How to communicate and do business with China in 2018
An analysis of the evolution of major and new forms of messaging: are they ready to enter the business world?
Email was once the most used method to hold a conversation. Even if it is still a primary tool to communicate with friends, colleagues or business clients, over the past several years, the proliferation of chat apps and social messaging platforms has largely prevailed the traditional form. According to Deloitte in 2016, 35% of US consumers checked in the morning first instant messaging and texting (up from 29% in 2014). The strong presence of smartphones in many mature markets gives users immediate and consistent access to other people and businesses through social media, chat apps, and email. Those are influencing the way people communicate, not only with each other, but with businesses too. In fact, more engaging modes of workplace communication are growing. Instant messages are used as a collaboration tool, potentially enhancing productivity. Furthermore, chat apps are altering consumer behavior and text messaging is causing shorter and less formal emails.
The Chinese platform WeChat, with one billion accounts worldwide, is one of the most important apps for messages in China and Europe too. According to Tencent, within a year WeChat has recorded a growth of 15.8%, with 38 billion daily messages exchanged between users. Founded in 2011 as an instant messaging app, today it would be simplistic to define it as such and comparing it to an instant messaging competitor would be rather limited. WeChat introduced a new concept for Westerner app, the “service-aggregator”. In fact, WeChat is the mixture of several applications put together in a single platform. Interesting features support the business-consumer relation. For example, both purchase choices and payments can be made via WeChat. This is the so-called “conversational commerce”, the new frontier of shopping. Several stores have created a WeChat account: a way to reach the more and more strategic Asian clients. In this regard, the Italian fashion sector is wondering how to look out on the new window of business that the Chinese social is offering. Via WeChat, brands can reach tourists traveling worldwide and offer them services. Getting in touch with consumer via WeChat has several advantages: a higher rate of engagement compared to normal web browsing; the possibility of creating a direct channel between brand and user; a quick link to e-commerce and QR codes to attract attention, allow access to special content and initiate one-to-one conversations.
By now, few small and medium-sized European companies have been able to create a cross-border shop on WeChat. Western countries just communicate on social networks, on WeChat instead it is possible to sell and buy. From a business point of view, WeChat presents itself as a huge online mall where owners of small or large businesses can open their own official account, a digital shop through which they can have visibility and sell in the Chinese market. In Europe, other companies are developing a similar approach. WhatsApp Business, the platform dedicated to small and medium-sized businesses, is recently available for Android users, allowing customers to find easily useful information. Telegram, another popular instant messaging platform, has been doing something similar for some time. The app was the first to introduce very interesting features from a business point of view such as channels and automatic answers via chatbot. Today, almost 1 million people are testing WhatsApp payments in India. The feedback has been very positive, and people enjoy the convenience of sending money as simply and securely as sending messages. The company also said that it is working with the government and banks to support India’s digital economy and to expand the feature to more people.
In China, everything works with WeChat, which, in practice, combines existing technologies, such as messaging, mobile payment or geolocation, creating a strong network, whose gateway is a simple chat. WeChat is the gateway and tool for important players of different industries to expand and increase market share. Will Europe change its way of doing business? Companies are waiting for tools to support this important shift and new perspectives are emerging.
Luca Masoero