WeChat to Pump £2.3m into African Startups

Chinese messaging platform WeChat has announced that it plans to invest R50m (£2.3m) in early-stage African startups, working with Cape Town tech strategy firm Batstone to search out promising companies worthy of funding.

The fund will be used to identify and support tech-enabled businesses by assisting with rapid market growth through the WeChat platform, which enables messaging, mCommerce, taxi booking and more. With access to markets listed as one of the biggest inhibitors to growth for tech-enabled businesses, gaining the keys to the WeChat ecosystem could have a huge impact for any companies selected.

WeChat, which is owned by Chinese internet titan Tencent and boasts over 600m users, has already made investments in African firms in the past, providing an undisclosed amount of funding to microjobs marketplace Money For Jams earlier this year, as well as making investments in apps like PicUp and Order In.

As smartphone adoption increases and messaging apps become more popular across Africa, several prominent messaging services have identified the continent as a potential growth market. Currently, WhatsApp, Facebook, WeChat and several others are all competing to gain a foothold in various markets, along with a number of homegrown platforms that are aiming to expand to neighbouring countries. By teaming with local startups, WeChat could well gain an advantage in this battle.

“Our fund aims to provide financial support to businesses so that they can effectively get on the WeChat platform,” said Brett Loubser, head of WeChat Africa. “This will include technical integration and communication tactics across the Naspers’ stable and other suited channels.

“We have been working with Batstone since mid-2014 and in that time have come to trust their purpose-led approach to understanding and supporting tech businesses. This approach, coupled with the networks, means our partnership is well placed to identify and vet the best possible investment opportunities for WeChat.”

Article Link: http://mobilemarketingmagazine.com/wechat-to-pump-3-4m-into-african-startups/

Facebook implements new ad formats to support brands' marketing initiatives and to boost conversions.

 Facebook has implemented several new products to help brands increase their advertising performances.

The first product—Carousel Advertisements, allow brands to show multiple images and ultimately a link to some actions. The Carousel Ads are 10 times better at getting people to click through compared to the static sponsored posts.  Even the best of mobile banner ads garners only half of Click-Through Rate than that of a typical Carousel Ad.

The Carousel Ads also make users more likely to recall brands’ advertising campaigns. Compared with a 14-point lift from single-image ads, Carousel campaigns led to a 20-point boost in ad recall, as they allow for more of a conversation than a quick flyby.

In addition, Facebook announced earlier this week that it would feature on its mobile app a new video section, which would be populated with content that has been liked and saved by users, recommended by their friends, and posted by pages they follow. This approach would depart from Facebook’s current strategy of permeating users’ news feeds with non-targeted run-of-network videos.  Facebook also plans to improve its “Suggested Videos” tab to offer videos according to users’ profile and past viewing preference.

This could allow brands to provide differentiated viewing experience on YouTube and Facebook. Brands could post popular contents on Facebook such as media credits and recent campaigns, while utilizing YouTube to feature videos about product details and tutorials to cater to brand enthusiasts.

Moreover, Facebook rolls out a test of a Shopping feed that aggregates posts and photos about products on sale from brands chosen by users. There will also be a “Search” bar and a “Suggestion” tab, which includes brands that are recommended based on friends’ preferences. In addition, the Shopping feed includes a Canvas function, which subsequently takes users to a full-screen experience within Facebook, allowing them to browse merchandises and peruse product information. The platform will eventually enable e-commerce, from which Facebook decides not to take a percentage of sales.

Besides Facebook, other social media companies have also undertaken initiatives to facilitate interactions between brands and followers. WeChat, the Chinese all-encompassing app, has developed its own commercial “Shop” feature, allowing verified brand accounts to converse with clients to provide customer services, and to display and sell merchandises on the transaction platform developed in collaboration with Alipay. Pinterest will also soon team up with brands to allow people to plaster their immediate to long-term shopping plans on Pinterest boards, based upon which brands could fire different kinds of creative pins to encourage actions. Pinterest is also expanding tech partnerships and developing functionality offered through the ad software program to improve its metrics measurement and to optimize its behavioral targeting.

Links:

• http://digiday.com/platforms/facebooks-carousel-ads-10-times-better-regular-ads/
• https://www.facebook.com/business/ads-guide/clicks-to-website/carousel/
• http://digiday.com/publishers/linkedin-uses-events-sell-ads/
• http://www.wired.com/2015/10/facebook-testing-shopping-section-app/

Social marketing -- WeChat public platform in China

WeChat is an instant chatting APP heating up in China, with over 600 million active users, integrated with one-on-one chat, moments, payment, QR code and so on. As a result, WeChat has become an attractive market for both large and small business naturally. WeChat has launched public accounts function, which is used by companies or individuals to market certain products.

There are mainly two types of public accounts, subscription accounts and service accounts. More marketing campaigns are held by subscription accounts. There are mainly three reasons why subscription accounts are so popular among WeChat users. To begin with, it is the users who have the initiative to follow any public accounts they are interested in. However, E-mail or telephone marketing that customers passively received may sometimes annoy them.  Secondly, advertisement tendency is less obvious and more invisible, compared to e-mail or mobile marketing. Marketing on WeChat tends to penetrate consumers’ daily life via the newsletters they post everyday, integrated with product information.  Finally,  from the angel of public account holders, marketing campaigns on WeChat requires a smaller budget, giving a large benefit to small business especially stat-ups.

For me, I have followed many public accounts on my WeChat account. Some accounts introduce going-on activities around in the city, matched with fabulous images and appealing words. Signing up links will be given in such posts, so that audience can buy tickets conveniently. Also, some accounts focus on teaching people how to bake or cook. And the ingredients or kitchenware appeared is sold by related stores owned by the account.

In the nearest future, WeChat platform will become a strategic and important stage for social marketing undoubtedly.

http://www.nanjingmarketinggroup.com/blog/wechat/everything-wechat-public-accounts

http://www.jingdigital.com/2015/04/wechat-marketing-strategies-every-marketer-know/

QR code is extremely popular in China but why not in the U.S.?

Following the China Digital Marketing Group on LinkedIN, I came across one discussion about QR code a few days ago. Then I suddenly realized that I have not scanned a single one since I came back to U.S. after my summer vacation in my hometown---Shanghai, China. When I was in Shanghai, I used QR code very frequently. I would add my friends on WeChat by scanning their QR code ID. I downloaded apps and requested subscription and push service by scanning QR code on posters, computer screens and advertising boards on subways. Every time I came to a restaurant, the first thing I would do was to scan the QR code on the small advertising board stood on the table to follow the official account of the restaurant on WeChat. And then I could get coupons, free drinks or discounts as a first-time customer.  I even made payments by scanning the small square which would directly connect me to the interface of AliPay ( an app like Paypal). All I need to do then is to confirm the payment amount and click "Pay", without typing in any digits. But since I came back to U.S. in late July, I only used QR code for two or three times to board the airplanes. 

After doing some research, I find that there are two big reasons pushing up the popularity of QR code in China. One is WeChat and the other is the growing number of Chinese mobile internet users. 

In September 2012, Huateng Ma, the CEO of Tencent (company that owns WeChat), emphasized the huge potential of QR code in O2O (online to offline) and the company's strategy to push QR code on China's Internet Conference. Later, the QR code scanner function was built into WeChat. Being the most popular social network and an all-purpose mobile platform in China, WeChat definitely promoted the QR code's usage and commonality as users can now interact with the various functions such as making payment, getting information push service etc. in WeChat with those little squares so easily. It is more personalized and customer-oriented. You don't have to type in anything. You won't be bothered by switching among different apps or webpages. The high usability and network externality brought by WeChat make QR code a mania in China.

The other powerful hand is the huge population of mobile internet users. According to the China Internet Network Information Center's (CNNIC) 35th "China Internet Development Statistics Report", by December 2014, about 85.8% of internet users, which is about 557 million, connect the Internet through mobile devices.  And among the 1.29 billion mobile users, by February 2015, about 48.8% of them are mobile broadband (3G and 4G) subscribers (Data via Sina Tech).  Network externality has grown exponentially along with the widespread coverage of Internet and increasing number of mobile internet users, which has made QR code a very powerful and involving tool in people's life. 

Finally, back to the question why QR code has not become popular in U.S. I think a key reason is that none of the popular social network apps in U.S. has incorporated or emphasized the QR code scanner function. There are some QR code scanner apps available in Android market and IOS App Store. But as a separated application, the most exciting power of QR code---easing interactions with various other platforms, is limited. Breaking the barrier to network externality is important for QR code to become popular in the U.S. market. 

Reference: 

http://www.cac.gov.cn/2015-02/03/c_1114237273.htm

http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/03/world/china-internet-growth-2014/

http://www.cac.gov.cn/2015-02/03/c_1114237273.htm

WeChat: A Complete Social Media Ecosystem

Over the course of my summer internship in Loyalty Program Marketing, we heard the same complaint over and over again from our counterparty in the APAC region - our team's marketing strategy was NOT working in mainland China, where our largest customer base is outside of the United States.  

Our regular promotion consisted mainly of Email deployments and Banner Ads in our internal websites, but they were not effective at reaching our Chinese audiences - "nobody in China reads Email these days, and our internal websites take 45 seconds to load," we were told.

So what does work?  One word - WeChat.

What is WeChat exactly?  Out of all of the English-language articles I've read that attempt to capture the essence of this Chinese"Social Media" app, the below article by Connie Chan is by far the most effective in conveying what is so different about WeChat compared to WhatsApp / Facebook / Messenger / Twitter / Instagram / etc.

When One App Rules Them All: The Case of WeChat and Mobile in China

In short, WeChat has the seamlessly integrated mobile payment functionality that allows transactions to take place within the "App-within-App" environment, without ever leaving the WeChat Ecosystem.  Whereas Western Social Media tools stops at broadcasting promotional messages, WeChat actually provides the tools to convert that "like / share / retweet" into monetary transactions.

While most companies are still figuring out what to do with Facebook / Instagram / Twitter, these brands have successfully gained traction within the mainland Chinese audience with WeChat campaigns that are creative and interactive.

Top 10 Advertising Campaigns on WeChat