WeChat Open Class Pro: A Look at What’s in Store for Businesses in 2023

March 2, 2023

WeChat Open Class PRO is a hyped and highly-anticipated annual conference organized by Tencent and aimed at creators.

In addition to showcasing exciting new developments and plans that WeChat has in store, the event aims to offer insightful information about how medium and small businesses can use the platform to spur growth and raise brand awareness.

Let’s see how this can impact brands and businesses that use WeChat to reach their customer base…

Why is WeChat Class PRO important for businesses?

Weixin Open Class PRO also referred to as WeChat Open Class PRO, is a yearly conference organized for developers, companies, and marketers to learn about the most recent features, updates, and best practices for the largest social media platform in China. We covered the event last year – WeChat Weixin Open Class PRO 2022.

Here are some reasons why Weixin Open Class PRO is important for businesses:

Keep up with the newest features

Businesses can learn more about the most recent features and updates, including Mini Programs, WeChat Pay, and WeChat Work, thanks to Weixin Open Class PRO.
By using new features to improve their marketing and customer engagement strategies, businesses can benefit from this information and stay one step ahead of the competition.

Find out the best practices

Businesses have the chance to learn how to use WeChat to grow their operations from successful case studies and industry experts through Weixin Open Class PRO.
This can help businesses maximize their marketing efforts, improve customer engagement, and raise brand awareness.

Access to Tencent resources

Businesses can access resources from Tencent, including its developer tools and APIs, through Weixin Open Class PRO.
In order to better serve their customers, this can assist businesses in developing customized WeChat solutions, such as Mini Programs.
In general, Weixin Open Class PRO is crucial for companies looking to stay competitive and use WeChat to promote business expansion in China.

📹 Watch the whole recording of the WeChat PRO 2023 conference here

What can we expect for 2023?

Based on the Open Class PRO and our own observations, we can tell that:

WeChat Channels:

After a year of new features including adding customer service integrations, WeChat Channels will continue to grow. Check out WeChat Channels Stats 2023 & Growth Plan to find out more.
Moreover, Tencent made a commitment to help creators. Their team stated that they would offer in a total of 5 billion free views in traffic, as well as richer and more comprehensive monetization tools and incentive policies, in order to assist anyone who is serious about broadcasting, growing, and earning money.

Backstreet Boys WeChat Channels

New Formats:

WeChat appears to be introducing new ad formats and improved integrations.
There is certain format fatigue as the article format has been the same for years. This year, Tencent tests to implement new formats like:
- Images will be stacked and horizontally viewable in a 3:4 aspect ratio.
- Up to 300 characters will be allowed in the description section.
- Optimized services related to image display to gain traction.

WeChat Image Message New Format

WeChat Search:

The WeChat search engine continued to expand, reaching 800 million monthly users:
- Earlier this month, WeChat released a small program called Search data assistant.
- Wechat’s backend has been updated with new features to help brands better track it.

🔍 A Quick Guide to WeChat Search As a Marketing Tool

WeCom:

Undoubtedly, WeCom will expand as well. WeCom, Weixin’s product specifically designed for businesses, offers practical office automation and communication tools. It is also being adopted by the education sector more and more.
According to the Industry Resilience and Recovery Potential Report 2023 that Weixin released at the Weixin Open Class PRO, SME businesses with fewer than 500 employees saw a 35% increase in the number of daily active WeCom enterprise users in the manufacturing sector year over year.

AI development:

Lastly, it’s worth noting the advancements made by the WeChat AI team. In 2022, the AI team made improvements to the WeChat dialogue open platform called co-enterprise WeChat.
They also introduced a new service called “dialogue robot” for corporate WeChat. It will allow for more seamless integration between robots and artificial customer service in the customer service scene. This natural integration enabled companies to serve their users more efficiently.

Conclusion

Firstly, WeChat’s annual Open Class Pro conference is a crucial event for businesses seeking to stay ahead of the competition and expand their customer base in China. Moreover, we can expect continued growth and innovation from WeChat in 2023, with the 2022 conference focusing on mini-programs, payment, and search functions, and advancements in the app’s short video service, Channels.

Furthermore, with Tencent’s commitment to investing in traffic and monetization tools, as well as advancements in ad formats and WeChat AI, businesses can anticipate new opportunities for engagement and growth on the platform.

Meanwhile, if you want to know more about WeChat, please contact our team. We use our knowledge and expertise to help businesses build meaningful partnerships and develop their networks among Chinese customers. For additional information, please contact us at contact@thewechatagency.com.

You may also like

Maximizing WeChat Channels: An In-Depth Look at the Statistics and the Future Plans

February 16, 2023

WeChat, China’s biggest app, grew from just a chatting messanger to a major business platform a long time ago. And Channels, the video sub-platform of WeChat, is becoming one of users’ and businesses’ favorite features.

Channels advanced last year, with more services and content available to both consumers and businesses. Since the start of its internal beta testing on January 21, 2020, it has experienced significant user engagement. The feature, which enables anyone to record, create, and share videos, saw total user time exceed 80% of that of Moments, the latter of which offers mutual contacts with asynchronous photo, video, and audio sharing.

If you’re not very familiar with WeChat Channels yet, explore our introductory post for beginners here – A Beginner’s Guide to WeChat Channels.

Now, let’s analyze the WeChat Channel statistics and growth plan for 2023.

WeChat Channel Statistics

WeChat Channels have powerful tools for businesses to connect with their target audience and drive growth – with the help of innovative content. The total number of views has skyrocketed, with a 200% YoY increase and a 400% YoY increase in video views based on AI recommendations.

The number of daily active creators and video uploads has also surged, with a 100% YoY increase, and significant growth in the number of viral videos and original video views. However, short videos are not all.

Live streaming has also seen tremendous growth, with a 300% increase in users, a 156% increase in viewing time, a 614% increase in content creators, and an 83% increase in broadcast time.

🎥 Learn more about live-streaming on WeChat Channels

WeChat Channels continue to expand its support with new features like live streaming e-commerce, quick sharing, and product windows. This makes more brands eager to leverage a massive userbase to drive their sales and reach their target audience.

The GMV of live-streaming e-commerce on Channels has grown by over 800% since 2021. Moreover, the average transactions now exceed RMB 200.

Top Events in 2023

WeChat Channels have become one of the most popular platforms for users to watch and share short videos.

It’s clear that short videos are a hit among WeChat Channels users. The number of views for short videos in 2022 increased by 237% compared to the previous year, showing just how popular they have become.

When it comes to the most popular short videos, five topics stood out. These were the workplace, cultural history, financial management, eloquence/speech, and trivia. This shows that users are interested in a wide range of topics.

WEChat Channels Stats 2023

For those looking to be entertained, WeChat Channels has a plethora of options. The top five concerts in 2022 included “Yearning” by Li Jian, Cui Jian’s first online concert, the Backstreet Boys’ first-ever online concert, Luo Dayou’s “Childhood” concert, and “You Want a Good Concert.”

Backstreet Boys WeChat Channels

In addition to entertainment, WeChat Channels users are also looking for ways to improve their physical health. The top six fitness keywords searched by users were yoga, bodybuilding, boxing, body, aerobics, and diet meals.

For those looking to explore, WeChat Channels offer a wealth of travel content. For example, the top 10 most popular destinations in WeChat Channels included:

Yellow River Xiaolangdi Reservoir,
Huashan Long Sky Boardwalk,
Tiananmen,
Leshan Giant Buddha,
Yellow River Hukou Waterfall,
Tianmen Mountain in Zhangjiajie,
Forbidden City,
Gulangyu Island in Xiamen,
Macao Green Mao Port,
Former Residence of Chairman Mao in Shaoshan.

WeChat Channels’ Growth Plan

In the fast-paced digital world, it’s essential for businesses to keep up with the latest trends and technologies to reach their target audience. WeChat Channels is one such platform that provides a unique opportunity for businesses to reach a vast audience through its innovative features and rich content ecosystem. According to WeChat Weixin Pro Class 2023 (our coverage of the 2022 edition available here), Tencent plans to invest more into Channels in the coming years.

Short Video

The short video feature on WeChat Channels has seen significant growth in the past year. As a result, with more and more creators joining the platform, the content ecosystem has become more diverse and prosperous.

Moreover, the time spent by WeChat Channels users has also increased and is now approaching that of WeChat Moments. The video views based on recommendation algorithms have increased by over 400% YoY, making it a great opportunity for businesses to reach a vast audience.

To provide comprehensive author services, WeChat Channels has upgraded its creator traffic and honor incentives, with new product capabilities such as online content heating, video product sharing, and video monetization tasks.

These tools will provide creators with more monetization options and help them grow and get better returns on WeChat Channels.

In 2022, the number of daily active creators and video uploads increased by more than 100% YoY, original content played increased by 350% YoY, and the number of creators with 10,000+ fans increased by 308%.

🗺 Learn how to optimize your WeChat Channels posting with our quick guide

Live Streaming

WeChat Channels’ live broadcasts have become an integral part of users’ social lives, covering a range of content from hot events to daily information communication and celebrity speeches. Above all, it provides a platform for individuals to start broadcasting and showing themselves, encouraging diverse content production.

The platform provides a rich live broadcasting ecosystem:

the viewing scale increasing by 300%,
the viewing time by 156%,
and high-quality launch time by 614%.

WeChat Channels has always encouraged the production of diversified and high-quality content. In order words, providing a platform for “every individual to pick up his mobile phone and start broadcasting.”

As a result, this led to a significant increase of 101% in 2022 and total anchor revenue growth by 447%.

To sum up, live streaming will invest 5 billion in traffic incentives and more rich and perfect realization tools and incentive policies to help every individual have a good start, growth, and income.

E-commerce Live Streaming

Live Streaming Channels

The commercial potential of WeChat Channels live broadcast has continued to grow. With sales increasing by more than 8 times YoY and the platform’s public purchase conversion rate by more than 100%.

The top three categories of consumption are clothing, food, and beauty. Finally, it’s worth noting that the purchasing power on WeChat Channels is split between 20% male and 80% female users. This information is useful for businesses and content creators looking to target specific demographics with their products and services.

The launch of WeChat Channels stores provides businesses with convenient and efficient business tools, with over 90% of sales coming from the WeChat Channels store. The platform has connected over 1,000 service providers, contributing over 30% to Channels’ sales.

Firstly to better support brand merchants, WeChat Channels will soon release an incentive plan for merchants. Secondly, Tencent will provide more opportunities, including traffic, brand identity, and other services. For instance, the platform will also continue to increase its support for service providers and focus on investment. For example, in areas of identity authentication, traffic incentives, and operational tools.

Conclusion

WeChat Channels have come a long way, with improvements in short video, live broadcasting, and e-commerce. Above all, with the continued development of the ecosystem and the implementation of incentive policies, WeChat Channels will continue to attract more users and creators, providing a platform for rich and diverse content.

If you want to know more about WeChat channels and help create a content strategy for WeChat, contact our team. We use our knowledge and expertise to help businesses build meaningful partnerships and develop their networks among Chinese customers. For additional information, please contact us at contact@thewechatagency.com.

You may also like

WeChat (Weixin) Class PRO 2022: Top Highlights

January 18, 2022

WeChat which is known as Weixin (pronounced way-shin) in China is the country’s killer app, a highly addictive social networking tool that allows smartphone users to send messages and share news, photographs, videos, and web links, similar to WhatsApp in the United States or Line in Japan.

Every year, WeChat organizes the annual conference “Open Class Pro” aimed at WeChat creators to find out what that number means for small businesses and what other new plans the networking giant has in the works.

WeChat Open Class Pro Highlights

1. On January 4th, 2022, at the annual event promoting the app’s new functions and strategies, a group of middle-ranking Tencent executives dubbed “WeChat lecturers” worked together to persuade Chinese users, including content creators and merchants, that the app would continue to be an important tool for entertainment and business in China with its mini-programs and short videos.

2. One of the main takeaways from the event was that the number of mini-programs – primarily created by third parties – has been gradually increasing, with 450 million daily active users expected by 2021. WeChat users visited small programs 32% more frequently in 2021 than the previous year, according to the Shenzhen-based tech giant.

In 2021, according to Lake Zeng Ming, CEO of Tencent’s Weixin Open Platform, more than 700 million individuals used pandemic-related services such as Covid-19 testing and vaccination appointments via WeChat micro-apps.
Tencent also stated that over the next three years, it will pay 10 billion yuan (US$1.57 billion) in subsidies to small merchants to encourage them to modernize their digital infrastructure.

3. Tencent also held a special session at the event on Channels, the app’s own short video service that will launch in 2020 and compete with Douyin, which has over 600 million daily active users in China.

Tencent has taken a step-by-step strategy to promote Channels, giving video content a more prominent position on WeChat. Channels had amassed 200 million users as of June 2021, according to the most recent data from Tencent, but WeChat has not given updated user counts since.

4. Weixin’s annual conference in Guangzhou also highlighted advancements in the app’s payment and search functions, as well as the commercial version. But it was the app’s “channels” feature’s short videos and live streams that grabbed the Internet by storm.

Social Impact Methods in Empowering the Vulnerable

Weixin has included a new option for older users called Easy Mode, as well as an improvement to the Parental Control Mode for underage users, further boosting connections with age-specific updates.
Weixin launched a scheme for over 60,000 Shenzhen sanitation workers that allow them to eat for only 0.01 yuan a week at roughly 1,000 restaurants throughout the city. To assist gather funds, more than 20,000 eateries and their customers in China joined the philanthropic project.
In another case, Weixin developed the Star Knows campaign and used the Mini Program to enlist the public’s love and support in order to expand the number of books available to rural children.
Weixin also employed the Mini Program to assist Chinese users in becoming more environmentally conscious. Weixin launched the country’s first educational mini-program dedicated to the science of carbon emissions to raise public understanding of climate change.

The 2022 Open Class PRO conference went all out to achieve net-zero emissions, with speakers and guests wearing clothing made entirely of recycled plastic bottles. According to professional calculators, this event established a balance between emissions created and emissions removed from the environment

Weixin stated that it will continue to improve its products and provide support to developers, content creators, and partners in order for them to survive in the dynamic ecosystem and collaborate to provide more people-oriented innovative services.

How Did Small Businesses Benefit From Weixin Mini-Program?

Case study

Xiao Mian, a popular street meal from China’s southwest serves hot, tingly, and mouth-numbing dishes. Su Xuxiang, on the other hand, sees a lot of potential for delicacy across the country. Weixin’s noodle business has grown to 150 locations nationally in the last seven years, thanks in part to his mini-program feature.

Benefits

Yujian Xiaomian, co-founder of SU XUXIANG stated “Weixin was the first platform we used for orders and payments. We opted to employ the mini-program features two years ago. It not only improves our service, but it also allows us to better understand our clients. With the users’ permission, we can see what foods they prefer and where on the menu they spend the most time. It has also aided us in attracting six million people’’

Mini programs are less expensive and easier to develop than standalone apps, making them perfect for low-budget start-ups.

Tencent’s Weixin, or WeChat, claims that 450 million people used its mini-programs on a daily basis in 2021. These mini-programs are WeChat-based services provided by third parties.

According to Weixin, small and medium-sized firms created 90% of new mini-programs in the previous year.

Tencent’s XU YANGYANG Catering and Life Services Business Weixin Open Platform is a platform created by Weixin. “COVID-19 cases continued showing up all over the place in 2020, wreaking havoc on dine-in services. That’s why, in addition to catering, we encouraged contactless ordering in barbershops and laundry services. The number of mini-programs and daily active users had doubled a year later. Most crucially, the number of transactions increased by a factor of five. We believe we’ve improved the efficiency of enterprises and society, which will lead to a stronger economic recovery.”

Conclusion

If you’re targeting higher-end customers, WeChat Mini-programs will almost certainly remain an important element of your marketing ecosystem. This is because they make it easier to convert new users.
Users that try out services through the WeChat Mini program are considerably more likely to upgrade to a Native App.
They’re a powerful tool because of their capacity to transform WeChat content into e-commerce.

If you require further support with setting up your WeChat account, please contact our team. We use our knowledge and expertise to help businesses build meaningful partnerships and develop their network among Chinese customers. For additional information, please contact us by phone – Shanghai or Hong Kong

Sources:

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2022-01-07/VHJhbnNjcmlwdDYxODQ1/index.html

https://chozan.co/wechat-vs-weixin/

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/weixins-open-ecosystem-reports-user-and-engagement-growth-301455662.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weixin

https://www.scmp.com/tech/big-tech/article/3162340/chinas-ubiquitous-wechat-doubles-down-mini-apps-short-videos-it-faces

https://walkthechat.com/wechat-mini-programs-simple-introduction/#:~:text=If%20you’re%20targeting%20higher,convert%20to%20a%20Native%20App.

https://recordtrend.com/industry-information/all-highlights-of-2021-wechat-open-class-pro/

You may also like

[UPDATE] Xiao’e Pinpin, a WeChat mini program

June 23, 2020

Xiao’e Pinpin joins Tencent’s eCommerce efforts letting WeChat users buy lifestyle products through WeChat

Tencent rolled out Xiao’e Pinpin, a new mini-program meant for social commerce on WeChat that Tencent has made available to all of its 1.1 billion users.

The mini-program went online on 29 April. It carries a giant catalogue of lifestyle products, including lipsticks and iPhones. This play marks Tencent’s most recent move in China’s e-commerce sector. Previously, Tencent had invested in tech companies like JD.com and Pinduoduo, as well as supermarket chain operator Yonghui.

Xiao’e Pinpin uses a “content feed” to showcase its merchandise. It shows one merchant’s product details which are followed by goods from a different vendor. Two slots are reserved at the top of the feed for special promotions. As of now, the mini-program hosts more than a 100 shops. Goods on sale are uncategorized, without any search functions. At the moment, it is unclear how the mini program’s algorithm determines the order in which products appear on feeds.

You may also like

How to Use WeChat for Business

January 31, 2020

Introduction

If you’re here, you’re probably a business owner or someone in marketing. In order to understand how to leverage WeChat for your business, you must know a few things about WeChat and how it works. This is especially informative since LinkedIn has removed its social component in its China’s version. This article will explain it all in an efficient and smooth way.

Let’s start with the first thing you would do – set up a WeChat account. Learn more about B2B lead generation strategies for WeChat.

(more…)

You may also like