For WeChat, micro-business is both a treasure and a locust

Wechat merchants should be thankful that they have escaped the disaster of March 15, which shows that there is still enough room to "fish in troubled waters" this year. WeChat deserves to celebrate even more. Not only did it not become a scapegoat for Wechat merchants, but it also left time for itself to dig up the treasures of Wechat merchants. Imagine if March 15 named Wechat merchants, WeChat would also strengthen its supervision under pressure from public opinion, and Wechat merchants would lose their growth space. The life and death of Wechat merchants all depend on WeChat.

Micro-business is no longer a niche dream of getting rich, it is evolving into a "social phenomenon"

Today's micro-business market is no longer a matter of a small group of people, but has presented a new "social phenomenon". A few days ago, I went to Guangzhou to attend the Micro-Business Expo hosted by the China Micro-Business Industry Alliance and deeply felt that the atmosphere there stimulated the nerves of many people, especially women.

In the past, when I attended some e-commerce conferences, most of them were men. But this time, I found that more than half of the people who appeared at the WeChat business venue were women, and they all looked good. This is related to the fact that WeChat businesses are concentrated in the cosmetics category. In addition, many traditional cosmetics manufacturers have also appeared at the WeChat business exhibition. One company even rented a small venue for presentations specifically for developing offline sales. What's more amazing is that the audience response was very enthusiastic.

In addition, according to information obtained from the China Micro-Business Industry Alliance, there are already five micro-business exhibitions planned across the country this year, and the investment promotion work has been basically completed. This shows how popular this market is. From upstream manufacturers to downstream micro-businesses, they are undoubtedly full of hope for this.

WeChat merchants have become locusts, overdrawing the value of WeChat

To put it bluntly, the army of WeChat merchants is constantly wreaking havoc on the circle of friends, leaving a mess wherever they go, just like locusts destroying crops. Having said that, I have to make it clear that this article does not mean to belittle WeChat merchants, but rather affirms and encourages them to continue exploring and moving forward. However, from the perspective of ordinary WeChat users, I really don’t like those narcissistic WeChat merchants who frequently swipe the screen.

As more and more people engage in WeChat business, there will be more and more screen swiping. Even if you can block or report WeChat in Moments, you can't stop the army of WeChat business. If this continues for a long time, it will only lead to users getting tired of WeChat Moments, and the more worrying result is that they will leave WeChat, which is a result that Tencent cannot afford. After all, the social attributes of WeChat need to be supported by WeChat Moments, and WeChat business is consuming the availability of WeChat Moments.

Weibo's decline is due to the flood of marketing content, while the fall of Moments is likely due to the rampant micro-businesses. Recently, WeChat released a "WeChat Moments Usage Guidelines" which is believed to be an official crackdown on malicious marketing in Moments, in order to purify Moments and maintain usability. It is obvious that WeChat has learned the lesson of excessive marketing on Weibo. However, the biggest threat to Moments may be micro-businesses, and the "Guidelines" have "0" regulations on micro-businesses.

WeChat business is the last treasure of Tencent e-commerce, but it is difficult to tap

Tencent has its own plans to regulate marketing but not WeChat business. First, given the current situation, WeChat must think that WeChat business is still within its control. Second, WeChat business is the closest opportunity for Tencent to e-commerce in many years, and perhaps the last opportunity. The independent WeChat business in the private sector is mainly cosmetics, supplemented by food, and Tencent has greater ambitions for this, hoping to expand to more categories, but the first problem is to solve the user acceptance of WeChat business, which requires the spontaneous power of the market, so it cannot crack down too harshly on WeChat business in the circle of friends.

Tencent has been promoting social e-commerce for many years, but social networking and e-commerce have never been integrated. Today, WeChat business is the best interpretation of social e-commerce. WeChat business originated from the circle of friends and is an online transaction based on social relationships. If it is separated from the circle of friends, WeChat business will be difficult to survive. The foundation of WeChat business lies in the trust relationship between friends. Otherwise, few people dare to buy unknown or even three-no products.

Tencent's investment in Pocket Shopping and Paipai, which was transferred to JD.com, both have WeChat stores for WeChat merchants, which shows that they value WeChat merchants. However, the fragmentation and disorder of WeChat merchants make the entire system very chaotic and difficult to sort out, and the H5 page experience of various WeChat stores serving WeChat merchants is also unsatisfactory. Many deficiencies are affecting users' acceptance of WeChat merchants. The treasure that Tencent values ​​is actually very difficult to tap.

WeChat needs to be wary of micro-business distribution and prevent it from becoming a malicious marketing platform

The WeChat business model of stockpiling has been criticized, and some even regard it as a pyramid scheme. In response, many WeChat business developers, including Paipai, have set up WeChat WeChat business distribution systems to help companies quickly expand their offline business with zero inventory. However, Fang Yu, a well-known WeChat business self-media person, believes that the stockpiling model is more conducive to WeChat business practitioners taking this business seriously, and the zero inventory WeChat distribution is likely to be used by companies as a variant marketing platform.

In Fang Yu's opinion, the inventory pressure model helps to reduce the operating pressure of suppliers. At the same time, lower-level distributors will be more serious about operating WeChat business if they have real money investment, so that transactions are more likely to be generated. The zero-inventory distribution of drop shipping is mainly to attract more part-time workers to do the dissemination, but WeChat business is not something that part-time workers can do well.

In addition, the original intention of dropshipping is to attract more users to spread information on behalf of enterprises in WeChat Moments. If it is not properly controlled, it can easily become a platform for malicious marketing by enterprises. Faced with the ever-expanding WeChat business community, the flood of product information in WeChat Moments seems to be foreseeable. For this problem, WeChat officials are in a dilemma, and neither can they control it. Therefore, the treasure of WeChat business is not so easy to mine.

It is hard to say whether micro-business is a plague or a treasure for WeChat. The future will depend on WeChat’s official ability to explore. If it is done well, “success will come”; if it is not done well, “the whole family will be in turmoil”.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.