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Technology · 微信
WeChat is not an app. It is the operating system.
1.4 billion people open WeChat dozens of times a day. Conversations, payments, loyalty cards, shopping, the brand relationship itself, all of it lives inside one app.
We build Mini Programs and H5 mini-sites for foreign brands. Twenty years on the ground in Shanghai.
0 B
monthly active users on WeChat in 2025.
Tencent Q4 2024 earnings.
0 M
monthly Mini Program users
QuestMobile, 2025
0 min
spent inside WeChat per Chinese user, every day
QuestMobile annual report
A day inside WeChat
From the morning scan to the night livestream.
A typical day for a Chinese consumer. Six moments where WeChat is the default. The brand relationship lives in there or it does not exist.
07:30
10:00
Loyalty tier
Tap the brand membership card before the second coffee. Tier check, free upgrade.
12:30
Lunch order
Mini Program of the noodle place down the street. Pre-ordered, ready on arrival.
15:00
Service request
Warranty status on a kitchen appliance. Brand Mini Program. No login needed.
19:00
Evening shopping
Skincare brand Mini Program. Saved cart, WeChat Pay, ready in order history.
21:30
Channels livestream
A favourite presenter on Channels. Tap a product, buy, no checkout interruption.
There is no Instagram, no WhatsApp, no PayPal. WeChat replaces all of them.
Mini Program or H5
They live in WeChat, but they are not the same thing.
Native
Mini Program 小程序
Native, lives inside WeChat. Full access to WeChat Pay, Login, camera, location. The right call for anything that has to feel like an app.
- Users will return repeatedly (membership, e-commerce)
- You need WeChat Pay or other native APIs
- You are building for the long term, not a single campaign
Web
H5 mini-site
Mobile webpages opened inside WeChat's browser. Faster to ship, work outside WeChat too, but no native APIs. For campaigns, brochures, lead capture.
- You are running a campaign with a fixed end date
- You need to ship in days or weeks
- Content matters more than deep platform integration
Astro × H5
Good news for Astro sites. An Astro site built for China is already H5-compliant by default. Static, fast, no blocked dependencies. The H5 deliverable is mostly just the same site, scoped for the campaign.
Mini Program
H5
Lives where Inside WeChat, like a native app In WeChat's in-app browser, also outside
WeChat Pay Yes, full integration Limited, requires Official Account binding
Native APIs Camera, location, scan, login Browser-only
Build time 10 to 14 weeks 4 to 6 weeks
Best for Membership, e-commerce, service Campaigns, brochures, lead capture
Not sure which fits? Strategy and Audit is where the conversation starts.
What WeChat is For
Seven ways brands use WeChat right now.
Membership and loyalty
The most common use case for foreign brands. The Mini Program holds the card, tracks points, delivers personalised rewards. Starbucks China runs its entire membership this way.
Brand experience
For luxury, beauty, and lifestyle brands: a curated content hub. Campaign films, founder stories, encyclopedias, store locators, virtual try-on, all inside WeChat.
D2C and Channels livestream
Sell direct without paying Tmall or JD their commission. Mini Program plus WeChat Pay, with private traffic from community groups and Channels livestreams.
Pre-orders and product launches
For seasonal drops or campaign launches, the pre-order flow stays inside WeChat. No external site, no friction, much higher conversion.
Post-purchase service and CRM
After-sales, warranty registration, repair booking, support. The customer never downloads an app or remembers a password.
B2B brochures and catalogues
An H5 brochure or Mini Program catalogue is more useful than a PDF. Salespeople share it in chats, prospects browse from inside the conversation.
Offline-to-online
Offline-to-online integration
QR codes on packaging, in stores, on print, all opening straight into a Mini Program. In China the QR code is the link to everything. Without one on the other end, it is wasted real estate.
Packaging In-store Print Events Out-of-home
The Technology
Native, cross-platform, or a mix.
The first decision ripples through everything else, from audit pass-rate to long-term maintenance cost.
Native 原生
WXML, WXSS, JavaScript
The official Tencent stack. New APIs land here first, audit reviewers prefer it, long-term maintainability is at its best. Our default for WeChat-only projects.
WXML WXSS JS Cloud Development
Cross-platform 跨端
Taro and UniApp
One codebase, multiple Chinese mini-program platforms. Taro for React teams, UniApp for Vue teams or the broadest target list. The right call when you need WeChat plus Alipay or Douyin.
Taro UniApp React Vue
UI systems 组件库
Vant Weapp and TDesign
Vant Weapp for marketing-led and e-commerce projects. TDesign, Tencent's own enterprise design system, for complex B2B applications. TypeScript on every project of any real size.
Vant Weapp TDesign TypeScript
Backend 后端
Aliyun, Tencent Cloud, PIPL
Secure APIs through Aliyun or Tencent Cloud, with Chinese-side authentication. Data localisation handled to comply with PIPL and the Cybersecurity Law. CRM and ERP integration as needed.
Aliyun Tencent Cloud PIPL CRM/ERP
The WeChat Ecosystem
The Tencent surfaces we wire your brand into.
Application
Mini Program
小程序
Channel
Official Account
公众号
Payments
WeChat Pay
微信支付
Video and live
WeChat Channels
视频号
B2B and CRM
Enterprise WeChat
企业微信
Backend
Cloud Development
微信云开发
The Ecosystem · 生态
We do not reinvent the wheel.
The Mini Program ecosystem is enormous and mature. Whatever your business does, the odds are good that someone has already solved 70 percent of the problem and packaged it into a SaaS you can license today.
3M+
Mini Programs in production
450M
daily active Mini Program users
949M
monthly active Mini Program users
E-commerce SaaS
电商 SaaS
Storefronts, catalogues, WeChat Pay, group buying (拼团), flash sales (秒杀), vouchers (优惠券). Established players from CNY 6,800/year; newer no-code platforms from CNY 1,000 to 2,000.
Youzan 有赞 Weimob 微盟 Weidian 微店 Miaopu 妙铺 Qiaotuoyun 乔拓云 Guaguazan 呱呱赞
Loyalty, CRM, SCRM
会员与营销
SCRM platforms for member tagging (会员标签), behavioural tracking, automated journeys, personalised messaging through corporate WeChat. Global Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk setups wire in through connectors.
Parllay Weiban 微伴助手 Wesheng 微盛 WeCom 企业微信
F&B and restaurant ops
餐饮
Most chain restaurants in China run on one of these. Scan-to-order (扫码点餐), reservations, queue management (排队叫号), delivery, member rewards. McDonald's China and Starbucks (星享俱乐部) run on this stack.
Meituan F&B 美团餐饮 Keruyun 客如云 2Dfire 二维火 Hualala 哗啦啦 Weimob F&B 微盟智慧餐饮
Booking, events, content
预订与内容
DerbySoft and Tongcheng for hotels (Club Med used DerbySoft for direct-booking growth). Damai, Huodongxing, Yoopay for ticketing. Channels and WeChat Live for livestream. Audemars Piguet uses booking-inside-Mini Program for clienteling.
DerbySoft Tongcheng 同程 Damai 大麦 Huodongxing 互动吧 Channels 视频号
Vertical and B2B
垂直行业
Industry-specific SaaS we know well: education (打卡), beauty (美业), property (看房), automotive (售后), healthcare (挂号). B2B sales teams run WeCom + Tencent Meeting.
WeCom 企业微信 Tencent Meeting 腾讯会议 Education 教育 Beauty 美业 Healthcare 医疗
Aladdin Index · 阿拉丁指数
We watch Aladdin Index monthly to keep track of which SaaS players are rising and which are losing share. The right answer is rarely let us build from scratch. Usually it is pick the SaaS that fits 70 percent, then build the 30 percent that genuinely makes your brand different.
WeCom · 企业微信
Different product. Different problem solved.
Foreign teams routinely confuse WeCom with WeChat. Same maker, different apps, different purposes.
Consumer
WeChat 微信
The consumer super-app. 1.4 billion personal accounts: social, payments, content. Your brand presence here lives in your Mini Program, Official Account, and Channels.
Enterprise
WeCom 企业微信
Tencent's enterprise tool. Corporate accounts for sales reps and customer service staff. Employees message customers' personal WeChat from a verified WeCom account. The customer installs nothing. The company keeps the history.
Why it matters
The relationship stays with the company.
客户关系将沉淀在企业侧, 不因员工的离职而流失
When a personal-WeChat sales rep leaves, they take the customer book with them. WeCom flips that. Customer relationships live at the company, not at the individual rep.
Audit trails SCRM tagging 200+ open APIs SOC 2 Type 1 ISO/IEC 27018
Where WeCom fits.
Five places we see WeCom earn its keep with international brands.
Frontline retail and clienteling
Store associates, beauty advisors, watch specialists message customers between visits from a WeCom account. Lin Qing Xuan (林清轩) and Florasis (花西子) both run this model.
B2B sales teams
Replaces a tangle of personal WeChat accounts with one managed, auditable system. Documents, approvals, video calls through Tencent Meeting (腾讯会议), all in one app.
Customer service
Inbound support from your Mini Program, Official Account, or QR code lands in WeCom and routes to the right agent, inside a system legal can audit.
Private traffic operations
私域运营Drive public-channel audiences (Xiaohongshu, Douyin, paid media, in-store QR codes) into a WeCom contact, then nurture through one-to-one chat and curated content. How brands build real D2C revenue without paying Tmall and JD their commission.
Internal collaboration
Doubles as Slack and Teams for the China office. Documents, video meetings, approvals, all on Chinese servers, all in one app.
Why it is clever
It sits between WeChat and your CRM, exactly where the customer-facing work happens.
Salesforce, HubSpot, Microsoft Dynamics, or homegrown systems all wire in through SCRM connectors. The regulatory layer is built in. The base account is free. You only pay for SCRM when you need it.
WeChat WeCom Your CRM
SCRM connectors we work with
Weiban 微伴助手 Wesheng 微盛 Parllay Salesforce HubSpot Dynamics
The base WeCom account is free. SCRM is layered on only when you actually need it.
How we set it up
WeCom is rarely a project on its own.
We almost always set it up alongside a Mini Program build or migration. The two together are how the brand actually shows up to the Chinese customer. Verification, SCRM integration, the CRM connection, and the team rollout, end to end.
What We Handle
The regulatory layer where most foreign brands stall.
The technology is one thing. The Chinese regulatory layer is the other. We carry both, end to end.
Account registration and verification
Through your WFOE, a local partner, or a service-account-only setup. Documentation, fees, identity checks, the Tencent back-and-forth.
MIIT Mini Program filing (小程序备案)
Mandatory since 2023. Chinese business licence, ICP-filed domain, category approvals. We handle the 24-hour SMS window that trips up first-time filings.
ICP filing for the supporting domain
Required for Mini Programs with a backend. Aliyun, Tencent Cloud, or Huawei Cloud, depending on your stack.
WeChat Pay integration
Merchant account, certificate generation, API, test cycle, end to end. The piece that breaks most often without local presence.
Privacy compliance (用户隐私保护指引)
Policy, in-app consent UI, audit-ready against WeChat's guidelines. So the Mini Program passes review the first time.
Performance and review readiness
Bundle size, load time, API frequency, content moderation. Tuned to what Tencent reviewers actually look for.
Timeline
How long it takes.
Account registration and MIIT filing usually sit on the critical path and run in parallel with design and build. We start them on day one.
Mini Program · 小程序
Native Mini Program build
10 to 14 weeks
Strategy
Filing
Design and build
Launch
Week 1 Week 4 Week 9 Week 14
H5 mini-site
H5 campaign or brochure
4 to 6 weeks
Concept
Design and build
Launch
Week 1 Week 2 Week 4 Week 6
Complex projects run longer
Deep ERP or CRM integration, full e-commerce, or multi-platform compilation through Taro or UniApp typically stretches the timeline to four or five months. We map this out clearly in the strategy phase.
Frequently Asked
Twenty questions we hear about WeChat in China.
Setup, ecosystem, and the day-to-day of actually running a Mini Program: how brands grow inside WeChat, where they get stuck, and the opportunities most miss.
Get Started
Thinking about WeChat for your brand?
If your brand needs to be inside WeChat and you do not yet have a Mini Program or an H5 mini-site, we can help. Strategy and Audit is where most engagements begin.