Big news! Adding friends on WeChat for business will be charged!

Is WeChat for Business starting to charge? What are the specific policies? What does this mean for enterprises? The following article, from the perspective of content creators, mainly explains the specific policies and reasons for charging for WeChat for Business, and explains the subsequent impact on enterprises. I recommend this article to people who want to understand the operation of WeChat for Business, and hope it will be helpful to everyone.

There is a fee for adding people to Enterprise WeChat, 0.1 cent per person per year.

On March 24, WeChat for Business announced that starting from June 22, it will charge companies using the service 0.1 yuan per person per year based on the number of external contacts.

As soon as this news came out, there was an uproar in the private domain circle, and everyone expressed surprise. So what are the specific policies?

01 Is one cent per person per year expensive?

1. The specific time for charging is June 22, which means that you can continue to add people for free before then.

2. There is no charge for friends you have added in the past. For example, if you have added 1,000 or 10,000 friends, you can use it for free.

The charging measure is based on the number of new private domain friends.

3. Each private domain slot costs 10 cents. This is not permanent, but everyone has to pay 10 cents every year.

4. Of course, Enterprise WeChat also provides each enterprise with some free quota, which can be used for free within 2,000 people.

5. Although the fee will be charged from June 22, it has not yet been announced that it will be fully charged. It will start with internal testing. But it is not certain whether it will be partially charged at that time.

02 Why does WeChat for Business charge a fee?

So why did WeChat for Business, which has always been free, start charging a fee in the face of competitors such as DingTalk and Feishu?

1. Natural barriers

As another product of WeChat private domain, Enterprise WeChat has the unique home advantage.

That is, only WeChat for Enterprise can be connected with WeChat, while DingTalk and Feishu can only sigh at the private domain traffic.

Therefore, for businesses with urgent needs, WeChat for Business does not leave any extra options.

With WeChat accounts being blocked on one hand and external tools not being ideal on the other, WeChat for Business has become the only option for many companies to undertake private domain operations.

2. Second, the pressure of monetization

The reason why WeChat can be free is that there are many opportunities to make money around the WeChat product itself.

For example, WeChat payment fees, public account certification fees, merchant advertising, e-commerce, mini programs, games, etc. are all income.

However, the traffic of corporate WeChat is almost impossible to publicize. Since we cannot collect advertising fees, we can only charge money from enterprises.

All TO B products need to be monetized, and selling the software functions themselves is the main way to monetize, such as charging the number of members this time.

In fact, enterprise WeChat is also quite difficult. On the one hand, it has to deal with everyone’s complaints about the large number of private domain advertisements on WeChat and guide enterprises to use Enterprise WeChat for marketing. On the other hand, it has to deal with the problem of low usage frequency of Enterprise WeChat users and difficulty in monetization.

03 Will WeChat for Business continue to charge money?

So this time WeChat for Business starts charging for membership, will it continue to charge money?

The village chief personally thinks that this is just a start and an attempt. Judging from the experience of making TO B products, there should be more paid projects on WeChat Enterprise in the future.

1. Independent function charges for WeChat for Business

For example, on March 22, WeChat for Business launched its own short-link charging function - Customer Acquisition Assistant.

It is to use the short link provided by WeChat for Enterprise to publish it externally. As long as the user clicks on the short link and adds WeChat for Enterprise as a friend, 1 yuan will be charged per person.

2. WeChat for Business related fee packages

For example, combining various functions and permissions together and launching platinum, gold, diamond membership and other charging methods.

For example, WeChat for Business has the function of employee resignation inheritance, or viewing previous chat records, etc. These are relatively important for enterprises and may become a part of the package charges in the future.

3. WeChat Enterprise Application Ecosystem Application Payment

For example, DingTalk has its own application market where companies choose to pay for applications and DingTalk takes a commission.

Currently, WeChat for Business also has some external applications. In the future, it may focus on supporting some products to be monetized within WeChat for Business, thereby earning money by taking commissions.

04 What does it mean for enterprises?

This time, WeChat for Business has begun to try charging fees, and the ones most affected are business owners or self-employed individuals who have been using WeChat for Business to attract traffic.

1. Increased costs

There is no doubt that whether it is this time's charging or other charging models that Enterprise WeChat will launch in the future, it will increase everyone's usage costs.

Moreover, compared with some TO B software on the market, the price is not low. After all, 510,000 private fans cost 1,000 yuan.

2. Refined operations

Adding one more person means charging one more person, which will increase the operational requirements for business owners in the future.

In the past, I would add everyone I met, or distribute my QR code in various places, hoping that everyone would come in.

If it becomes a paid service, we need to consider optimizing various processes in front-end traffic, back-end acceptance, screening, service, and conversion, so as to improve the accuracy of private domain customers.

Finally, the village chief wants to tell everyone that no matter whether corporate WeChat charges a fee or whether WeChat account blocking is strict.

The operation of private domain traffic is necessary, especially for content creators like us, community leaders, and some small and medium-sized enterprises.

The private domain traffic is finally harvested by various platforms. With traffic in hand, there is no need to worry about customers.

Author: The village chief lives in Shili Village

Source: WeChat public account "Shili Village (ID: shilipxl)"