Mobile Marketing in China: Can WeChat Turn Their New Advertising Strategy into a Sustainable Advantage?

Abstract

WeChat is China’s equivalent of WhatsApp, Facebook, and Paypal all combined into one app. In this paper, we examine mobile marketing in China, and specifically focus on WeChat’s strategy in opening up its platform to advertising. There is profit potential and also risk potential for WeChat in adopting this strategy. We discuss aspects of this strategy along various dimensions, compare WeChat and Facebook where relevant, and stress how and why WeChat needs to be cautious as it goes forward, to avoid various pitfalls that were handled unsuccessfully by Weibo. Core issues that are discussed include differentiation, personalization, customer perception, and the uniqueness of China and the Chinese consumer.