I have 5 opinions on WeChat for Business charging...

This article starts with the breaking news that WeChat for Business will charge a fee, and shares the author's views. It is recommended for those who want to understand the future development of WeChat for Business.

There was some breaking news these days:

Starting from June 22, Enterprise WeChat will charge companies 0.1 yuan per person per year based on the number of external contacts, with only 2,000 free places available.

This news immediately sparked heated discussions in the industry. After all, today, WeChat for Business is the first choice for enterprises to do private domain business, and it is also a must-have. Almost no enterprise can avoid it. Especially if it increases the "cost" for enterprises, it will definitely attract criticism. Some people say that WeChat for Business is cutting leeks, some are beginning to worry, and some say they want to switch to WeChat for personal use... Let me share my views.

01

How big is the impact of this charge?

Although WeChat for Business itself has some fixed charges, the overall cost is not high. However, this time the fee is charged by number of people, and there are only 2,000 free places, which basically cannot meet the needs of private domain operations. Especially for enterprises that need to operate private domains in a systematic way, the number of private domain users ranges from hundreds of thousands to tens of millions.

Assuming that a company has 1 million WeChat users, the cost will increase by 100,000 yuan per year. According to statistics, the number of real companies and organizations on WeChat for Business exceeds 10 million, with more than 180 million active users, and more than 500 million active WeChat users connected , including WeChat service providers of all sizes. It is not difficult to imagine why this charge has triggered heated discussions in the industry.

02

Some people say that the enterprise WeChat is a way to cut leeks, while others express support.

I personally don’t think it’s a cut, after all, it’s been “free” for so many years, and it’s understandable that companies charge some money to survive and develop, or to provide better services. Especially the price of 0.1 yuan per person is relatively “humane”.

For small and medium-sized enterprises, the cost will not be very high, and for large enterprises, this part of the cost is not painful. But the method and approach are not appropriate.

First of all, the news came out rather suddenly, and was not communicated to the companies or service providers beforehand, which seemed a bit "arbitrary".

Secondly, the model of charging per capita has also raised many questions.

There are obviously better charging methods, but they chose the most controversial one. DingTalk and Feishu, which are in the same industry, do not have similar charging methods. However, it has not been officially implemented yet. It will only be tested internally for some companies in June, so the policy has not been finalized yet, so we will have to wait and see.

03

When Enterprise WeChat starts charging according to the number of users, joining Enterprise WeChat is no longer free. For enterprises, it is more important to pay attention to the refined screening and operation of users to enable each user to create value.

Before, when doing private domain, I would add people first, the more the better. But then , we have to consider how to screen high-value users, and we can no longer just pursue the number of users.

For the users who stay, the ability of refined operation needs to be improved. In addition, the requirements for private domain operators will be higher, especially the operators. The ability of the private domain team to screen users will directly determine the company's ability to make profits in the private domain.

04

Qiwei has started charging fees. Is it necessary to switch to personal micro?

If it is for cost considerations, I suggest you not do this. Although personal micro-blogs are free, there are invisible costs that you cannot see, such as the cost of labor, equipment and mobile phone numbers.

The efficiency of batch management of corporate WeChat accounts is much higher than that of individual WeChat accounts. Secondly, the shortcomings of individual WeChat accounts, such as easy folding of WeChat friend circles, easy blocking of accounts due to the use of third-party tools and too high frequency of adding, are also very obvious. In addition, if you move users who are already in corporate WeChat accounts to individual WeChat accounts, such "trouble" of users will inevitably lead to loss.

Of course, it doesn’t mean that microblogs cannot operate in the private domain. Microblogs also have many advantages: unlimited circle of friends, you can see the circle of friends of users, it is easier to draw closer to users, and easier to make conversions.

Therefore , it is recommended that small-scale companies that have just started or are preparing to start private domains can try to operate private domains using personal microblogs, or a combination of personal microblogs and corporate microblogs.

05

I once defined private domain as follows: private domain traffic refers to user clusters that can be used freely by enterprises without payment and can be reached at any time . They are deposited in relatively private channels such as their own apps, public accounts, personal WeChat, WeChat groups, etc. It belongs to the privatized customer assets of the enterprise.

From the perspective of actual operation, private domains may break the category of "free". The charging of WeChat for Business is just the first step. The cost of operating private domains may become higher and higher in the future. This also indicates that companies really need to treat users as "assets" and not as leeks. In the future, you will have to pay a lot of costs to harvest leeks.

Therefore, companies that are preparing to delve deeply into the private domain must first think clearly about which users are worthy of private domain operations.

Author: Yan Tao;

Source: WeChat public account "Yan Tao Sanshou (ID: yantao-219)"