Search, the WeChat way!

May 25, 2017

In order to understand how much positive energy is prevalent in the country, China watchers tracked the term “transmitting positive energy to society”  and the number of times it was mentioned in the chinese newspapers, especially People’s Daily the country’s top print.

 

This exploration was headed by David Bandurski, a researcher with the China Media Project at the University of Hong Kong. He found that the term was taken into importance after it was mentioned by Chinese president Xi Jinping during a 2012 meeting with former US president Jimmy Carter, calling for more positive energy in the China-US relationship. He also used the term “transmit positive energy” when he toured state-controlled news outlets last year.

However the usage happen to decline from a peak in 2014 has resurfaced in the international stage resulting in the term appearing in 111 People’s Daily articles so far this year.

 

When exploring such research it brings us to understand how easy it is to find and track such content today in the digital world. Tencent recently launched a new feature ‘WeChat Search’ that will allow us to search content within WeChat (Moments, Articles and Official accounts). This feature has surely made WeChat a great threat to Baidu, the internet company that provides search engine services.

 

Baidu has been predominantly used for checking company’s background and reputation, while WeChat allows users to see the engagement of other users, the articles and the social comments in turn establishing the performance of the brand and its influence real time. With Tencent purchasing a 36.5% stake Sogou, the pioneer of search engine that is able to index WeChat content on their special section bringing the much need integration for WeChat.

 

Baidu’s slow growing revenue is no match to Tencent’s profits and revenues shooting upto 50% growth each year. The more the merrier can be the motto for the search engine industry, striving on mere existence of data, more of which enables better output upon the results. The popularity of WeChat brings in users, more users leading to more data which again leads to more users and it goes on.

 

WeChat has created quite the buzz in the digital space and it is surely taking the lead among its competition in the country.

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Wechat: Kitchens specialist FRANKE chooses KRDS Shanghai as its agency on record

May 22, 2017

FRANKE, the world leader in comprehensive systems for domestic kitchens and for professional applications in food service that promises to bring confidence, convenience and comfort into people’s lives through innovation and quality service. Headquartered in Aarburg, Switzerland, the Group employs around 9’000 people at 68 subsidiaries on 4 continents, and exports to over 100 countries. Having made a decision to enter social media to reach out to their followers better, they had their official WeChat account launched in 2015.

 

WeChat being one of the frontrunner in China’s social media environment and a platform service where brands create a unique relationship with followers, content has to echo users’ daily concerns and bring value to them.

 

This is why FRANKE chose KRDS Shanghai as its social media agency on record for the year 2017-2018.

 

FRANKE appreciated the high quality of the proposal which reflected KRDS Shanghai’s deep knowledge of chinese netizen habits, its ability to react rapidly and make sure the brand stays on top of social media trends.

 

“We felt very confident when we met KRDS team, we trust their expertise and we value the fact that they listen to us. We feel we are a priority for them” – Pansy ZHANG, Marketing Director, Franke China

 

Aurélien FERRIE, General Manager Greater China at KRDS added “We are very proud of welcoming FRANKE as a new client. Being in charge of their social media and digital strategy and its execution, is great responsibility and one more opportunity for us to keep demonstrating our expertise and the value of our proposition“

 

Besides being a social agency, KRDS Shanghai is also capable of producing designs matching FRANKE’s Swiss premium brand standards thanks to its award-winning studio. These designs will include animations such as gifs, cinemagraphs aimed at increasing engagement among the brand’s followers.

 

Incorporated in 2013, KRDS Shanghai, the social and mobile agency has been ideating and producing digital content and social media campaigns, on Weibo and WeChat, for many local and international clients, to name few Club Med, Louis Vuitton, Air France, BNP Paribas, Biotherm and the French International Soccer Team.

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How brands can leverage WeChat Index to measure their popularity on WeChat ?

May 17, 2017

Apart from brands having their own official WeChat accounts (which provides them with direct feedback from their consumers), the application has recently released a new feature called “WeChat Index” (微信指数) – to access this tool, simply type the previous Chinese keywords in the WeChat search bar.

 

WeChat Index is a trend projector showing the popularity of a brand upon searching the relevant keywords on the tool. The tool enables the brand to identify and understand their performance, once entering the keyword on to the tool the number of times the keyword mentioned in any of the articles within the app for the last 7, 30 or 90 days hits the screen in a trend graph.

 

The service is based out to be on big data analysis and mobile indexing, where it understands user behaviour patterns and other data aspects and characteristics to project the brand’s popularity and performance among the 898 million WeChat users in turn helping the brand to build and evolve with real time feedback from its consumers.

 

With WeChat Index as a listening tool, the app also had various ways of marketing for brand such as content promotion through articles on product reviews and information, advertising via moments and account ads. Linking the brand’s online website portal to their official account along with strategic partnership emphasizing the use of WeChat wallet are other ways of marketing on WeChat.

 

WeChat is much more just another instant messaging app, it has replaced the wallet for users in China. With the recent report by Tencent projecting 93% adoption rate to using WeChat Pay (in cities) majority of them reasoning it as to not carrying cash at the time of purchase. Addressing the change in consumer behaviour, WeChat enables their users to book hotels and restaurants, buy movie tickets and handle all viable transactions through the app. A clear shift or transition towards a cashless society is being welcomed by the country.

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KRDS promotes French tourism on WeChat with Atout France

May 12, 2017

KRDS is glad to welcome Atout France as a new client ! We appreciate their trust in our vision and approach to increase France visibility on WeChat.

Atout France (France.fr) is the unique official French government agency in charge of promoting the first touristic destination in the world for 25 years: France. The agency helps 1,200 tourism professionnals in their international development and over 2,800 promotion campaigns are organized every year.

KRDS’ scope of work includes strategic consulting, on-going content creation , content moderation, campaigns and activations with media buying and KOL collaboration.

KRDS experience with travel and tourism clients on WeChat was much appreciated by Atout France.

Stay tuned and follow Atout France on WeChat !

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Russia blocks WeChat

May 9, 2017

China’s most popular social media app WeChat developed by Tencent Holdings gets listed among the prohibited websites in Russia. An official statement by Russian internet watchdog body Roskomnadzor confirmed the news as WeChat failed to fulfil Russia’s internet regulations. According to Roskomnadzor’s spokesperson, WeChat was blocked over not providing contact details for Russia’s register of “organizers of information distribution on the internet.”

 

Tencent having launched its app in 2011 haven’t been able to popularize in Russia, however this move may affect Chinese tourists and Russians doing business with China.

 

WeChat is not the first social media app prohibited in Russia, earlier this week Roskomnadzor listed Blackberry Messenger and Line to be banned as well. All this started after a law passed in 2014 required all foreign social media, search engine and messaging services to store the gathered personal information of Russian users within the country’s boundaries.

 

Tencent responded to the block stating “We’re experiencing a block and we’re deeply sorry,” on the company’s microblog,“Russian regulations say online service providers have to register with the government but WeChat doesn’t have the same understanding (of the rules),” the official also added that the company is communicating with Russian authorities on the issue.

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WeChat Pay chasing Alipay with 1.2 Trillion of USD in 2016

May 5, 2017

China has taken the lead at an astonishing rate in adapting online platforms as a common mode of payment compared to the rest of the world. In a period of five years (2010-2015) the percentage of digital payments, mostly mobile in the country has increased from 3.5% to 17% for all retail transactions.

 

The total amount processed through such payment portals in the year 2016 has been 3 trillion USD, with WeChat Pay chasing Alipay with 1.2 trillion USD. This demand for mobile payments became visible after the establishment of these two services, which combined owns 63% of the market share in digital payments today. With 800 million new WeChat Pay users to Alipay’s 450 million, WeChat Pay takes the lead while Alipay leads in payment volumes.

 

According to the data published in the Tencent Penguin Intelligence Survey, WeChat pay is the primary payment method for offline purchases with 93% adoption rate across tier 1 and tier 2 cities which includes Beijing and Shanghai. Cash comes in second place (39 percent), while debit and credit cards are third.

 

With respect to the competition, both WeChat Pay and Alipay are directed towards a common goal of minimizing cash transactions in China and are doing their best in expanding overseas by collaborating with local partners and becoming easy and attractive to implement.

 

As a testament to the central stage mobile payments has taken in Chinese consumers lives, Ogilvy & Maher and Ipsos concluded in a survey of China’s mobile payment market that “[Chinese] mobile payment has permeated all aspects of life and changed basic, everyday habits.”

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WeChat Expert Wanted: we are recruiting a Business Development Manager in Shanghai

May 3, 2017

Job description

Your main responsibilities:

The Business Development Manager main goal will be to work with KRDS local and international teams, to ensure the sales and proper delivery of social media and mobile campaigns including studio work, community management, applications and game-based campaigns to advertisers and agencies in Shanghai.

KRDS is especially looking for someone with ideally a previous experience in China, a strong leadership and sales mindset and experience, someone autonomous, ready to move fast and to grab a great opportunity in a booming company.

Based in our downtown office in Shanghai, you will be:

  • Managing and coordinating KRDS teams (Sales, Production, Admin …)
  • Leading all business development activities including proposals and pitches with the goal of winning new business
  • Contacting companies and advertising agencies that might be interested in social media marketing
  • When meeting potential customers, finding out what their goals are, explaining why and how to meet them
  • Ideating campaigns that might suit the client’s strategy
  • After a meeting, writing a compelling and well-illustrated powerpoint proposal
  • Answering potential customers’ questions
  • Negotiating the terms of an agreement & closing sales.
  • Briefing KRDS Project Managers about what needs to be developed, keeping track of the developments to make sure what is done is what was planned and sold
  • Managing the customer relationship from first contact to payment and upselling
  • Going to networking events within the industry
  • Keeping an up-to-date knowledge in local social media marketing
  • Reporting to the Country Manager and KRDS HQ

Your profile:

  • At least 2 years in a Business Development role with a proven track record
  • Eloquence (both when speaking and writing) and persuasion (strong commercial skills)
  • Outstanding sales & pitching skills
  • Deep interest for and knowledge of Sina Weibo and WeChat
  • Strong knowledge of the Chinese market, especially in terms of consumers’ habits and social media usage would be a real plus
  • Autonomy
  • Ability to develop and present digital strategies
  • Ability to work under pressure and manage crisis
  • Ability to speak and write in English – Chinese is a plus

APPLY HERE

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