imported food.
Read more from China in this week's Irish Farmers Journal.
Read more
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More Irish factories approved to export beef to China
While western social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter are banned in China, local internet companies have developed their own alternatives and one app is emerging as a game-changer. WeChat started as an instant messaging service but now integrates countless additional features and lets businesses including food companies interact directly with customers.
Participants in an EU agri-food trade mission to China this week, including leading dairy and meat processors, have all been busy sharing posts on WeChat, or learning how to use it for newcomers to the country.
In-app payment
In everyday life, many Chinese urban consumers now choose a restaurant with their friends, place their order, pay for it, split the bill and share a review of their meal – all without leaving the WeChat app on their mobile. The same applies to grocery shopping. At a convenience store visited by the Irish Farmers Journal in Shanghai, all four customers ahead in the checkout queue paid with WeChat on their phone. Other stores are doing away with checkout staff altogether and letting customers register their in-app payment themselves – under the surveillance of CCTV cameras.
A customer pays for snacks with the WeChat app on his smartphone at a convenience store in Shanghai, China. \ Thomas HubertThe service has nearly 1bn users, nearly all Chinese, 700m of whom live in mainland China. They have provided photo ID and credit card details to access the full service and face recognition software verifies their identity for a number of tasks including food shopping – all under tight control from the Government.
It is like Facebook, Amazon and Paypal all in one
They check the app so often – half of them at least once a day – that WeChat now has more traffic than Facebook, according to Cyril Drouin of the advertising agency Publicis in China. "It is like Facebook, Amazon and Paypal all in one," he said. Many companies including food multinationals have opened online stores within WeChat. "I have big European clients who don't have a Chinese website," Drouin said. "Just a WeChat minisite."
While Chinese internet companies were until recently copying western apps to replace those banned in China, he said that the trend had now been reversed, with US and European tech firms coming to China to get inspiration from the likes of WeChat.
Influencers
Another feature of the app is the platform it provides for so-called influencers – bloggers and commentators who recommend products in the industry they write about online. "Consumers are followers, not leaders in China," Drouin said. "If someone wants to buy infant formula, for example, they often don't know what to choose and follow influencers." WeChat then offers them to buy the product instantly.
Advertising and using such influencers on WeChat is a key part of establishing a food brand in the country, Drouin said. He gave examples of campaigns run by his agency for imported confectionery and beer brands incorporating the social network to reach hundreds of millions of users in a few days.
This, Drouin warned, carries a big price tag: "Media and creative costs in China are among the most expensive in the world, higher than in Europe and similar to the US. But you reach 1bn people," he said.
Irish agri-food exporters to China may find their next challenge in accessing such crucial marketing tools to make their products known to the urban, affluent Chinese consumers who buy imported food.
Read more from China in this week's Irish Farmers Journal.
Read more
Increase in exports to China ‘a minor economic miracle’ – Creed
More Irish factories approved to export beef to China
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