—What's New—

The latest WeChat news gathered from top sources

 pay to read 
WeChat is testing a new feature that allows public bloggers to add paywalls to their posts, the company said Wednesday. Qualified bloggers can charge readers up to 208 yuan ($30) for each article, and WeChat will charge the bloggers a technical service fee.
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 wechat marketplace  
WeChat rolled out a series of updates last Thursday, laying bare Tencent’s ambitious plans for WeChat Mini Programs—to build a vast online marketplace for traders and sellers. The new changes include a customer review mechanism, tools for brand protection and shipping, as well as a consumer protection platform, among others. The features bring the these WeChat sub-applications closer to resembling an online marketplace.
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 master plan  
Last week, China’s billion-user super-app WeChat faced a reckoning of sorts when Allen Zhang, the app’s founder, frankly discussed some of its shortcomings that have limited content creation. WeChat recently introduced several features to improve how content is seen and shared and plans to add short-video functions in a new version along with increasing its focus on monetization.
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—The Campaign—

Recent noteworthy campaigns & case studies on WeChat Wiki

 virtual avatar   
Homegrown Beauty Brand Create E-comm Mini Program For its Virtual Avatar
Facts: 
This virtual influencer-led strategy for gaining private traffic appears to be going well for Perfect Diary. Since our last article, Xiao Wanzi has adopted an English name—Abby—as well as an eponymous product line sold exclusively on her own e-commerce and makeup tutorial Mini Program on WeChat.
Highlights: 
This Mini Program is separate from Perfect Diary’s main e-commerce Mini Program and even features a wider range of products than what’s available in the brand’s WeChat flagship store. The Abby’s Choice Mini Program does not appear in the menu of Perfect Diary’s Official Account, and users can only access it by joining one of Abby’s WeChat groups or from a friend who has shared the Mini Program.
Our Take: 
Abby’s Choice has taken private traffic to a whole new level by not only offering special sales to loyal consumers or early access to product launches, but also by rolling out an entirely new sub-brand.
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 CNY style 
Burberry Celebrate Chinese New Year with Mini Program Game 
Facts: 
Building on the success of its debut online game, B Bounce, Burberry has unveiled a second game as part of its 2020 Chinese New Year campaign.
Highlights: 
Developed in honour of the Year of the Rat, the new online game is called Ratberry and features a world inspired by the limited-edition Thomas Burberry monogram motif. Players can use Ratberry, the game’s central character, to explore the purple-hued universe, bounce upwards between platforms and collect gold coins and Chinese lanterns. The game is available to play on Burberry.com from Tuesday January 14.
Results: 
This is the second online game launched by Burberry in the space of three months, as the luxury giant moves to capture the interest of China’s tech-savvy young consumers. 
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—Deep Dive—

Must-read, in-depth guides, tutorials & reports

 wechat open class 
WeChat released some impressive result during the WeChat Open Class last week, such as WeChat Mini Program’s daily active users reached 300 million. Also, 800 billion RMB of transactions happened via WeChat Mini Programs in 2019. WeChat launched Mini Program notice subscription template to replace template messages, WeChat is planning to improve the user experience for accessing “short content” as well. 
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—System Update—

Keeping up with the latest WeChat development  

 wechat goes mac 
Mini Programs can be finally opened on a Mac
Mini Programs are coming to your Mac. In the latest open beta version of the WeChat Client for Mac, Mini Programs shared in group chats or via official accounts can be finally opened. Multiple Mini Programs can also be opened at the same time, each within its own window. Payment on Mini Programs is also available via QR code scanning, though WeChat Mini Games appear to not be supported at the time. By bringing Mini Programs to Mac, WeChat has opened one more channel for brands to reach white-collar workers using WeChat at work, who will now be able to browse products and shop seamlessly on any device.