WeChat 101: official accounts, mini programs and WeCom

WeChat is two services in one app. Weixin is the version used with a mainland Chinese phone number, run by a Tencent company in Shenzhen; WeChat is the international version, run by Tencent affiliates abroad. Together they are where most people in mainland China chat, read, pay and book, and they reach Chinese-speaking travellers, students and communities everywhere. Businesses use three main tools: Official Accounts (business accounts people follow), Mini Programs (apps that run inside WeChat) and WeCom (Tencent's work app, which lets staff talk to WeChat users directly). This primer explains each one, what it costs, the rules that come with China, and when WeChat is worth the effort.

WeChat is an OTT app: messages travel over the internet, not through a mobile operator's SMS network. Tencent reported 1,439 million combined monthly active users of Weixin and WeChat for the second quarter of 2026, up from 1,411 million a year earlier.¹ It does not split that figure between the two services. Which one a person uses depends on their phone number: accounts linked to a +86 number are Weixin accounts; others are WeChat accounts under separate terms.¹⁸

Official Accounts

An Official Account is a business presence inside Weixin and WeChat. Tencent says it lets organisations publish content, gather followers and push marketing and service notifications, and that it comes in two types: subscription accounts and service accounts.⁵ A person follows the account; from then on the business can reach them only in the ways Tencent's rules allow:

• Mass messages (broadcasts). A subscription account may send one mass message a day; a service account may send four a month. The counts do not roll over, and Tencent does not sell more. A service account can send to segments more often, but each follower still receives at most four mass messages a month.⁷
• Customer service messages. When a person interacts with the account, for example by sending a message, the business's system may answer through the customer service interface for a limited period, currently 48 hours.⁸
• Template messages. Only verified service accounts may apply for them. They are for important service notices, not marketing, and may not be sent to people who have not used the service; each account may call them up to 100,000 times a day.⁹
• Subscription notifications. A person ticks a box to receive a type of notice. A one-time subscription allows one notice; a long-term subscription allows repeated notices but is open only to public services such as government and healthcare.¹⁰

Software connects through Tencent's developer interfaces: Weixin forwards each message and event to an address on your server (a webhook), and your system calls Tencent's API to reply or send.⁸

Mini Programs

A Mini Program is an app that runs inside Weixin: a shop, a booking flow, a membership card. Tencent launched them in January 2017.⁴ It says Mini Programs serve over 1.1 billion monthly active users and that, in 2025, the ecosystem covered 100 countries and regions.²⁴ Official Accounts can link to Mini Programs, so a notice can open the page where the person acts.

WeCom

WeCom is Tencent's work app, called WeChat Work until September 2020.¹⁷ Its "Contact Customers" feature lets staff add WeChat users as customers and serve them in private or group chats, under the company's name rather than a personal account.¹⁴ Mass messages to customers follow rules the administrator sets: by default one a day, and never more in a month than the month's number of days.¹⁵

Tencent launched Weixin in January 2011.³⁴ Official Accounts followed in 2012 as WeChat's content publishing tool, comparable to a Facebook Page.⁶ Weixin Pay arrived in August 2013,³ and Mini Programs in January 2017.⁴ In September 2020 WeChat Work was renamed WeCom; the South China Morning Post reported the move as Tencent prepared for a US ban on WeChat transactions.¹⁷

The regulatory frame grew around the same time. China's Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) was adopted on 20 August 2021 and took effect on 1 November 2021.²¹ In July 2023 China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) required apps, including mini programs, that provide internet information services in China to file with the authorities, with existing apps due by March 2024.²⁰ In March 2024 the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) eased some cross-border data rules.²² In November 2025 Tencent began letting Mini Program merchants outside mainland China accept local payment methods,²³ and in August 2026 it reported 1,439 million monthly users.¹

• Mainland China. Weixin is the version for people with a +86 phone number, operated by Shenzhen Tencent Computer Systems.¹⁸ Tencent's product page puts the combined monthly users of Weixin and its international version at over 1.4 billion at the end of March 2026;² its quarterly results do not say how many of them use each version.¹
• Asia-Pacific outside the mainland. Tencent is building merchant tools abroad: its payment service for Mini Programs started in Singapore and Macao SAR,²³ and in April 2026 it highlighted Malaysian merchants, including an airline and hotels, using Mini Programs to serve visitors from China.²⁴
• Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Tencent publishes no user figures for these regions. In practice a business here meets WeChat through customers with ties to China: residents, students, travellers and business partners. WeChat accounts in the UK, the EEA and Switzerland contract with a Tencent company in Amsterdam; most others contract with WeChat International in Singapore.¹⁸

Weixin and WeChat users can talk to each other, but some features exist only on one side, and Tencent says their data is stored separately in different jurisdictions.¹⁹ For a business abroad, the key question is whether your customers use Weixin (because they live in China or keep a Chinese number) or WeChat, because the rules and the data path differ.

• Content and marketing: articles and mass messages from an Official Account, within the broadcast limits.⁷ See marketing.
• Service notices: order, delivery and booking notices through template messages or subscription notifications.⁹¹⁰ See notifications.
• Support: answers within the 48-hour window, by staff or a chatbot, ideally in a unified inbox.⁸ See support.
• Commerce and booking: Mini Programs with Weixin Pay.²⁴ See commerce and booking.
• Sales and membership: relationship managers in WeCom who keep in touch with customers they know.¹⁴ See sales and membership.

WeChat's costs sit around the account rather than on each message. Tencent's documentation for Official Accounts sets limits on how many messages you may send, not a price per message.⁷⁹ The fees it does publish are for verification:

• Mainland entities. Verifying an Official Account costs RMB 300 each time, paid as a review fee to a third-party reviewer and not refunded if the review fails. Verification lasts one year, and the annual review costs the same RMB 300.¹¹
• Overseas entities. Verification on the Official Accounts and Open platforms costs US$99 per application, not refunded whatever the outcome, and usually takes 7 to 15 working days once all documents and payment are in.¹²
• WeCom. Verifying a WeCom company from outside China costs RMB 700 (about US$99).¹⁶

The rest is the work around it: building and hosting the Mini Program or the server that answers messages, a provider or agency that runs the account, and payment fees on sales. If your Mini Program or server must serve users in mainland China, hosting and filing there add their own costs (see Rules and regulation).

This section describes rules; it is not legal advice.

Platform rules. Tencent's Operation Rules govern what Official Accounts may publish and how they may gain followers, and breaches can lead to restrictions on the account.¹³ Template messages may not be used for marketing or sent to people who have not used your service.⁹ Proactive messaging is capped by the broadcast limits and the 48-hour window,⁷⁸ which is the main difference from channels where a business can message anyone who opted in.

Consent. Following an account or subscribing to a notice is the person's choice,¹⁰ but it does not record every purpose you may want. Keep your own record and an easy opt-out (see consent is a data model).

China's personal information law. PIPL applies to the processing of personal information of people in China, including by organisations outside China that offer them products or services. Sending personal information abroad requires a legal basis such as a CAC security assessment, certification or the standard contract, and operators of critical information infrastructure and processors that handle very large volumes must keep personal information collected in China inside China.²¹ The CAC's March 2024 provisions exempt some transfers, for example those needed to perform a contract with the individual, and require a security assessment for processors (other than critical infrastructure operators) that send abroad the personal information of more than 1 million people, or the sensitive personal information of more than 10,000.²²

Filing. Under MIIT's 2023 notice, apps that provide internet information services in China, including mini programs distributed through platforms, must file with their provincial communications administration before they can be offered.²⁰

Where the data lives. Weixin and WeChat store data separately,¹⁹ and WeChat's terms say a WeChat user's information is shared with Weixin, and processed in mainland China, when that user interacts with a Weixin user.¹⁸ Ask any provider where each part of the conversation is stored (see data residency).

• Few broadcasts. Four mass messages a month on a service account, or one a day on a subscription account, and no way to buy more.⁷
• A short reply window. Outside 48 hours from the person's last interaction, you cannot simply write back; you need a template message or a subscription notification, each with its own rules.⁸⁹¹⁰
• Verification takes time and money. Every review is paid and non-refundable, and must be repeated every year.¹¹¹²
• Two services. Features and rules differ between Weixin and WeChat, and data is kept apart.¹⁹ Test with the version your customers actually use.
• WeCom is personal. Customers add a member of staff, and messages to them are capped by the administrator's rules.¹⁵ Plan what happens when that person leaves.
• Payments abroad are new. Tencent's local payment option for Mini Program merchants outside the mainland started in only two places.²³
• Copying other chat apps. Strategies built for apps where a business can push freely to opted-in contacts do not transfer; see channels are not interchangeable.

Only what Tencent has announced or regulators have published:

• Payments for Mini Programs abroad. Tencent said in November 2025 that TenPay Global Checkout, launched in Singapore and Macao SAR, will expand to more regions including Japan, Australia and New Zealand; it gave no dates.²³
• Mini Programs beyond China. Tencent is courting merchants in markets that receive Chinese visitors, as its April 2026 Malaysia programme shows.²⁴
• Stricter rules for large data processors. In August 2026 the CAC published draft rules on personal information protection by large personal information processors for public comment.²⁵ They are a draft, not law.
• Steady growth. Tencent's combined monthly users grew 2% year on year to the second quarter of 2026.¹ That is a reported trend, not a forecast.

Choose WeChat when your customers are in mainland China, or are Chinese visitors, students or partners who rely on it; when you can live with few broadcasts and a 48-hour reply window; and when you are ready to verify an account in your own name, file where needed and document how data crosses borders. Add WeCom when your staff manage ongoing relationships with customers they know.

Look elsewhere when your audience has no tie to China, or when your plan depends on frequent marketing pushes. For comparisons, see choosing a channel per message, omnichannel is an identity problem, the WeChat channel page and the Channels 101 chooser, which channel for which need. The LINE primer covers the chat app that leads in Japan, Thailand and Taiwan.