WECHAT VERSUS WEIBO FOR A FOREIGN COMPANY

Historically, Sina Weibo has been the pioneer in China for the title of most popular Social Media platform.

Then Wechat was created by Tencents and became the leader.

Since Sina Weibo was acquired by Alibaba a couple of years ago, Sina Weibo popularity is back.

Which one to choose if you are a foreign company wishing to promote your business and products in China?

Wechat is easier to use for a foreigner who doesn’t speak Chinese

• Setting up your own personal account (step number 1 when going for a business account) will be easier for Wechat as you can cruise around the set up in English
• You can use your Wechat application on the phone in an easier way than Sina Weibo

Design of your company profile on a Sina Weibo account is nicer than on Wechat

• Wechat design of your official account is indeed not super nice but it enables to share more information through its menu tool bar
• Example of Sina Weibo account profile:

• Example of Wechat Official account profile:

The cost of registration of an official account, using a non-Chinese business license will be expensive for both of them.

But it is often sufficient to have a VIP account on Sina Weibo to do your China Digital Marketing.

In that case, cost is almost nothing.

Sina Weibo has less restriction than Wechat in the business industries you are allowed to promote.

For example, business industries like Finance or Medical are completely banned on Wechat , when there are some possibilities on Sina Weibo.

Content of articles for Wechat are usually around 800 Chinese characters when Sina Weibo ones are limited to 140 Chinese Characters.

Wechat user expect longer contents on Wechat Official Account and therefore Wechat content Marketing is more demanding.

If your contents are usually short and mostly visuals, go for a Sina Weibo official account.

Sina Weibo accounts are more transparent

• Your profile openly shows the number of followers that you have, the number of readers and forwarded articles, the number of people your account follow.
• Wechat hardly share any of the above information: only metrics that you can openly see is the number of readers for a particular article.

Wechat account management is more complicated than on Sina Weibo.

• Increasing organically your number of followers is tougher on Wechat than on Sina Weibo.
• Uploading a content on Wechat is not that straight forward and can take up to 1h30, whereas Sina Weibo uploading is quick and easy.

If you are interested to create a Social Media account in China, Netfin Marketing team can assist you in choosing the most suitable platform