media update’s Christine Gerber reveals the ways in which content creators can use WeChat to publish their work and still earn a valuable return on investment.

Publishing companies can learn valuable lessons from these independent influencers about distributing content and the various methods of advertising on WeChat.

Functions publishers in China can use include a tipping button, much like the one on WeChat, and advertising features.

The tipping button

WeChat, which is owned by Tencent Holdings Limited, allows KOLs to capitalise on the self-generated media on its platform by installing a 'tipping' button. The button lets readers tip content creators a small amount of money if they like what they have read.

The rates KOLs can earn depends largely on the size of their audience. WeChat columnist and KOL He Caitou said in 2017 that he received an average of $602 per article, and once received $4 815 for a short piece he wrote. In comparison, he used to get paid $75 per thousand words when he worked for a magazine publisher.

Once the tipping button was launched, many KOLs and legacy media companies collaborated in order to distribute more content. The Columbia Journalism Review writes that KOLs are becoming media companies themselves with millions in venture capital and teams of content creators behind each public account.

According to a 2016 report by WeMedia, 33 teams of content creators raised over $15 million in 2016 alone. Content creators are also not limited to a particular format on WeChat, with podcasting and streaming proving to be quite popular.

WeChat’s tipping button was suspended in 2017 due to a dispute with Apple. According to an article by Sijia Jiang in The New York Times, the tipping button is reportedly said to be resurrected this year. Jiang writes that the function will also be tweaked to send payments directly to individual authors as opposed to WeChat account holders.

Another website that is utilising this tipping function is Tipeee in the United Kingdom. Tipeee allows readers on the website to enter the amount that they want to tip, as well as the duration period of the tip. This allows readers to tip a writer for a single article, or on a recurring basis for every article published.

This works similarly to the plugin on WordPress called ChangeTip, which allows readers to leave a tip for content creators by clicking on the social ‘tip.me’ button.

Advertising on WeChat

There are many ways for publishers to advertise on WeChat. One way is for them to register a WeChat Official Account, which similarly to a Facebook page. With this account, publishers can gain followers, send push notifications, and redirect readers to their website.

Publishers can also have banner ads on their WeChat accounts, which readers are exposed to when they visit the publisher's WeChat page. According to Columbia Journalism Review writer Mia Shuang Li, “Mi Meng, one of the top earners ranked by NewRank.cn (a company that scores all WeChat public accounts in terms of readership, open-rate, and other parameters) charges $75, 235 per banner ad.”

Using WeChat to distribute content and adverts has been unheard of, until now. From the tipping button to banner ads and WeChat’s Official Account page, WeChat is delving into territory unchartered by South African publishers. The platform plays host to an untouched market, which offers an opportunity for publishers to reach out.

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