October 29th news: Today, Sina Weibo officially launched the "Fan Service Platform." This product is based on user-initiated subscriptions, and all verified users can apply to use it. It is seen as a push for Weibo to transition from a "marketing" platform to a "marketing + service" platform.
In a similar vein, the new version of WeChat Official Accounts Platform started public beta testing today. After this update, the Official Accounts Platform will widely open interfaces for certified service accounts to apply. The previously rumored fee for WeChat service accounts was confirmed today: certification will cost 300 RMB per time.
Although neither side has explicitly stated their intention to target competitors, there are many similarities between the Fan Service Platform and the WeChat Official Accounts Platform in terms of product form and interface support. A direct competition is inevitable.
What sparked this competition? User stickiness. In the domestic market, especially in the mobile market, Weibo and WeChat are the two most influential applications, each with hundreds of millions of registered users. However, users' time is limited. If more time is spent on one application, less time will be spent on another. From a commercial perspective, people mean everything. Only by gathering popularity can the platform's commercialization steadily progress.
Therefore, whether it's Weibo or WeChat, apart from improving the basic product, both have long since announced an open approach, hoping to gather popularity through third-party efforts. These third parties include government, media, enterprises, individuals with strong content creation capabilities (celebrities, self-media), as well as third-party developers who help these accounts improve their service effects.
In the past two years, WeChat has taken away much of the limelight originally belonging to Weibo. Up to now, both sides have reached a development turning point. On one hand, WeChat is facing commercialization challenges; on the other hand, after reorganization, can Weibo rebound? The collision of these two platforms with hundreds of millions of users will surely spark brilliant sparks. In this confrontation, the competition for third-party forces will become extraordinarily intense.
Since competition is unavoidable, who will ultimately win in the service platform showdown?
Competition Point One: Operation Rules. Both platforms are based on user-initiated subscriptions, giving the choice to netizens. In most cases, accounts using Weibo’s Fan Service Platform can only send information to subscribed fans, consistent with the rules of WeChat Official Accounts. However, the Weibo Fan Service Platform has a preset emergency mechanism that allows government official institutions to send public information to all fans (including subscribed fans) in special situations like earthquakes.
Commentary: The two platforms are basically consistent. In emergencies, the Fan Service Platform is slightly more flexible.
Competition Point Two: Promotion Frequency. WeChat Official Accounts are divided into service accounts and subscription accounts. Service accounts can send one message per month, displayed in the user's chat list, with users receiving immediate notifications. Subscription accounts can send one message per day, displayed in the user's subscription account folder, without receiving immediate notifications.
For the Weibo Fan Service Platform, media and personal verified accounts can send one message per week, while enterprise verified accounts can send one message per month. Both types are sent via private messages with immediate notifications.
Commentary: For enterprise accounts, the rules of the two platforms are consistent. For self-media accounts, considering they create a large amount of high-quality content for the platform, they will undoubtedly become the focus of competition for the two platforms. Some self-media individuals accustomed to sending daily updates may initially find it difficult to adapt to weekly updates. The rules of the Fan Service Platform need further refinement.
Competition Point Three: Account Scale. WeChat launched its Official Accounts Platform in August 2012, allowing individuals and organizations to establish WeChat Official Accounts. By July this year, there were approximately over a million Official Accounts, with 40,000 being verified accounts. The Weibo Fan Service Platform was officially launched today. During the past month of internal testing, over 60,000 verified accounts applied to experience and use the Fan Service Platform.
Commentary: In absolute numbers, WeChat Official Accounts are leading. However, the Weibo Fan Platform is only open to verified users, and in just one month, the number of developed verified accounts has exceeded the number of verified accounts developed by WeChat in a year. Additionally, WeChat charges an annual fee of 300 RMB for service account certification bundled with advanced interface services, while Weibo verification is currently free.
Competition Point Four: Development Prospects. Zeng Ming, WeChat Product Director, once publicly stated that WeChat is not a marketing tool. The three core functions of Official Accounts are interactive communication, user management, and service customization. Sina Weibo similarly emphasizes that launching the Fan Service Platform aims to strengthen the service value of Weibo and encourage capable accounts to provide quality services to subscribed fans.
Besides, both are pursuing differentiated services. After obtaining official certification, WeChat service accounts can immediately gain more interface capabilities, including customer service interfaces and webpage authorization. To support the launch of the Fan Service Platform, Weibo recently upgraded its private message interface to "Message Service" and opened it up externally, mainly providing three primary interfaces: "Custom Reply," "Private Message Reminder," and "Subscription Sending." It supports blue V accounts to achieve private message automatic replies, manual customer service via private messages, and subscription reminder functions through interfaces.
Commentary: Both platforms emphasize services over marketing and encourage differentiation and convenience through open interfaces. In terms of advanced interfaces, WeChat bundles certification with an annual fee, while Weibo offers it for free, which gives Weibo an advantage.
Competition Point Five: Benchmark Cases. At the 2013 Tencent Partner Conference, ten WeChat Official Accounts—China Southern Airlines, Best Express, Guangzhou Public Security, China AMC, Chumenwenwen, Guangdong Unicom, Quick Hotel Booking, Kotong Cloud Assistant, CITIC Securities, and We Media Self-Media Alliance—were promoted as benchmark examples by Tencent, covering multiple fields.
According to Sina Weibo today, among the over 60,000 verified accounts that have activated the Fan Service Platform, besides important media such as @People's Daily and @CCTV News, there are also convenient public service institutions such as @China Earthquake Network Rapid Reporting and @Chumenwenwen, as well as industry celebrities like @Lu Qi.
Commentary: In terms of industry distribution, the WeChat Official Accounts Platform is temporarily more diverse and has cultivated several deep cases. In comparison, the Weibo Fan Service Platform is still in the exploration phase. However, @China Earthquake Network Rapid Reporting provided point-to-point services to millions of users for the first time through this platform, reportedly catching the attention of Twitter, the originator of Weibo.