Sailing the WeChat Seas: Your Definitive Guide to Open and Verify Your WeChat Official Account

With a staggering 1.3 billion users, WeChat stands tall as China’s go-to app for messaging, socializing, payments, and beyond. From dawn till dusk, it intertwines with the daily lives of countless Chinese citizens. No wonder brands are drawn to it as a key channel to connect with potential and devoted customers.

In this post, we’ll cover some of the most important things brands and agencies need to know about opening a WeChat Official Account (OA) and getting it verified:

• What are the different types of WeChat OA brands can open?
• Process of opening a WeChat OA for a brand with no China entity
• Step-by-step guide to opening a WeChat OA
• Step-by-step guide to verifying a WeChat OA
• Pro tips: For agency helping brands to register and verify a WeChat OA

Feel the freedom to jump between sections or buckle up for a comprehensive journey. Let’s embark on this WeChat adventure together!

What are the different WeChat Official Account (OA) options?  

There are two types of official WeChat accounts brands and organizations can choose from

• Service Account (”Service OA“)
• Subscription Account (“Subscription OA”)

While they are both quite similar in terms of functionality and how your content will ultimately be displayed, small nuances make each type more or less suitable to brands of specific categories.

In recent years, due to changes within the WeChat as to how users are notified of new content as well as increased competition, open rates for many accounts has been a steady decline. As you can see from a recent analysis of how open rates differ between the two, Service OA tends to have a higher open rate.

So, which type of account is better for your brand?

Let’s take a look at how they shape up side-by-side: 

Now that you’ve decided on which type of account is best, you’ll need to apply through Tencent’s platform.

Step-by-step guide to opening a WeChat Official Account 

Here’s a handy checklist of documents you’ll need to prepare ahead of time: 

Step 1: Basic info

This step requires:

1. E-mail address that will be used to log into the platform.
2. E-mail verification code (This will be a code sent to the email provided, make sure to check your spam box).
3. Password (At least 8-digits, case sensitive, letters, figures or English symbols accepted).

Step 2: Information Registration

This step requires:

1. Entity information

• Company type (corporation or sole proprietorship)
• Company name (the name that is shown on the company’s certificate of registration or business license issued by the local government. The name cannot be modified after verification).
• Company registration number (must be consistent with the enterprise registration number on the enterprise registration certificate or business registration certificate and other enterprise certificates issued by the local government. After a successful review of information, the enterprise name cannot be modified). 

2. Account admin information

• Admin’s name (the OA admin’s full name exactly as shown on their ID card).
• Admin’s cellphone number.
• SMS verification code — this code will be sent to the phone number of the contact person (it can be an international number outside of China). 
• Admin’s ID number (ID card number, passport number, or driver’s license number). 

3. Creator information

This is optional, so no need to fill it in 

Step 3: Account Information

This step requires:

1) Account name

This name will be the brand name you want to promote to Chinese audience. Be aware that you will have to submit corresponding materials for the OA’s name (such as trademark) — the name may be modified during the account name certification process.

2) Feature

A short introduction (4-120 characters) to decide the OA’s features and services.

3) Region/Country of Business Operation

What Does a Verified WeChat OA Mean? Why is it Important to Have?

For accounts registered overseas:

You must apply for verification within 30 days of registering your account. During the time the account remains unverified, you’ll be temporarily unable to use the broadcasting function of advanced functions of the WeChat OA Platform. If you fail to apply for WeChat authentication within 30 days, your OA will be canceled.

*Note: even if your overseas account is verified, you will not be able to use the WeChat Pay function, which also means you will not be able to mark your published content as Original Content. 

For account registered with a Chinese business license:

It is not required at this time to go through the verification process. However, it is recommended that you verify your WeChat OA so that you can access all of the backend functions such as WeChat Pay, marking content as original, etc.

The WeChat OA verification process is comprised of five parts:

Part 1: Agree to Terms

Part 2: Enter Information

Part 3: Upload Supporting Documents

Part 4: Verify Name

Part 5: Payment

Here’s a handy checklist of documents you’ll need to prepare ahead of time:

Part 1: Enterprise Qualification Information

What you’ll need to input:

1) Enterprise Full Name

2) Company Registration Number

3) Enterprise Registered Address: (Identical to the residence / place of business on the Certificate of Incorporation)

4) Official website (optional)

5) “Certificate of Incorporation” or “Business License” (Format Requirements: Photo of original, scanned original, or copy affixed with official seal; supports JPG, JPEG, BMP, GIF, and PNG files; max size is 5 MB.)

6) Other Supporting Document (optional)

Part 2: Verification of Contact Person

This step will require you to select a contact person. The responsibility of this person will include document collection and sorting, information filling and uploading, and two-way communication between customers and the WeChat certification agency. Therefore, it’s important to select someone who has experience with registering WeChat OA.

Here is what you will need to provide:

1) Contact person name

2) Contact person mobile No.

3) SMS verification code — this code will be sent to the phone number of the contact person (it can be an international number outside of China) 

4) Contact person landing phone

5) Contact person E-mail

6) Contact person ID No. — this can be an ID card number, passport number, or driver’s license number.

Part 3: Uploading of Documents

1) Application Letter

*Be aware that the original ID of your account is already included in the form you download from the web so make sure to copy and paste for further use. This step requires the photo or scanned copy of the original affixed with an official seal. Supports JPG, JPEG, BMP, GIF, and PNG images with a max size of 5 MB. 

2) Letter of Authorization for Operation

It requires the photo or scanned copy of the original affixed with an official seal. Supports JPG, JPEG, BMP, GIF, and PNG images with a max size of 5 MB.

3) Contact Person Mobile Phone Statement

The content of the contact’s mobile phone statement must include the contact’s name, phone number, payment records for the past three months, etc. If the contact’s mobile phone statement cannot be provided, you can upload the company’s office phone statement (which needs to be stamped with the official seal or include a bank card statement for verification.)

4) Contact Person ID Card

Upload the photo of the front and back of the contact person’s ID card, or a photo or scanned copy of their driver’s license showing his/her name. Supports JPG, JPEG, BMP, GIF, and PNG images with max size of 5 MB. 

Part 4: Confirm Account Name

If the system detects that the account name contains a trademark name, the relevant trademark registration document and stamped with the official seal are required.

Trademark Registration Certificate

• It should show the trademark, category number, and applicant’s name
• Photo of original, scanned original, or copy affixed with an official seal. Supports JPG, JPEG, BMP GIF, and PNG files; max size is 5MB

Part 5: Invoice and Payment Information

Confirm the invoice type is digital and it will be under the company’s name.

Payment

• The application fee is USD 99 which can be paid through WeChat Pay or multiple credit cards.

After this, the agency will review all the documents and email the contact person for further adjustments or requirements.

Important information for Agencies

• Double-check email addresses used.
  The email address — that has been used to register the account and log in to the platform — must NOT has been previously used to register or bind a personal WeChat account, Subscription OA, Service OA, Mini Program, Enterprise Account, or Open Platform account.

• The company name should be exactly the same one that is displayed on the business license.
• The trademark registration document has to involve the applicant’s name and trademark class number.
• Limits to the number of accounts under one business license.
  According to regulations, the maximum number of public accounts registered by the same enterprise, individual business owner, and other organization is two. While the maximum number of public accounts registered by the same overseas entity is one.

Important information for brands that choose to register with a third-party 

If your company does not have a business license in China but would still like to open an account as such, an agency or third-party service is certainly an option. However, it will be important to consider a few major factors: 

• Your brand will not be the legal owner of the account, meaning that in the worst case, the account could be suspended or revoked with no legal standing available to retrieve it.
• As agencies are very limited by the number of accounts they can associate with a single business license, they may impose a costly service fee. 

Once you’ve opened your WeChat OA, it will be time to start planning out your KPIs and content calendar! Remember, WeChat can be a crucial touchpoint in your customer journey, serving as a useful tool, a mechanism to engage loyal fans or a platform to host important information.

KAWO has worked with numerous teams to understand how brands can produce effective content in the most efficient way. We’ve designed an easy-to-use dashboard for WeChat, as well as four other major China social media platforms so that marketing teams, agencies and vendors can work together to plan, track, benchmark and analyze performance on China social media channels such as WeChat — ensuring marketing efforts are actually driving business results. Reach out to our team to learn more about how KAWO can make managing your WeChat Official Account seamless!