WELCOME TO THE JING DAILY WECHAT EDITION,
our weekly briefing on all things WeChat, featuring the latest news, campaigns, reports, case studies & events.
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— What's New —
The latest WeChat news gathered from top sources
MOVING TARGET
A new WeChat mini-program nicknamed 'Deadbeat Map' is currently being tested in Shijiazhuang, the capital city of North China's Hebei province. By allowing its users to identify nearby people who haven't paid their debts, the program is eerily reminiscent of the "Nosedive" episode of Netflix's Black Mirror. An add-on to the popular social media app, the mini-program shows debtors within a 500-meter radius, revealing their full names, national ID numbers, and even parts of their home address. The launch of the software appears to be part of the country's mission to publicly shame 'deadbeats' and reward exemplary citizens under its developing credit system.
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GRIEVANCE HEARD
BJ News, the leading Chinese state-owned media company, recently surveyed 120 WeChat users on what’s getting under their skin about the ubiquitous app. The results were not that surprising.
1. Drowning in too many random friends
2. Increasingly difficult to separate work from personal use
3. Exhausting to maintain a glamorous image via WeChat moments
4. And finally, too many ads
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ROUGH START
Time Capsule, WeChat’s “Instagram Story” knockoff has been garnering less than rave reviews since its launch in late December. Daniel Sobey-Harker, marketing director of the digital agency KAWO, has been an early critic. He recently conducted a 10-person survey on Time Capsule’s wavering popularity. He asked each volunteer (the group had a total of over 6,000 friends between them) to document how many Time Capsules each saw per week over a two-week period. Overall, there was a decline of 34% usage over the 2 weeks. The main complaint among the group was the difficultly in accessing the recently launched feature and concerns about sharing private moments with your entire WeChat world.
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— Campaign of the Week —
Recent noteworthy WeChat campaigns & case studies
LISTEN TO THIS
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art launches a new WeChat mini-program
FACTS: Launched last week, the mini-program is geared to attract more visitors by not only introducing them to the museum, but also by giving them a more in-depth viewing experience. Users can now engage with SFMOMA's collections regardless of their location in the world.
BACKSTORY: The research, planning, and development have been in progress since August 2018. SFMOMA worked with China Luxury Advisors to review mini-program options, specifically what other museums and attractions have previously developed. They first thought about popular gamification options for mini-programs, but really wanted to focus on providing a free “tool” for visiting the museum.
FEATURES: It has a user-friendly layout of the museum and its must-see exhibitions. It also provides a Mandarin audio guide (and accompanying text), highlighting various works of art throughout the museum. There is a separate hands-on tutorial on WeChat about how and where to access the mini-program.
NEXT STEPS: SFMOMA will continue to monitor engagement of the mini-program, confirming that it’s a helpful tool onsite, and adjust content accordingly. If successful, SFMOMA would like to expand the number of tour options beyond their Highlights Tour.
OUR TAKE: We like the overall design, which is simple to use and visually pleasing, as well as the carefully curated content, but hope to see as it evolves more interactive and social features, such as user comments and merchandise to take home.
RATING: 4 out of 5
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"Vogue China now has 21 digital editors—seven of whom are exclusively focused on creating content for WeChat, the platform on which Condé Nast now makes the vast majority of its digital revenue in China."—Wolfgand Blau, President of Condé Nast International
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— Insider Information —
The latest from WeChat
MAGIC MOMENTS
WeChat's Moment Ads—the Super Bowl reel of WeChat ads—are arguably the most effective advertising channel offered by the app. Studies reveal that checking their Moment's newsfeed is users' top activity on WeChat, with 61 percent of users scrolling through it every time they opened the app. On January 25th, WeChat released the top 10 best Moments Ads of 2018. Airbnb, Chinese jewelry brand I Do, and JD.com were the top three most voted. The list consisted of more than 670,000 WeChat voters, who submitted their choices January 1st through the 18th. Image: JD.com/moments ad
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— Deep Dive —
Must-read, in-depth guides, tutorials & reports
AND THE AWARD GOES TO...
Who were the biggest winners in the travel industry on WeChat for 2018 you ask? Well, China-based marketing agency Dragon Trail tracked WeChat accounts in the travel industry, including national tourism boards (NTBs), destination marketing organizations (DMOs), airlines, cruise lines, hotels, and museums and cultural attractions and ranked them based on the total views per article. And the winners are:
UP-AND-COMING: Visit Japan, Tourism Vancouver, All Nippon Airways, and Viking Cruises made the most significant gains.
HOME RUN: Asian airlines far outperformed non-Asian airlines—AirAsia remains firmly in first-place for international airlines on WeChat.
REBOOT: Thanks to its Tmall launch in July, the British Museum, which barely tracked at all in Q2, ended up with double the average views as the Louvre.
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— Influencer Spotlight —
Provided by 
ALL EYES ON
Location: Beijing | Category: Travel & Fashion | Content: Video & Blog Articles | Platforms: WeChat, Weibo & Yizhibo | Following: 250K+ | Top Brand Mention: Tate Modern
Self-taught videographer @小墨MO and her boyfriend, a photography major, @阿猴HOSEA host a travel video blog called “元气大暴走” (translation: walk with vitality). They share photography tips and travel advice, but it is their ability to discover and capture the wonder of traveling that sets them apart. @小墨MO is truly outgoing and maintains a close relationship with followers, she even hosts private offline meetups for fans. Her exuberant character and personal style are key qualities to her success as a blogger. The couple’s Weibo hashtag #元气大暴走# has tracked 12.34M views and 2.7K discussions.
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— System Updates —
Stay on top of WeChat's evolution
ON DISPLAY
January 22, WeChat added a new feature expanding the search of mini-program to a display that’s similar to the Apple OS system—users now essentially have a second home screen. WeChat expert Matthew Brennan tweeted about the update, "This has been the vision all along, took them 3 years to get to there." Whether it will truly challenge Apple’s App Store is still a question but without a doubt they are gaining share, while Apple is having a hard time to selling its iPhone in China. Image: Matthew Brennan
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