The Ultimate Rules to Open a WeChat Official Account (as of Feb 2018)

We are often asked about the rules in order to create a WeChat Official Account, especially for foreign companies.

Here is a summary of the latest up-to-date information as of the 28th of February 2018.

Creating a WeChat Official Account with a Mainland China Business License

If you have a company registered in Mainland China, you can apply for a WeChat account on WeChat’s Official account platform: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/.

The creation of a verified company account (able to use the WeChat API) will require two main elements:

• A Chinese business license (营业执照) - this requires you to have a registered business in China
• A Chinese ID (身份证）of an operator for the account

You will have to pay a 300 RMB fee in order to verify the WeChat Official Account, and the process usually takes less than a week.

Note: there is another website (admin.wechat.com) which enables to create a WeChat account without a Chinese business license. However, we don't recommend using it as accounts created via this website are not visible from within China.

What if I don’t have a Chinese business license?

There are several ways for you to create a WeChat account even if you don’t have a Chinese business license:

• Option 1: Register a company (WFOE - Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprise) in China. This is not the recommended approach as it is a costly and lengthy (at least 6 months) process. After you set-up the company, you’ll have the business license to create an account. But it is a large investment, and is only really worth it if you plan to hire people in China.
• Option 2: Use a third party business license. You can “borrow” a business license from another Chinese entity (Since January 2018, each Chinese company can only register 5 WeChat accounts - as opposed to 50 previously). However, the account will be attached to the Chinese legal entity. You can still pick your own account name, logo and description, but the legal name of the company will also appear on the account. Since February 2017, it's possible for you to transfer followers to your own account once you set up your company in China at a later point in time.

• Option 3: Go through a special process from Tencent team. It is possible to create a WeChat account visible from China going through a special process from Tencent team. Tencent charges a $99 USD verification fee, but it is a case-by-case process (this process is usually managed by a partner agency - WalktheChat is of course part of this network of agency partners)

Note that the “International accounts visible from Mainland China” created through Option 3 come with certain limitations:

• Country limitations: Only certain countries/regions outside Mainland China can apply for them: Australia, Cambodia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Vietnam
• Only service accounts: Only Service Accounts can be created (not subscription accounts)
• Only Service Accounts: by default, some of the advanced API functions of these accounts are not enabled (in particular all the CRM/content API endpoints): it is possible to extend this API access (in order to get the same functions as a local account) but it requires an extra application with Tencent
• WeChat ads application: WeChat ads application goes through a special process and might be restricted depending on your industry (for instance for finance companies or industries who can't export to China)
• WeChat payment application: the WeChat payment application can be a long and complex process. You can however sidetrack this process by opening a WeChat Cross-border Payment account with Tencent partner such as NihaoPay.

What about mini-programs?

Mini-programs are, as of today, unavailable for foreign companies.

Note however that the new limitation from January 2018 limiting each company to only 5 WeChat Official Accounts does not apply to mini-programs. This means Chinese companies can still create up to 50 mini-programs, which could potentially be used by third-party companies outside of China.

Cross-border WeChat payment for mini-programs are also limited, as of late-February 2018, to a few very large (multi-billion dollars) corporations.

More questions?

If you have more questions about it, feel free to reach out (you can do so by answering this email or writing to [email protected]).